NCJ Number
84461
Journal
Journal of Applied Social Psychology Volume: 12 Issue: 1 Dated: (January/February 1982) Pages: 42-53
Date Published
1982
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This study manipulated whether or not witnesses were informed that the witnessed crime was staged; results indicate that eyewitness accuracy may be overestimated in traditional simulations with informed witnesses.
Abstract
The presence or absence of the perpetrator in photo-lineup and the physical similarity of the lineup members were also manipulated to assess any possible interactions with the information variable. A theft was individually staged for 184 unsuspecting witnesses, who were then randomly assigned to be either informed or not informed of the simulation. Half the witnesses were shown a perpetrator-present photo-lineup with either high or low similarity, while the other half viewed a perpetrator-absent phone lineup with either high or low similarity. Three confidence measures, one cooperation measure, and an Embedded Figures Test score were obtained. The information variable interacted with the presence-absence variable: uninformed witnesses were less accurate than the informed witnesses in the perpetrator-present condition. The information variable was also relatively consistent in affecting the correlation between confidence and accuracy such that the correlation was lower for uninformed witnesses. Tabular data and over 20 references are given.