Developing a Memory and Decision Model for Eyewitness Identification

在过去的20年里，我们对目击者识别的理解有了很大的提高。现在有一长串的经验结果被证明在潜在的心理机制方面是可靠的和有启发性的。这项研究建立在此基础上，以发展一个统一的记忆和决策过程理论，当证人被呈现一个阵容时，他们必须做出识别决定，包括不做出识别的决定。这项研究将使用计算机模拟程序Witness，模型的基本假设在数学上是形式化的。这一模式将被用来激励和解释几个实验的结果，这些实验旨在解决一个基本问题：证人如何做出鉴定决定？实验具体测试了目前包含在模型中的决策规则。该模型将适用于实验数据，这些实验仔细地区分嫌疑人和陪衬的相似性；检查嫌疑人匹配和描述匹配的阵容之间的关系；将摊牌与顺序和同时的阵容进行比较；并检查更具体的证人指令如何影响身份识别。

Our understanding of eyewitness identification has increased considerably in the last 20 years. There is now a long list of empirical results that have been shown to be both reliable and illuminating with respect to the underlying psychological mechanisms. This research builds upon this foundation to develop a unified theory of the memory and decision processes that witnesses use when they are presented with a lineup and must make an identification decision, including the decision to not make an identification. This research will use a computer simulation program, Witness, where the model's fundamental assumptions are formalized mathematically. This model will be used to motivate and interpret the results of several experiments that are designed to address the fundamental question: How do witnesses make identification decisions? The experiments specifically test the decision rule presently incorporated in the model. The model will be fit to data from experiments that carefully covary suspect and foil similarity; examine the relationship between suspect-matched and description-matched lineups; compare showups to sequential and simultaneous lineups; and examine how more specific witness instructions affect identification.