TY - JOUR
T1 - Improving the evaluation of eyewitness evidence in legal decision‐making
T2 - Testing an active versus passive teaching aid
AU - Saraiva, Renan
AU - Bertoldo, Giulia
AU - Bjørndal, Ludvig Daae
AU - Bunghez, Cătălina
AU - Lofthus, Ingvild Sando
AU - Mcgill, Lucy
AU - Richardson, Stéphanie
AU - Stadel, Marie
PY - 2022/5
Y1 - 2022/5
N2 - Judges, jurors and other triers of fact often rely upon eyewitness evidence in criminal trials, but eyewitness memory is not always accurate and can sometimes be contaminated. The I-I-Eye is an evidence-based teaching aid designed to improve the evaluation of eyewitness evidence in legal settings. We aimed to further test the I-I-Eye and examine whether adding an active component to this teaching aid improves its effectiveness. Two experiments (N = 324 and N = 322) were conducted using a 2 (case strength: weak vs. strong) by 3 (teaching aid condition: control vs. passive vs. active) between-subjects design. Results of both experiments showed that the I-I-Eye can help jurors recognize strong eyewitness cases, although it was not particularly effective when the evidence was weak. It was also found that the active component did not further improve sensitivity. We discuss whether teaching aids such as the I-I-Eye may assist decision-makers in the evaluation of eyewitness evidence, while highlighting some of its main limitations found in our results.
AB - Judges, jurors and other triers of fact often rely upon eyewitness evidence in criminal trials, but eyewitness memory is not always accurate and can sometimes be contaminated. The I-I-Eye is an evidence-based teaching aid designed to improve the evaluation of eyewitness evidence in legal settings. We aimed to further test the I-I-Eye and examine whether adding an active component to this teaching aid improves its effectiveness. Two experiments (N = 324 and N = 322) were conducted using a 2 (case strength: weak vs. strong) by 3 (teaching aid condition: control vs. passive vs. active) between-subjects design. Results of both experiments showed that the I-I-Eye can help jurors recognize strong eyewitness cases, although it was not particularly effective when the evidence was weak. It was also found that the active component did not further improve sensitivity. We discuss whether teaching aids such as the I-I-Eye may assist decision-makers in the evaluation of eyewitness evidence, while highlighting some of its main limitations found in our results.
KW - eyewitness memory
KW - eyewitness testimony
KW - I-I-Eye
KW - jury decision-making
KW - teaching aids
UR - https://osf.io/t46na/?view_only=ac69527fa8b04d10b9b374e1f01e3195
U2 - 10.1002/acp.3938
DO - 10.1002/acp.3938
M3 - Article
SN - 0888-4080
VL - 36
SP - 520
EP - 535
JO - Applied Cognitive Psychology
JF - Applied Cognitive Psychology
IS - 3
ER -