title: Witnesses' blindness for their own facial recognition decisions: a field study.
abstract: In a field study, we examined choice blindness for eyewitnesses' facial recognition decisions. Seventy-one pedestrians were engaged in a conversation by two experimenters who pretended to be tourists in the center of a European city. After a short interval, pedestrians were asked to identify the two experimenters from separate simultaneous six-person photo lineups. Following each of the two forced-choice recognition decisions, they were confronted with their selection and asked to motivate their decision. However, for one of the recognition decisions, the chosen lineup member was exchanged with a previously unidentified member. Blindness for this identity manipulation occurred at the rate of 40.8%. Furthermore, the detection rate varied as a function of similarity (high vs. low) between the original choice and the manipulated outcome. Finally, choice manipulations undermined the confidence-accuracy relation for detectors to a greater degree than for blind participants. Stimulus ambiguity is discussed as a moderator of choice blindness.
authors.affiliation: Section Forensic Psychology, Department of Clinical Psychological Science, Maastricht University, P.O. Box 616, 6200, MD, Maastricht, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sagana
authors.forename: Melanie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sauerland
authors.forename: Harald
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Merckelbach
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D021641:Recognition, Psychology