Handbook of eyewitness psychology, volume 2: Memory for People

616 Pages·2010·5.32 MB·English

by  Lindsay, Roderick Cameron Lodge

HANDBOOK OF
EYEWITNESS PSYCHOLOGY
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HANDBOOK OF
EYEWITNESS PSYCHOLOGY
Volume 2
MEMORY FOR PEOPLE
EDITED BY
Rod C. L. Lindsay
Queen’s University, Ontario
David F. Ross
University of Tennessee, Chattanooga
J. Don Read
Simon Fraser University, British Columbia
Michael P. Toglia
State University of New York, Cortland
Editorial Director: Steve Rutter
Editorial Assistant: Anthony Messina
Cover Design: Tomai Maridou
Full-Service Compositor: MidAtlantic Books & Journals, Inc.
This book was typeset in 11/13 pt Goudy Old Style, Italic, Bold, and Bold Italic. Headings were typeset in Americana,
Bold, Italic and Bold Italic.
First published 2007 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
This edition published 2014 by Psychology Press
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and by Psychology Press
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Psychology Press is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright ©2007 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
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without intent to infringe.
CIP information for this volume can be obtained by contacting the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-0-8058-5152-6—0-8058-5152-8 (case)
ISBN 978-1-4106-1491-9—0-8058-1491-3 (e book)
ISBN 978-1-315-80553-5 (ebk)
Contents
Preface ix
Part I
Finding Suspects
Chapter 1
Person Descriptions as Eyewitness Evidence 1
Christain A. Meissner, Siegfried L. Sporer, and Jonathan W. Schooler
Chapter 2
Mug Books: More Than Just Large Photospreads 35
Hunter McAllister
Chapter 3
Facial Composites: Forensic Utility and Psychological Research 59
Graham Davies and Tim Valentine
Part II
Identifying Suspects: System Variables
Chapter 4
Remembering Faces 87
Vicki Bruce, Mike Burton, and Peter Hancock
Chapter 5
The Psychology of Speaker Identification and Earwitness Memory 101
A. Daniel Yarmey
Chapter 6
Show-up Identifications: Suggestive Technique or Reliable Method? 137
Jennifer E. Dysart and R. C. L. Lindsay
Chapter 7
Lineup Construction and Lineup Fairness 155
Roy S. Malpass, Colin G. Tredoux, and Dawn McQuiston-Surrett
v
vi CONTENTS
Chapter 8
Radical Alternatives to Traditional Lineups 179
Paul R. Dupuis and R. C. L. Lindsay
Chapter 9
A Role for Theory in Eyewitness Identification Research 201
Neil Brewer, Nathan Weber, and Carolyn Semmler
Chapter 10
Applied Lineup Theory 219
Steve Charman and Gary L. Wells
Part III
Identifying Suspects: Estimator Variables
Chapter 11
The Influence of Race on Eyewitness Memory 257
John C. Brigham, L. Brooke Bennett,
Christain A. Meissner, and Tara L. Mitchell
Chapter 12
Person Description and Identification by Child Witnesses 283
Joanna Pozzulo
Chapter 13
Eyewitness Memory in Young and Older Eyewitnesses 309
James C. Bartlett and Amina Memon
Chapter 14
Remembering and Identifying Menacing Perpetrators:
Exposure to Violence and the Weapon Focus Effect 339
Kerri Pickel
Chapter 15
The Effects of Delay on Eyewitness Identification Accuracy:
Should We Be Concerned? 361
Jennifer E. Dysart and R. C. L. Lindsay
Chapter 16
Eyewitness Confidence and the Confidence-Accuracy
Relationship in Memory for People 377
Michael Leippe and Donna Eisenstadt
CONTENTS vii
Chapter 17
Distinguishing Accurate Identifications from Erroneous Ones:
Post-Dictive Indicators of Eyewitness Accuracy 427
Deanna Caputo and David Dunning
Part IV
Belief of Eyewitness Identification
Chapter 18
Has Eyewitness Research Penetrated the American Legal System?
A Synthesis of Case History, Juror Knowledge, and Expert Testimony 453
Tanja Rapus Benton, Stephanie McDonnell, David F. Ross, Neil Thomas,
and Emily Bradshaw
Chapter 19
Belief of Eyewitness Identification Evidence 501
Melissa Boyce, Jennifer Beaudry, and R.C. L. Lindsay
Part V
Applying Psychological Research to Legal Practice
Chapter 20
Generalizing Eyewitness Reliability Research 529
Steven Penrod and Brian Bornstein
Chapter 21
Mistaken Identification (cid:1)Erroneous Conviction?
Assessing and Improving Legal Safeguards 557
Lori R. Van Wallendael, Jennifer Devenport, Brian L. Cutler,
and Steven Penrod
Chapter 22
Giving Psychology Away to Lawyers 573
James M. Doyle
Author Index 583
Subject Index 599
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Preface
The initial intention of the editors of this volume was to update the Ross, Read, and
Toglia (1994) volume on adult eyewitness research. The intervening decade had dramat-
ically increased the eyewitness literature. Early on, we decided that the literature had be-
come so large that a comprehensive volume attempting to bring together the eyewitness
area in a single volume would be useful for both the research community and legal prac-
titioners. Because the literature had become so extensive, we subsequently divided the
work into two more manageable volumes. One volume is concerned with what once was
called the psychology of report (e.g., Whipple, 1909, 1912) and perhaps more recently
memory for events. Memory for events is critical to the determination of what actually
occurred and whether a crime has been committed. Such concerns have generated the
large and diverse literature discussed in our other volume: Handbook of Eyewitness Psy-
chology: Memory for Events(Toglia, Read, Ross, & Lindsay, 2007).
The current volume contains 21 chapters by researchers from Australia, Canada,
England, Germany, Scotland, South Africa, and The United States of America plus a
concluding chapter by a legal expert discussing the implications of the current state of
the eyewitness literature from an applied and legal perspective. This volume addresses
issues of memory for people. Such memories are critical to the apprehension and prose-
cution of criminal suspects and also to avoid the conviction of innocent people. Of par-
ticular importance, errors of commission, or false identification, have long been claimed
to be a serious source of miscarriages of justice (e.g., Borchard, 1932) and recently have
been proven conclusively to be a major source of wrongful convictions (Connors, Lun-
dregan, Miller, & McEwen, 1996; Gross, Kristen, Matheson, Montgomery, & Patel, 2004).
This volume addresses the extensive literature on a variety of forensically relevant top-
ics related to memory for people.
Concern for the application of the research results was a priority throughout the vol-
ume. Many of the chapters are directly relevant to police procedures for obtaining evi-
dence from witnesses, others address issues of interpretation of such evidence, and still
others are concerned with the impact of eyewitness evidence in court.
First, suspects must be found, often using descriptions, mug shots, and composites.
Research on these topics is critical. The guilty can not be punished if they are not found.
Equally important, the innocent are at risk to the extent that descriptions, mug shots,
and composite faces lead to their being categorized as suspects. Once a suspect has been
determined, eyewitnesses may be asked to “identify” them. The selection (identification)
of suspects is addressed in terms of the procedures used to accomplish this task (voice and
facial recognition from show ups and lineups). The techniques currently used to construct
and assess the fairness of lineups are discussed as well as potential alternatives to current
ix