Biomedical subjects

J L Tunnicliff

Publications and source records attributed to J L Tunnicliff.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2001

Selecting lineup foils in eyewitness identification experiments: experimental control and real-world simulation.

Experimental research on eyewitness identification follows a standard principle of experimental design. Perpetrator-present and perpetrator-absent lineups are constructed with the same foils, so that the two conditions are identical except for the presence or absence ofthe trueperpetrator ofthe crime. However, this aspect of the design simulates conditions that do not correspond to those of real criminal investigations. Specifically, these conditions can create perp-absent lineups in which the foils are selected based on their similarity to an unknown person--the real perpetrator. Analysis of the similarity relations predicts that when foils for perp-absent lineups are selected based on their match to the perpetrator the false identification rate will be lower than if the foils are selected based on their match to the innocent suspect. This prediction was confirmed in an experiment that compared these two perp-absent lineup conditions. These results suggest that false identification rates in previous experiments would have been higher if the foils had been selected based on their match to the innocent suspect, rather than the absent perpetrator.

Adult↗

PubMed2000

Selecting foils for identification lineups: matching suspects or descriptions?

Two experiments directly compare two methods of selecting foils for identification lineups. The suspect-matched method selects foils based on their match to the suspect, whereas the description-matched method selects foils based on their match to the witness's description of the perpetrator. Theoretical analyses and previous results predict an advantage for description-matched lineups both in terms of correctly identifying the perpetrator and minimizing false identification of innocent suspects. The advantage for description-matched lineups should be particularly pronounced if the foils selected in suspect-matched lineups are too similar to the suspect. In Experiment 1, the lineups were created by trained police officers, and in Experiment 2, the lineups were constructed by undergraduate college students. The results of both experiments showed higher suspect-to-foil similarity for suspect-matched lineups than for description-matched lineups. However, neither experiment showed a difference in correct or false identification rates. Both experiments did, however, show that there may be an advantage for suspect-matched lineups in terms of no-pick and rejection responses. From these results, the endorsement of one method over the other seems premature.

Adult↗

PubMed1999

Accounts of blending, distinctiveness, and typicality in the false recognition of faces.

The false recognition of distractor faces created from combinations of studied faces has been attributed to the creation of novel traces in memory, although familiarity accounts are also plausible. In 3 experiments, participants studied parent faces and then were tested with a distractor that was created by morphing 2 parents. These produced high false-alarm rates but no effects of a temporal separation manipulation. In a forced-choice version, participants chose the distractor over the parents. R. M. Nosofsky's (1986) Generalized Context Model and variants could account for some but not all aspects of the data. A new model, SimSample, can account for the effects of typicality and distinctiveness, but not for the morph false alarms unless explicit prototypes are included. The conclusions are consistent with an account of memory in which novel traces are created in memory; alternative explanations are also explored.

Cognition↗