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Holistic Facial Composite Creation and Subsequent Video Line-up Eyewitness Identification Paradigm

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Published on: December 24, 2015

Does post-identification feedback affect evaluations of eyewitness testimony and identification procedures?

Amy Bradfield Douglass¹, Jeffrey S Neuschatz, Jennifer Imrich

¹Department of Psychology, Bates College, 4 Andrews Road, Lewiston, ME 04240, USA. adouglas@bates.edu

Law and Human Behavior

|July 9, 2009

Summary

Post-identification feedback significantly influences how eyewitnesses are perceived. Confirming feedback led evaluators to judge witnesses more positively, even when instructed to ignore it, impacting accuracy and confidence assessments.

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Area of Science:

Psychology
Forensic Psychology
Legal Psychology

Background:

Eyewitness testimony is crucial in legal proceedings.
The impact of post-identification feedback on witness evaluations has been a long-standing assumption in research.
Previous research has not empirically demonstrated this effect on evaluators' judgments.

Purpose of the Study:

To empirically test whether post-identification feedback influences how evaluators perceive eyewitnesses.
To determine if feedback affects judgments of witness accuracy and confidence.
To investigate the robustness of feedback effects, even with instructions to disregard it.

Main Methods:

Two experiments were conducted with participants evaluating eyewitness testimony or identification procedures.
Experiment 1 involved evaluators assessing testimony with confirming, disconfirming, or no post-identification feedback.
Experiment 2 manipulated feedback during the identification procedure and included instructions to disregard feedback.

Main Results:

Witnesses receiving confirming post-identification feedback were consistently judged as more accurate and confident.
This effect persisted regardless of whether the witness's confidence statement was presented.
Confirming feedback led to more positive assessments even when evaluators were instructed to disregard the feedback.

Conclusions:

The study provides the first empirical confirmation that post-identification feedback affects judgments of eyewitnesses.
Feedback significantly biases perceptions of witness accuracy and confidence.
These findings highlight the need to consider feedback's influence in legal contexts and its resistance to corrective instructions.