PSYC 3310 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Eyewitness Identification, Konken, Meta-Analysis
14 Jan 2020
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Document Summary
Factors affecting accuracy that are not under the control of the criminal justice system. Affects the first two stages (encoding and storage). Ex: duration of crime, lighting, time of day, stress, etc. Factors that may be under the control of the criminal justice system. Ex: questioning style, lineup construction, instructions, coaching etc. Examined 347 cases in which only evidence was eyewitness testimony. 49% of cases, eyewitness testimony was the only piece of evidence. There was an 18% conviction rate with circumstantial evidence only. Common sense factors can affect accuracy at the encoding stage. Meta-analysis of 27 studies concluded that stress reduces the accuracy of eyewitness recall and correct identifications. Experimenter approaches the participants with either a pen or a syringe. Participant has to identify the experimenter in a line up. Twice as many in the syringe condition made a false id (66%) compared to the pen condition (33%).
