title: [Expectancy effect in recognition of persons, or: on the tendency to corroborate perceptual hypotheses].
abstract: Two policemen who had been following and observing two young men for several hours appeared as witnesses in a criminal court case. They claimed that they had observed the young men from a distance of 375 meters putting concrete slabs onto a railway track. In order to determine whether person identification is possible at a distance of 375 meters, a field experiment was carried out. The results show that person identification at a distance of 375 meters is almost impossible. Any spontaneous identification with the naked eye is based on expectations. When using a pair of binoculars, identification is possible, but the rate of false alarms is higher than 60 percent. The results are discussed with reference to theories of perceptual and social psychology.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Psychologie und Kognitionsforschung, Universität Bremen.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stadler
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fabian
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D004215:Distance Perception; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D012718:Set, Psychology; D012926:Social Control, Formal; D012938:Social Perception
vernacular_title: Der Erwartungseffekt beim Wiedererkennen von Personen, oder: Uber die Tendenz, Wahrnehmungshypothesen zu bestätigen.