ERIC Number: EJ1352755
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2022
Pages: 9
Abstractor: As Provided
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EISSN: EISSN-2365-7464
Available Date: N/A
Using Objective Measures to Examine the Effect of Suspect-Filler Similarity on Eyewitness Identification Performance
McKinley, Geoffrey L.; Peterson, Daniel J.
Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, v7 Article 95 2022
When selecting fillers to include in a police lineup, one must consider the level of similarity between the suspect and potential fillers. In order to reduce misidentifications, an innocent suspect should not stand out. Therefore, it is important that the fillers share some degree of similarity. Importantly, increasing suspect-filler similarity too much will render the task too difficult reducing correct identifications of a guilty suspect. Determining how much similarity yields optimal identification performance is the focus of the proposed study. Extant research on lineup construction has provided somewhat mixed results. In part, this is likely because similarity is often defined in relative terms due to the subjective nature of similarity. In the current study, we propose an experiment in which we manipulate suspect-filler similarity via a multidimensional scaling model constructed using objective facial measurements. In doing so, we test the "propitious heterogeneity" and the diagnostic-feature-detection hypotheses which predict an advantage of lineups with low similarity fillers in terms of discriminability.
Descriptors: Models, Human Body, Criminals, Law Enforcement, Prediction, Measurement Techniques, Multidimensional Scaling
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
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Language: English
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