Methods, Measures, and Theories in Eyewitness Identification Tasks

Methods, Measures, and Theories in Eyewitness Recognition Tasks provides a comprehensive review of the fundamental issues surrounding eyewitness recognition phenomena alongside suggestions for developing a more methodologically rigorous eyewitness science.

Over the past 40 years, the field of eyewitness science has seen substantial advancement in eyewitness identification procedures, yet theoretical and methodological developments have fallen behind. Featuring contributions from prominent international scholars, this book examines methodological and theoretical limitations and explores important topics, including how to increase the accuracy of identifying perpetrators when using CCTV images, how to create more identifiable facial composites, and the differences in accuracy between younger and older eyewitnesses.

Providing in-depth discussion on the limitations of traditional lineups, eyewitness memory fallibility, and the complications that arise when using laboratory simulations, along with suggestions for new methods, this book will be an invaluable resource for researchers in eyewitness recognition, lawyers, players in the criminal justice system, members of innocence commissions, and researchers with interests in cognitive psychology.

Andrew M. Smith is Assistant Professor of Psychology at Iowa State University. Andrew’s research on eyewitness memory has been published in several top psychology outlets and has attracted funding from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and the National Science Foundation.

Michael P. Toglia is Human Development Professor at Cornell University. His extensive publications on adult cognition topics and lifespan themes in eyewitness memory include 11 books, most recently The Elderly Eyewitness in Court. Toglia is a Fulbright Scholar and a Fellow in several professional societies, including APA’s Division 41, Psychology and the Law.

James Michael Lampinen is Distinguished Professor of Psychological Science at the University of Arkansas. Dr. Lampinen’s work focuses on applications of basic research on memory and face perception to legal issues including eyewitness identification, missing and wanted persons, and forensic age progression. He is author of two books, The Psychology of Eyewitness Identification, and Memory 101.His work has been funded by grants from the National Science Foundation and the Laura and John Arnold Foundation.