Event Details

Security Lancaster Seminar

Speaker: Emily Spearing

Talk: The Confidence-Accuracy Relationship for Eyewitness Reports

Date: July 15th, 2022

Time: 14:00-15:00

Teams Link: Join Seminar (We’d appreciate if you could optionally register to join our mailing list)

Abstract:

Legal decision makers often use an eyewitness’s confidence (e.g., “I’m absolutely sure!”) to gauge the accuracy of the evidence the witness provides. Indeed, a growing body of research suggests that eyewitness confidence can be informative about the accuracy of witnesses’ decisions when they select a face from a police lineup that is conducted in appropriate (unbiased) ways. Yet relatively little is known about the confidence-accuracy relationship when witnesses report details about a crime—such as the appearance and actions of a perpetrator. In this talk, I will discuss how best to collect confidence judgements from witnesses during police interviews, and how different witnessing and testing conditions (e.g., the visibility of the crime) affect a witness’s confidence in their memory report. Finally, I will discuss how theories of confidence can help memory scientists to understand when the confidence-accuracy relationship is likely to break down and the implications for the criminal justice system.

Biography:

I'm a final year PhD student in the Psychology Department at the University of Warwick. Broadly, I am interested in autobiographical and episodic memory, and the application of theoretical models of memory to applied settings, particularly legal contexts. My PhD focuses on the relationship between the accuracy of witness's memory reports and their confidence in these reports. Specifically, I am interested in when confidence judgements provide a useful indicator of accuracy when witnesses are asked to recall details about a crime, such as in a police interview.

Please contact Jennifer for any Teams connectivity issues: j.mcculloch@lancaster.ac.uk