New Insights on Expert Opinion About Eyewitness Memory Research

Authors

Travis M. Seale-Carlisle
Adele Quigley-McBride
Jennifer E. F. Teitcher
William E. Crozier
Chad S. Dodson
Brandon L. Garrett, Duke Law SchoolFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2024

Keywords

eyewitness memory, expert opinion, judicial decision-making, memory, expert testimony

Abstract

Experimental psychologists investigating eyewitness memory have periodically gathered their thoughts on a variety of eyewitness memory phenomena. Courts and other stakeholders of eyewitness research rely on the expert opinions reflected in these surveys to make informed decisions. However, the last survey of this sort was published more than 20 years ago, and the science of eyewitness memory has developed since that time. Stakeholders need a current database of expert opinions to make informed decisions. In this article, we provide that update. We surveyed 76 scientists for their opinions on eyewitness memory phenomena. We compared these current expert opinions to expert opinions from the past several decades. We found that experts today share many of the same opinions as experts in the past and have more nuanced thoughts about two issues. Experts in the past endorsed the idea that confidence is weakly related to accuracy, but experts today acknowledge the potential diagnostic value of initial confidence collected from a properly administered lineup. In addition, experts in the past may have favored sequential over simultaneous lineup presentation, but experts today are divided on this issue. We believe this new survey will prove useful to the court and to other stakeholders of eyewitness research.

Citation

Travis M. Seale-Carlisle et al., New Insights on Expert Opinion About Eyewitness Memory ResearchPerspectives on Psychological Science (2024)

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License