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ConstruCting the Lineup: Law, reform, theory, and data steven e. CLark, ryan a. rush, and moLLy B. moreLand a crime has been committed, and the police have a suspect and an eyewitness. the police have put together a lineup that includes the suspect, of course, along with five fillers who are known to be innocent. if the eyewitness identifies the suspect from the lineup rather than one of the fillers, that person may be arrested, and the case may go to the district attorney for prosecution.a positive identification provides direct evidence of the suspect's guilt, and yet a positive identification of a suspect does not necessarily mean that the suspect is guilty. over 100 years of psychological research, tracing back to the early work of arnold (1906) and munsterberg (1908), have shown that witnesses can be quite inaccurate. such inaccurate identifications can lead to false prosecutions and false convictions. indeed, there is a consensus among eyewitness identification researchers and legal scholars that mistaken identification is a primary cause, if not the primary cause, of false convictions of the innocent in the united states (gross, Jacoby, matheson, montgomery, & patil, 2005).

The current study examined attitudes, ethical beliefs, and professional practices related to spanking in a sample of American Psychological Association (APA) division members and represented a replication and extension of a similar survey conducted 18 years ago. We administered an online survey to 3,000 randomly selected members of 10 APA divisions. A total of 782 members completed the survey for a response rate of 28%. Findings indicated that overwhelmingly, psychologists are opposed to parental use of spanking. The majority of APA division members believe that spanking is a bad disciplinary technique (83%), that it is harmful to children (71%), and that mental health professionals should not advise parents to use spanking under any circumstances (72%). Of psychologists who directly advise parents about child rearing, 86% indicated that they never recommend that parents spank their children. Furthermore, 76% believed it was unethical for a mental health professional to suggest spanking to a parent. The majority of psychologists surveyed also believe that the APA should adopt policies opposing the recommendation of physical punishment and its use by parents. Although the majority of psychologists are aware of the research on spanking outcomes, a substantial minority are unsure about spanking’s impact on children’s development. Multiple regressions revealed significant associations among the recommendations of psychologists, personal attitudes, ethical beliefs, and experiences with spanking. These findings suggest a significant shift in the opinion of psychologists in the past 18 years. We discuss these findings in terms of their implications for policy and practice.

The present study examines how discussion between individuals regarding a shared memory affects their subsequent individual memory reports. In three experiments pairs of participants recalled items from photographs of common household scenes, discussed their recall with each other, and then recalled the items again individually. Results showed that after the discussion. individuals recalled more correct items and more incorrect items, with very small non-significant increases, or no change, in recall accuracy. The information people were exposed to during the discussion was generally accurate, although not as accurate as individuals' initial recall. Individuals incorporated correct exposure items into their subsequent recall at a higher rate than incorrect exposure items. Participants who were initially more accurate became less accurate, and initially less-accurate participants became more accurate as a result of their discussion. Comparisons to no-discussion control groups suggest that the effects were not simply the product of repeated recall opportunities or self-cueing, but rather reflect the transmission of information between individuals.