Sequential Lineups: Contributions of Distinctiveness and Recollection

DNA测试的出现表明，无辜的人被关在监狱里，而错误的目击者身份识别被证明是导致无辜者被定罪的主要原因。然而，现在存在一套程序保障措施，可以提高目击者身份识别的可靠性。其中最有希望的是使用顺序阵容。顺序列队(即，一次查看一个嫌疑人)被认为优于同时列队(即，同时查看所有嫌疑人)，因为它导致证人将列队中每个连续的人与证人对肇事者的记忆进行比较。相比之下，同时出现的阵容会引导目击者选择阵容中最像肇事者的人，如果警察抓错了人，而实际的肇事者仍然逍遥法外，这是有问题的。然而，如果不从理论上理解顺序阵容优势背后的机制，全国范围内采用顺序阵容作为程序保障将受到阻碍。这项研究的目标是开发一种量化的特定模型，以了解序列序列优势背后的机制。主要研究人员假设，顺序排列的优势是由于：1)对独特信息的增强编码，以及2)使用回忆过程来获取该信息。这个项目包括验证这些假设的实验。在一系列实验中，编码条件将被修改，以使最初独特的刺激(即身高)不再独特。如果模型是正确的，这应该会让顺序阵容优势消失。为了评估回忆的贡献，在连线测试中对注意力进行了分散。分散注意力会使回忆过程的使用失效，顺序排列的优势应该消失。程序保障措施可以提高目击者识别的准确性，但如果不充分了解这些保障措施的作用和原因，其影响将是有限的。这笔赠款将通过开发和测试这种程序性保障的基本机制--顺序阵容--的具体量化解释来纠正这一限制。最后，对顺序排列如何保护无辜者的更好理解可能会指向目击者识别程序的其他改进，这将进一步提高目击者识别的可靠性。

The advent of DNA testing has demonstrated that innocent people are in prison, and faulty eyewitness identification has been shown as the primary contributor to the conviction of the innocent. However, a set of procedural safeguards now exist that can improve the reliability of eyewitness identification. Among the most promising is the use of sequential lineups. A sequential lineup (i.e., viewing suspects one at a time) is thought to be superior to a simultaneous lineup (i.e., viewing all suspects at the same time) because it leads a witness to compare each successive person in the lineup to the witness' memory of the perpetrator. In contrast, a simultaneous lineup leads a witness to choose the person in the lineup who looks most like the perpetrator, which is problematic if the police have the wrong man and the actual perpetrator is still at-large. Without an theoretical understanding of the mechanisms underlying the sequential lineup advantage, however, the nationwide adoption of sequential lineups as a procedural safeguard will be hampered. The goal of this research is to develop a quantitatively specified model of the mechanisms underlying the sequential lineup advantage. The principal investigator hypothesizes that the sequential lineup advantage is due to: 1) enhanced encoding of distinctive information and 2) use of a recall process to access that information. This project comprises experiments that test these hypotheses. In one line of experiments, the encoding conditions will be modified to make the originally distinctive stimulus (i.e., height) no longer distinctive. If the model is right, this should make the sequential lineup advantage disappear. To evaluate the contribution of recall, attention is divided during lineup testing. Dividing attention nullifies the use of a recall process, and the sequential lineup advantage should disappear. Procedural safeguards are available that can enhance the accuracy of eyewitness identification, but without full understanding of what these safeguards do and why, their influence will be limited. This grant will redress this limitation by developing and testing quantitatively specified explanations of the mechanisms underlying one such procedural safeguard, sequential lineups. Finally, an improved understanding of how a sequential lineup protects the innocent may point to other improvements to eyewitness identification procedures that will further enhance the reliability of eyewitness identification.