Moderators of Lineup Administrator Expectancy Effects on Eyewitness Identification Accuracy

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。行为研究中人际期望效应的证据使心理学家认为，指认人员对嫌疑人身份的了解可能在错误指认中起作用，并建议采用双盲指认管理。然而，目击者识别任务包含的特征可能会限制人际期望的影响。当犯罪嫌疑人与行为人相似时，期望效应可能会被抑制，因为目击者会在没有管理者提示的情况下选择犯罪嫌疑人；只有当嫌疑人与犯罪者不太相似时，管理员的影响才会起作用。同样，证人记忆的强度可能会限制管理者选择嫌疑人的影响力。当证人的选择标准较低时，例如当某些系统变量（有偏见的指示，同时的阵容呈现）存在时，这些影响可能更有可能发生。本研究在三个模拟目击者识别的研究中（即，参与者目击了一个事件，随后试图从照片阵列中识别），操纵了嫌疑人与犯罪者的相似性、记忆强度（不同的保留间隔和暴露时间）和证人从队列中做出选择的标准。使用数学建模技术，主要研究者检查从这些研究的数据拟合到目击者识别决策的证人模型所做的预测。这些研究的智力价值集中在测试管理者期望对目击证人准确性影响的理论约束。这些研究可能被证明具有变革性，因为它们可能导致对目击者记忆的主要理论——证人模型——的重大改进。此外，这些发现有可能产生广泛的影响，因为它们可以告诉警察，什么时候最重要的是花费资源来进行看似更昂贵的程序，而警察中的许多人一直反对实施双盲队列的建议。他们还将提供信息，以协助调查人员、专家证人、法官和陪审团对目击证人的可靠性。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009(Public Law 111-5)Evidence of interpersonal expectancy effects in behavioral research led psychologists to suggest that lineup administrators' knowledge of a suspect's identity may play a role in mistaken identifications and to recommend double-blind lineup administration. However, the eyewitness identification task contains features that may constrain the influence of interpersonal expectancies. When the suspect closely resembles the perpetrator, expectancy effects may be suppressed because witnesses will choose the suspect without benefit of administrator cues; administrator influence may operate only when the suspect is less similar to the perpetrator. Similarly, the strength of the witness's memory may limit an administrator's influence to choose the suspect. These effects may be more likely when witnesses' criteria for choosing are low such as when certain system variables (biased instructions, simultaneous lineup presentation) are present. This research manipulates the similarity of the suspect to the perpetrator, memory strength (varying retention interval and exposure time), and the witness's criterion for making a choice from the lineup in three studies that simulate an eyewitness identification (i.e., a participant witnesses an event and the subsequently attempts an identification from a photo array). Using mathematical modeling techniques, the principal investigator examines the fit of the data from these studies to predictions made by the WITNESS model of eyewitness identification decision-making. The intellectual merit of these studies focuses on testing theorized constraints of administrator expectancy effects on eyewitness accuracy. The studies could prove transformative in that they could lead to a significant refinement of the leading theory of eyewitness memory, the WITNESS model. Moreover the findings have the potential for broad impact because they could inform police, many of whom have been resisting the recommendation to administer double-blind lineups, about when it is most important to expend resources to conduct seemingly more costly procedures. They will also provide information to assist investigators, expert witnesses, judges, and juries on eyewitness reliability.