Citation

Sagana A, Sauerland M, Merckelbach H. Behav. Sci. Law 2013; 31(5): 624-636.

Affiliation

Department of Clinical Psychological Science, Maastricht University.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/bsl.2082

PMID

24019073

Abstract

In a field study, we examined choice blindness for eyewitnesses' facial recognition decisions. Seventy-one pedestrians were engaged in a conversation by two experimenters who pretended to be tourists in the center of a European city. After a short interval, pedestrians were asked to identify the two experimenters from separate simultaneous six-person photo lineups. Following each of the two forced-choice recognition decisions, they were confronted with their selection and asked to motivate their decision. However, for one of the recognition decisions, the chosen lineup member was exchanged with a previously unidentified member. Blindness for this identity manipulation occurred at the rate of 40.8%. Furthermore, the detection rate varied as a function of similarity (high vs. low) between the original choice and the manipulated outcome. Finally, choice manipulations undermined the confidence-accuracy relation for detectors to a greater degree than for blind participants. Stimulus ambiguity is discussed as a moderator of choice blindness. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Language: en