Long-term Memory

Eyewitness Lineups
• what’s the best way to conduct a lineup?
– maximize identification of guilty suspects (hits)
– minimize identification of innocent suspects (false alarms)
• selecting distractors in a lineup (known-innocents)
– the use of mock eyewitnesses
– match-to-description, or also resemble-suspect?
• either way, innocent suspect is protected
• if distractors resemble-suspect, identification of guilty suspect is lower
• demand characteristics
– subtle cues
– exert pressure to select (relative judgment)
– double-blind eliminates these concerns
• Not adopted by law enforcement
• relative judgments versus absolute identification
– sequential lineups emphasize absolute identification
• reduces identification of innocent suspects
• however, also reduces identification of guilty suspect
• w/o double-blind, can increase demand characteristics