Impact of disguise on identification decisions and confidence with simultaneous and sequential lineups.

Objective: Prior research indicates disguise negatively affects lineup identifications but the mechanisms by which disguise works have not been explored and different disguises have not been compared. We investigated how two different types of disguise, four levels of varying degrees of coverage, and lineup type influence eyewitnesses' identification decisions, accuracy, and confidence.

Hypotheses: We predicted that identification accuracy would decrease as the disguise covered more of a perpetrator's face.

Evaluating lineup fairness: Variations across methods and measures.

Triers of fact sometimes consider lineup fairness when determining the suggestiveness of an identification procedure. Likewise, researchers often consider lineup fairness when comparing results across studies. Despite their importance, lineup fairness measures have received scant empirical attention and researchers inconsistently conduct and report mock-witness tasks and lineup fairness measures.

Impact of disguise on identification decisions and confidence with simultaneous and sequential lineups.

Prior research indicates that disguise negatively affects lineup identifications, but the mechanisms by which disguise works have not been explored, and different disguises have not been compared. In two experiments (Ns = 87 and 91) we manipulated degree of coverage by two different types of disguise: a stocking mask or sunglasses and toque (i.e.

Effects of size congruency on item and size recognition with words or pictures.

The effect of size changes (8:1 or 1:8) between learning and recognition sessions upon item and size recognition was tested, using either pictures or words as stimuli. Participants (N = 34) viewed color photographs of everyday objects or the corresponding printed words and then performed 160 trials of a recognition task, including 50% new stimuli, for which they had to indicate whether each item had been seen before and whether its size had changed. Item recognition, for pictures only, was improved by size congruency between the learning and test sessions.