Date of Graduation

5-2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

Psychological Science

Advisor/Mentor

Lampinen, James M.

Committee Member

Beike, Denise

Second Committee Member

Stevens, Marion

Third Committee Member

Thomas, Johanna

Abstract

In crimes in which there is an eyewitness identification, confidence is usually a good predictor of accuracy. However, in some cases, estimator variables might affect the relationship between eyewitness confidence and accuracy. This study analyzes the effect of exposure duration on confidence during an eyewitness identification. According to the pristine conditions hypothesis (Wixed & Wells, 2017), if the system variables are optimal, confidence and accuracy will be strongly related, even if the viewing conditions are suboptimal. Participants in this online study viewed a mock crime in one of two conditions: brief exposure or long exposure. Following viewing the crime, participants completed a distractor task before making an identification in a culprit-absent or culprit-present lineup (randomly assigned). Following the identification, participants indicated their level of confidence in their choice. I hypothesized that highly confident participants would be highly accurate in the long duration condition but not the brief duration condition. However this was not the case. Highly confident witnesses were highly confident, regardless of the lengthy of time they were exposed to the perpetrator’s face.

Keywords

eyewitness identification; confidence; estimator variables; pristine conditions hypothesis

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