Eyewitnesses' Retrospective Reports on External Influences

目击者对外部影响的回顾报告

• 批准号: 0647243
• 负责人: Gary Wells
• 金额: $ 25万
• 依托单位: Iowa State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-07-01 至 2011-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0647243&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Eyewitnesses; Retrospective; Reports; External; Influences

Abstract"Eyewitnesses' Retrospective Reports on External Influences" Gary L. Wells, PIThe legal system relies heavily on eyewitnesses to help convict perpetrators and to free innocents from suspicion. A primary method for doing this is to use a photographic lineup in which a suspect's photo is placed among filler photos and the eyewitness is asked to identify which of the photos, if any, is of the perpetrator. Scientific experiments as well as studies of actual cases of convictions of innocent people, however, reveal that eyewitnesses are prone to error under certain conditions. In particular, eyewitnesses are easily influenced by external factors, such as suggestive pre-lineup instructions, unintentional cues from the lineup administrator as to which person to select, and comments that bolster the confidence of the eyewitness after the selection. Courts have long assumed that any such influences are readily discoverable by merely questioning the eyewitness as to whether these suggestive influence events occurred and, if so, whether they were influenced by the suggestive event. The experiments that will be conducted are designed to test whether eyewitnesses can recall such suggestive events and whether they can accurately report on whether the suggestive events influenced their responses. Participants will view simulated crimes and then be subjected to various suggestive events that lead them to make mistaken identifications from photo lineups. The actual impact of the suggestive events will be measured by comparing their identification decisions (and their confidence) to participants who were not subjected to the suggestive events. Either immediately or seven days later the participant-witnesses will be asked to recall any suggestive events. They will then be told about the suggestive event and asked what their identification decision and confidence would have been had the suggestive event not occurred. It is expected that participant-witnesses will have difficulty recalling the suggestive event, especially after seven days. In addition, it is expected that participant-witnesses will greatly underestimate the impact that the suggestive event had on their identification decisions and confidence. The results are expected to have strong implications for the legal system's reliance on eyewitnesses to report suggestive influences and provide a new incentive for the legal system to take measures to eliminate the suggestive events from occurring in the first place. In addition, these experiments will shed new light on our understanding of the limits to people's abilities to self-report on the factors that affect their judgments and decisions.

摘要“目击者关于外部影响的回顾性报告”加里·威尔斯（Gary L. Wells），法律制度在很大程度上依赖目击者来帮助定罪肇事者，并使无辜者摆脱怀疑。这样做的主要方法是使用摄影阵容，其中犯罪嫌疑人的照片位于填充照片中，并要求目击者确定哪些照片（如果有）是肇事者。然而，科学实验以及对无辜人民定罪的实际案例的研究表明，目击者在某些条件下容易出错。特别是，目击者很容易受到外部因素的影响，例如暗示性的前线说明，阵容管理员的无意间提示，以及选择哪个人的选择，并评论选择后见证人的信心。法院长期以来一直认为，仅通过质疑目击者是否发生了这些暗示性影响事件，并且是否受到暗示性事件的影响，就可以很容易地发现任何此类影响。将要进行的实验旨在测试目击者是否可以回忆起这种暗示性事件，以及他们是否可以准确地报告暗示性事件是否影响了他们的反应。参与者将查看模拟犯罪，然后遭受各种暗示性的事件，导致他们从照片阵容中进行错误的身份。暗示事件的实际影响将通过将其识别决定（及其信心）与未遭受暗示性事件的参与者进行比较来衡量。立即或七天后，将要求参与者召回任何暗示性事件。然后，他们将被告知有关暗示事件的信息，并询问如果没有发生暗示性事件，他们的身份证明决策和信心将是什么。可以预期，参与者 - 竞争将难以回忆起暗示事件，尤其是在七天之后。此外，预计参与者将大大低估暗示事件对他们的身份决定和信心的影响。预计该结果将对法律体系对目击者的依赖有很大的影响，以报告暗示性的影响，并为法律制度提供新的激励措施，以采取措施，以消除首先发生的提示事件。此外，这些实验将为我们对人们自我报告的限制自我报告的限制的理解提供新的启示，这些因素会影响其判断和决定的因素。