Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

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Open Access Thesis

Keywords

Eyewitness identification; Face perception; Race discrimination--Psychological aspects; Academic theses;

Abstract

Race plays an extremely important role in people's ability to recognize or identify an individual in an eyewitness identification situation. In particular, other-race faces are more poorly recognized than same-race faces. This phenomenon, known as the cross-race effect, compounded by problematic lineup administration, contribute to the hundreds of falsely convicted people who continue to be exonerated through DNA evidence to this day. The current study focused on the role that race plays in an eyewitness's decision making strategy when viewing simultaneous police lineups. Eye tracking methodology was used to analyze eye movements and fixations while viewing lineups that were of either same or other-race faces. Results indicate that other-race lineups elicit a higher number of return visits compared to same-race lineups. These findings indicate relative judgments may be used more when viewing other-race lineups. Implications for face processing, the cross race effect, and police practice are discussed.

Year of Submission

2010

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Department of Psychology

First Advisor

Otto H. MacLin

Second Advisor

M. Kimberly MacLin

Third Advisor

Andrew R. Gilpin

Comments

If you are the rightful copyright holder of this thesis and wish to have it removed from the Open Access Collection, please submit a request to scholarworks@uni.edu and include clear identification of the work, preferably with URL.

Date Original

2024

Object Description

1 PDF file (35 leaves)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

Included in

Psychology Commons

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