TY - JOUR
T1 - Are individuals' familiarity judgments diagnostic of prior contact?
AU - Pezdek, Kathy
AU - Stolzenberg, Stacia
N1 - Funding Information:
This article is based on work supported by a Fletcher Jones Foundation grant to the first author. We thank Sister Monica Collins and the teachers and students at St. Lucy’s High School in Glendora, California, and Mrs. Karen Barnes and the teachers and students at Saint Joseph’s High School in Lakewood, California. Without their cooperation, this study would not have been possible. We also thank Elise Mayberry, Luke Meyer, John McCormick, and Chandrima Batacharia for their help coding these data, and Amber Gaffney and David Rast for their conceptual contributions to this project.
PY - 2014/4
Y1 - 2014/4
N2 - The extensive eyewitness memory research literature has been restricted to memory for strangers. Although it is often assumed that eyewitnesses are more accurate identifying familiar than unfamiliar individuals, little is known about whether individuals' familiarity judgments are diagnostic of prior contact. Caucasian and Asian sophomores (N=139) in two small private high schools viewed yearbook pictures of (a) graduated students from their school who were seniors (fourth year) when participants were freshmen (first year) (familiar) and (b) unfamiliar individuals, and responded whether each was 'familiar'. The design was completely crossed; familiar faces at each school served as unfamiliar faces at the other school. Based on d′ data, the cross-race effect resulted for familiarity judgments. Also, although individuals' familiarity judgments were diagnostic of prior contact, accuracy was low (mean hit rate=0.42; mean false alarm rate=0.23), rendering an eyewitness's report of having seen a perpetrator casually in the past of limited forensic value.
AB - The extensive eyewitness memory research literature has been restricted to memory for strangers. Although it is often assumed that eyewitnesses are more accurate identifying familiar than unfamiliar individuals, little is known about whether individuals' familiarity judgments are diagnostic of prior contact. Caucasian and Asian sophomores (N=139) in two small private high schools viewed yearbook pictures of (a) graduated students from their school who were seniors (fourth year) when participants were freshmen (first year) (familiar) and (b) unfamiliar individuals, and responded whether each was 'familiar'. The design was completely crossed; familiar faces at each school served as unfamiliar faces at the other school. Based on d′ data, the cross-race effect resulted for familiarity judgments. Also, although individuals' familiarity judgments were diagnostic of prior contact, accuracy was low (mean hit rate=0.42; mean false alarm rate=0.23), rendering an eyewitness's report of having seen a perpetrator casually in the past of limited forensic value.
KW - cross-race effect
KW - eyewitness memory
KW - face recognition memory
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U2 - 10.1080/1068316X.2013.772181
DO - 10.1080/1068316X.2013.772181
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84897606233
SN - 1068-316X
VL - 20
SP - 302
EP - 314
JO - Psychology, Crime and Law
JF - Psychology, Crime and Law
IS - 4
ER -