The role of experimenter familiarity in children’s eyewitness identification

Date

2023

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Psychiatry, Psychology and Law

Abstract

Child eyewitnesses show a high false identification rate on target-absent (TA) lineups despite good performance on target-present (TP) lineups. One explanation is that children feel a social pressure to choose when presented with a TA lineup. We investigated whether experimenter familiarity would reduce social pressure and improve accuracy on TA lineups. Children (5–7 years, N = 120) watched a short video of a staged theft; 1–2 days later they completed a TP or TA lineup with a familiar or unfamiliar experimenter. Experimenter familiarity had an impact on lineup response in TA lineups only, with more correct ‘not there’ and fewer ‘not sure’ responses when the children were familiar with the experimenter. The results provide further evidence to support the social aspect of eyewitness identification decisions in children and provide a possible strategy to improve identification accuracy for those working with children in the criminal justice system.

Description

Keywords

International Resources, United Kingdom, child eyewitness memory, eyewitness identification procedures, social pressure, lineup options, identification accuracy

Citation

Calderwood, L., Ballantyne, C., & Slee, K. (2023). The role of experimenter familiarity in children’s eyewitness identification. Psychiatry, Psychology and Law, 1-14.

DOI