Time to exonerate eyewitness memory

Wixted, John T.

doi:10.1016/j.forsciint.2018.08.018

Cited by 9 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…These troubling outcomes FACE IDENTIFICATION CONFIDENCE 4 can be improved with a better understanding of the relationship between confidence and face-identification accuracy. Although this relationship has been studied for decades, primarily in the eyewitness literature (Bothwell et al, 1987;Brewer & Wells, 2006;Deffenbacher, 1980;Penrod & Cutler, 1995;Wixted, 2018;Wixted & Wells, 2017), (see also Hu et al2017 andPhillips et al2018 for perceptual face-identity matching studies), the results pertaining to the confidence-accuracy relationship remain inconclusive. The focus of this study is to examine confidence judgments pertaining to perceptual face-identity matching decisions, with the intent of addressing the challenges of forensic face examination.…”

Section: Face Identification Confidencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…These studies have been cited as evidence to suggest that confidence judgments should not be used in eyewitness-identification practices. However, FACE IDENTIFICATION CONFIDENCE 6 recent research is at odds with this view and suggests that the relationship between confidence and accuracy can be preserved as long as a set of scientifically validated conditions are implemented (see Wixted andWells, 2017 andWells et al, 2020).…”

Section: Face Identification Confidencementioning

confidence: 99%

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Confidence judgments are associated with face identification accuracy: Findings from a confidence forced-choice task

Jeckeln¹,

Mamassian²,

O’Toole³

2022

Preprint

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Confidence is assumed to be an indicator of identification accuracy in legal practices (e.g., eyewitness testimony or forensic face examination). However, it is not clear whether people can evaluate the correctness of their face identification decisions reliably using confidence reports. Confidence in the correctness of the perceptual decision was measured with a confidence forced-choice methodology: Upon completion of two perceptual face-identity matching trials, the participants were asked to compare the two decisions and to select the trial on which they felt more confident. On each face-identity matching trial, participants viewed three face images (two same-identity images, one different-identity image) and were instructed to select the image of the different identity. In order to measure the extent to which difficulty level informs confidence decisions, we selected face-image triads using item-difficulty estimates extracted from psychometric modeling applied in a prior study. The difference in difficulty between the paired face-image triads, predicted the proportion of high-confidence judgments allocated to the easier trial of the pair. Consistent with the impact of difficulty monitoring on confidence judgments, performance was significantly more accurate on trials associated with higher confidence. Overall, the results suggested that people reliably evaluate the correctness of their perceptual face-identity matching decisions and use trial difficulty to evaluate confidence.

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Section: Face Identification Confidencementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Face Identification Confidencementioning

confidence: 99%

Confidence judgments are associated with face identification accuracy: Findings from a confidence forced-choice task

Jeckeln¹,

Mamassian²,

O’Toole³

2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Research Council, 2014). For example, recent perspectives suggest that eyewitness confidence is informative of accuracy on an initial, uncontaminated, properly-administered photo lineup, suggesting that eyewitnesses can be reliable and know if their identification decision is or is not likely to be accurate (e.g., Wixted, 2018). However, eyewitnesses still make incorrect identifications, and therefore theoretically informed procedures should be developed to support eyewitness discrimination accuracy (Albright & Rakoff, 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…That is, it is possible that there is a good relationship between confidence and accuracy, even for static lineups and other-race faces. Indeed, research indicates that reliability on static photo lineups is impressive (Wixted, 2018;Wixted & Wells, 2018). Moreover, two recent papers examining the ORB have found this pattern of results.…”

Section: Confidence Accuracy Characteristic Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Active exploration of faces in police lineups increases discrimination accuracy

Colloff¹,

Flowe²,

Smith³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Eyewitness identifications play a key role in the justice system, but eyewitnesses make errors, often with profound consequences. Errors are more likely when the witness is of a different race to the suspect, due to a phenomenon called the Own Race Bias (ORB). ORB is characterized as an encoding-based deficit, but has been predominantly tested using static photographs of people facing the camera. We used findings from basic science and innovative technologies to develop and test whether a novel interactive lineup procedure, wherein witnesses can rotate and dynamically view the lineup faces from different angles, improves witness discrimination accuracy and attenuates the ORB, compared to the most widely used procedure in laboratories and police forces around the world—the static frontal-pose photo lineup. No novel procedure has previously been shown to improve witness discrimination accuracy. In Experiment 1, participants (N=220) identified own-race or other-race culprits from sequentially presented interactive lineups or static frontal-pose photo lineups. In Experiment 2, participants (N=8,507) identified own-race or other-race culprits from interactive lineups that were either presented sequentially, simultaneously wherein the faces could be moved independently, or simultaneously wherein the faces moved jointly into the same angle. Interactive lineups enhanced witnesses’ discriminability compared to static lineups, especially when they were presented simultaneously, for both own-race and other-race identifications. Our findings suggest that ORB is an encoding-based phenomenon, and exemplify how basic science can be used to address the important applied policy issue on how best to conduct a police lineup and reduce eyewitness errors.

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“…The results are summarized here in Figure 10. 10 Based on results like these, Wixted (2018) argued that eyewitness evidence is reliable in the same way that fingerprint evidence and DNA evidence are reliable. Specifically, they are reliable when the evidence is not contaminated.…”

Section: Signal Detection Theory and The Confidence-accuracy Relationmentioning

confidence: 98%

The forgotten history of signal detection theory.

Wixted¹

2020

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cogni

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Signal detection theory is one of psychology's most well-known and influential theoretical frameworks. However, the conceptual hurdles that had to be overcome before the theory could finally emerge in its modern form in the early 1950s seem to have been largely forgotten. Here, I trace the origins of signal detection theory, beginning with Fechner's Elements of Psychophysics (1860/1966). Over and above the Gaussian-based mathematical framework conceived by Fechner in 1860, nearly a century would pass before psychophysicists finally realized in 1953 that the distribution of sensations generated by neural noise falls above, not below, the threshold of conscious awareness. An extensive body of single-unit recording and neuroimaging research conducted since then supports the idea that sensory noise yields genuinely felt conscious sensations even in the complete absence of stimulation. That hard-to-come-by insight in 1953 led immediately to the notion of a movable decision criterion and to the methodology of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. Over the ensuing years, signal detection theory and ROC analysis have had an enormous impact on basic and applied science alike. Yet, in some quarters of our field, that fact appears to be virtually unknown. By tracing both its fascinating origins and its phenomenal impact, I hope to illustrate why no area of experimental psychology should ever be oblivious to signal detection theory.

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Time to exonerate eyewitness memory

Cited by 9 publications

References 11 publications

Confidence judgments are associated with face identification accuracy: Findings from a confidence forced-choice task

Confidence judgments are associated with face identification accuracy: Findings from a confidence forced-choice task

Active exploration of faces in police lineups increases discrimination accuracy

The forgotten history of signal detection theory.

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