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ORCID
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5501-3605
Access Type
Open Access Thesis
Document Type
thesis
Embargo Period
8-1-2024
Degree Program
Psychology
Degree Type
Master of Science (M.S.)
Year Degree Awarded
2024
Month Degree Awarded
February
Abstract
In an effort to protect innocent suspects in police lineups, guidelines tend to encourage conservative responding in eyewitnesses. We challenge that approach, using model predictions from Signal Detection Theory that suggest conservative responding with standard simultaneous lineup procedures is detrimental to gathering information on the guilt or innocence of suspects. Furthermore, we suggest that a different lineup procedure, a ranking lineup, will avoid this loss of information at conservative levels of response bias. These predictions were tested in two experiments that manipulated response conservativeness in terms of instructions to the witness and witness confidence levels. The results suggest that there is strong evidence for the predicted pattern. That is, conservative responding substantially decreases the information value of witness responses in simultaneous lineups, but not ranking lineups. There is even evidence that the informational value of the ranking procedure can overcome a discriminability disadvantage that was unexpectedly observed in Experiment 1. These results have significant implications for policy recommendations in police lineups and suggest that eyewitness researchers need to rethink which procedures best serve the goal of protecting innocent suspects.
First Advisor
Jeffrey Starns
Second Advisor
Andrew Cohen
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Tuttle, Michael D., "Rethinking how we Protect the Innocent: An Analysis of Simultaneous and Ranking Lineup Procedures" (2024). Masters Theses. 1419.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/masters_theses_2/1419