Lineup identification by children: effects of clothing bias.
This study examined effects of clothing cues on children's identification accuracy from lineups. Four- to 14-year-olds (n = 228) saw 12 video clips of individuals, each wearing a distinctly colored shirt. After watching each clip children were presented with a target-present or target-absent photo lineup. Three clothing conditions were included. In 2 conditions all lineup members wore the same colored shirt; in the third, biased condition, the shirt color of only one individual matched that seen in the preceding clip (the target in target-present trials and the replacement in target-absent trials). Correct identifications of the target in target-present trials were most frequent in the biased condition, whereas in target-absent trials the biased condition led to more false identifications of the target replacement. Older children were more accurate than younger children, both in choosing the target from target-present lineups and rejecting target-absent lineups. These findings suggest that a simple clothing cue such as shirt color can have a significant impact on children's lineup identification accuracy.
Freire
Alejo
A
Department of Psychology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. freirea@mcmaster.ca
Lee
Kang
K
Williamson
Karen S
KS
Stuart
Sarah J E
SJ
Lindsay
R C L
RC
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D003020:Clothing / Q000523:psychology*; D003415:Crime / Q000523:psychology*; D003416:Criminal Law / Q000379:methods*; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D011287:Prejudice; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D012938:Social Perception; D014796:Visual Perception