Document Type
Article
Publication Date
8-2017
Keywords
Eyewitness Memory, Confidence and Accuracy, Biased Instructions, Unbiased Instructions, Receiver Operating Characteristic Analysis
Abstract
From the perspective of signal-detection theory, different lineup instructions may induce different levels of response bias (Clark, 2005). If so, then collecting correct and false identification rates across different instructional conditions will trace out the ROC – the same ROC that, theoretically, could also be traced out from a single instruction condition in which each eyewitness decision is accompanied by a confidence rating. We tested whether the two approaches do in fact yield the same ROC. Participants were assigned to a confidence rating condition or to an instructional biasing condition (liberal, neutral, unbiased, or conservative). After watching a video of a mock crime, participants were presented with instructions followed by a 6-person simultaneous photo lineup. The ROCs from both methods were similar, but they were not exactly the same. These findings have potentially important policy implications for how the legal system should go about controlling eyewitness response bias.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
doi.org/10.1002/acp.3344
Repository Citation
Mickes, Laura; Travis M. Seale-Carlisle, Travis M.; Wetmore, Stacy A.; Gronlund, Scott D.; Clark, Steven E.; Carlson, Curt A.; Goodsell, Charles A.; Weatherford, Dawn R.; and Wixted, John T., "ROCs in Eyewitness Identification: Instructions vs. Confidence Ratings" (2017). Psychology Faculty Publications. 9.
https://digitalcommons.tamusa.edu/psyc_faculty/9
Comments
"This is the peer reviewed version of the following article:
Mickes, L., Seale-Carlisle, T. M., Wetmore, S. A., Gronlund, S. D., Clark, S. E., Carlson, C. A., Goodsell, C. A., Weatherford, D. R., & Wixted, J. T. (2017). ROCs in eyewitness identification: Instructions versus confidence ratings. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 31, 467–477. doi: 10.1002/acp.3344.
which has been published in final form at [https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3344. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.