Mug Shot Exposure Prior to Lineup Identification: Interference, Transference, and Commitment Effects

• Published in: Journal of applied psychology 2001-12, Vol.86 (6), p.1280-1284
• Main Authors: Dysart, Jennifer E, Lindsay, R. C. L, Hammond, Robin, Dupuis, Paul
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Accuracy; Adult; Applied psychology; Biological and medical sciences; Crime; Criminals; Criminology; Decision Making; Effects; Episodic Memory; Facial expressions; Female; Forensic psychiatry; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Human; Humans; Identification; Identity parades; Interference (Learning); Legal Evidence; Male; Medical sciences; Offenders; Photographic archives; Portraits as Topic; Psychological aspects; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Random Allocation; Social attribution, perception and cognition; Social psychology; Studies; Transference; Transference (Psychology); Visual Perception; Witnesses
• ISSN: 0021-9010; 1939-1854
• DOI: 10.1037/0021-9010.86.6.1280

The effects of viewing mug shots on subsequent identification performance are as yet unclear. Two experiments used a live staged-crime paradigm to determine if interpolated eyewitness exposure to mug shots caused interference, unconscious transference, or commitment effects influencing subsequent lineup accuracy. Experiment 1 ( N = 104) tested interference effects. Similar correct decision rates were obtained for the mug shot and no mug shot groups from both perpetrator-present and absent lineups. Experiment 2 ( N = 132) tested for commitment and transference effects. Results showed that the commitment group made significantly more incorrect identifications than either the control or the transference group, which had similar false-identification rates. Commitment effects present a serious threat to identification accuracy from lineups following mug shot searches.