Lineup fairness: propitious heterogeneity and the diagnostic feature-detection hypothesis

Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications

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[1] 0000 0004 1937 0087, grid.264758.a, Texas A&M University – Commerce, PO Box 3011, 75429, Commerce, TX, USA;

关键词: Eyewitness identification;    Simultaneous lineup;    Lineup fairness;    Diagnostic feature-detection hypothesis;    Propitious heterogeneity;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s41235-019-0172-5

来源: publisher

【 摘 要 】

Researchers have argued that simultaneous lineups should follow the principle of propitious heterogeneity, based on the idea that if the fillers are too similar to the perpetrator even an eyewitness with a good memory could fail to correctly identify him. A similar prediction can be derived from the diagnostic feature-detection (DFD) hypothesis, such that discriminability will decrease if too few features are present that can distinguish between innocent and guilty suspects. Our first experiment tested these predictions by controlling similarity with artificial faces, and our second experiment utilized a more ecologically valid eyewitness identification paradigm. Our results support propitious heterogeneity and the DFD hypothesis by showing that: 1) as the facial features in lineups become increasingly homogenous, empirical discriminability decreases; and 2) lineups with description-matched fillers generally yield higher empirical discriminability than those with suspect-matched fillers.

【 授权许可】

CC BY