Effects of Postidentification Feedback on Eyewitness Identification and Nonidentification Confidence

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2004

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Semmler, C.
Brewer, N.
Wells, G.

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Journal of Applied Psychology, 2004; 89(2):334-346

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Carolyn Semmler, Neil Brewer and Gary L. Wells

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Abstract

Two experiments investigated new dimensions of the effect of confirming feedback on eyewitness identification confidence using target-absent and target-present lineups and (previously unused) unbiased witness instructions (i.e., "offender not present" option highlighted). In Experiment 1, participants viewed a crime video and were later asked to try to identify the thief from an 8-person target-absent photo array. Feedback inflated witness confidence for both mistaken identifications and correct lineup rejections. With target-present lineups in Experiment 2, feedback inflated confidence for correct and mistaken identifications and lineup rejections. Although feedback had no influence on the confidence-accuracy correlation, it produced clear overconfidence. Confidence inflation varied with the confidence measure reference point (i.e., retrospective vs. current confidence) and identification response latency.

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This article may not exactly replicate the final version published in the APA journal. It is not the copy of record.

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