Department of Psychology, Iowa State University.
Department of Psychology, University of Nevada Reno.
Perspect Psychol Sci. 2020 May;15(3):589-607. doi: 10.1177/1745691620902426. Epub 2020 May 6.
The conceptual frameworks provided by both the lineups-as-experiments analogy and signal detection theory have proven important to understanding how eyewitness lineups work. The lineups-as-experiments analogy proposes that when investigators use a lineup procedure, they are acting as experimenters and should therefore follow the same tried-and-true procedures that experimenters follow when executing an experiment. Signal detection theory offers a framework for distinguishing between factors that improve the trade-off between culprit and innocent-suspect identifications and factors that affect the frequency of suspect identifications. We integrate these two conceptual frameworks. We argue that an eyewitness lineup procedure is characterized by two simultaneous signal detection tasks. On one hand, the witness is tasked with determining whether the culprit is present in the lineup and identifying that person. On the other hand, the investigator knows which lineup member is the suspect and which lineup members are known-innocent fillers and is therefore tasked only with determining whether the suspect is the culprit. The investigator uses the witness's identification decision and associated level of confidence to decide whether the suspect is the culprit. We leverage this realization to demonstrate a method for creating full receiver operating characteristic curves for eyewitness lineup procedures.
这两个概念框架，即列队呈现实验类比和信号检测理论，都被证明对理解目击者辨认程序如何运作很重要。列队呈现实验类比提出，当调查人员使用辨认程序时，他们的行为就像实验者，因此应该遵循实验者执行实验时经过反复验证的程序。信号检测理论为区分那些既能改善罪犯与无辜嫌疑人辨认之间的权衡，又能影响嫌疑人辨认频率的因素提供了一个框架。我们整合了这两个概念框架。我们认为，一个目击者辨认程序的特点是同时进行两项信号检测任务。一方面，证人的任务是确定犯罪者是否在辨认列队中，并识别出那个人。另一方面，调查人员知道哪个辨认列队成员是嫌疑人，哪些是已知的无辜填充者，因此他的任务只是确定嫌疑人是否是犯罪者。调查人员会根据证人的辨认决定和相关的置信度来决定嫌疑人是否是犯罪者。我们利用这一认识，展示了一种为目击者辨认程序创建完整接收者操作特征曲线的方法。
