Active exploration of faces in police lineups increases discrimination accuracy

Colloff, M, Flowe, H, Smith, H ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2712-5527, Seale-Carlisle, T, Meissner, C, Rockey, J, Pander, B, Kujur, P, Parveen, N, Chandel, P, Singh, M, Pradham, S and Parganiha, A, 2022. Active exploration of faces in police lineups increases discrimination accuracy. American Psychologist, 77 (2), pp. 196-220. ISSN 0003-066X

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Abstract

Eyewitness identifications play a key role in the justice system, but eyewitnesses can make errors, often with profound consequences. 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 compared to a 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 culprits from sequentially presented interactive lineups or static frontal-pose photo lineups. In Experiment 2, participants (N=8,507) identified 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. Sequential interactive lineups enhanced witness discrimination accuracy compared to static photo lineups, and simultaneous interactive lineups enhanced witness discrimination accuracy compared to sequential interactive lineups. These finding were true both when participants viewed suspects who were of the same or different ethnicity/race as themselves. Our findings 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.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	American Psychologist
Creators:	Colloff, M., Flowe, H., Smith, H., Seale-Carlisle, T., Meissner, C., Rockey, J., Pander, B., Kujur, P., Parveen, N., Chandel, P., Singh, M., Pradham, S. and Parganiha, A.
Publisher:	American Psychological Association
Date:	February 2022
Volume:	77
Number:	2
ISSN:	0003-066X
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1037/amp0000832 DOI 1424957 Other
Rights:	© 2021, American Psychological Association. This paper is not the copy of record and may not exactly replicate the final, authoritative version of the article. Please do not copy or cite without authors' permission. The final article will be available, upon publication, via its DOI: 10.1037/amp0000832
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Linda Sullivan
Date Added:	16 Mar 2021 17:02
Last Modified:	13 Mar 2023 12:24
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/42523

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