Can people apply the instructions? Accuracy and eye-tracking in identification lineup

Abstract

In the present study, 140 participants were instructed to use absolute judgement or relative judgement just prior to facing a present perpetrator lineup or an absent perpetrator lineup. Participants’ eye movements were recorded during the lineup presentation to assess whether they were able to apply the instructions they had been given. The results showed no significant differences between the type of instruction and the identification accuracy in the lineups. However, eye-tracking data showed that participants who were given absolute judgement instructions made significantly fewer interphotograph comparisons than those who received relative judgement instructions on both types of lineups. Additionally, in the present perpetrator lineup, participants spent less time looking at the set of photographs of the lineup in the absolute judgement condition than in the relative judgement condition. Moreover, participants’ meta-memory evaluations indicated a certain degree of correspondence between participants’ self-reports and their eye-tracking data. Finally, a weak relationship was observed between post-lineup confidence and accuracy on both lineups. Therefore, although eye movement data showed that participants in the absolute judgement condition could partially implement the instructions, this did not translate into a higher accuracy rate in any of the lineups. However, it should be noted that in the present perpetrator lineup, when participants made fewer interphotograph comparisons (a performance more characteristic of an absolute judgement) they were more accurate in the identification lineup.

Keywords

• absolute judgement
• relative judgement
• lineup
• eye tracking record
• identification accuracy