title: Lineup identification by children: effects of clothing bias.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. freirea@mcmaster.ca
authors.forename: Alejo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Freire
authors.forename: Kang
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Karen S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Williamson
authors.forename: Sarah J E
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Stuart
authors.forename: R C L
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Lindsay
mesh_terms: 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