Abstract
The effects of age of witness, gender of witness, lineup presentation, and practice on eyewitness testimony were investigated. Ninety-six elementary-school children and 96 college students viewed a slide sequence of a crime, followed by target-present or target-absent photo identification in sequentially or simultaneously presented lineups. Prior to photo identification, half the subjects received a practice lineup. Children had a higher rate of choosing than adults, resulting in more foil identification errors in both target-present and target-absent lineups. Without prior practice, sequential presentation as compared to simultaneous presentation reduced errors in target-absent lineups for adult witnesses and showed a similar but nonsignificant reduction for child witnesses. With prior practice, sequential presentation lost the advantage over simultaneous presentation in target-absent error reduction. Practice reduced target-absent errors in simultaneous-presentation lineups for both age groups.
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The authors wish to thank Samuel Jerkins, principal of Oliver Hoover Elementary School, Miami, for his generous assistance in providing subjects. We also thank Brian Cutler, Ronald Fisher, and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on an earlier version of this article.
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Parker, J.F., Ryan, V. An attempt to reduce guessing behavior in children's and adults' eyewitness identifications. Law Hum Behav 17, 11–26 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01044534
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01044534