Earwitness identification: an examination of scenario, lineup type and gender as factors in identification accuracy.

Abstract

The current study was conducted examining the effects of scenario type, lineup type and target gender in regard to earwitness identification accuracy. Two hundred and forty participants listened to one of the three possible scenarios (criminal, neutral, controversial), and were asked to identify either a male or a female perpetrator Participants completed the State Trait Anxiety Inventory during the retention interval, which lasted roughly five minutes. Afterwards they were asked to identify either the male or female voice from a five-voice lineup. Voice lineups were presented either simultaneously or sequentially. Participants were less accurate at identifying the male voice compared to the female voice in both present and absent lineups. Participants were also more accurate at identifying the target voice in the present simultaneous condition compared to the sequential condition. All other conditions were found to be non-significant. These findings help advance the field and understand the variables such as lineup, gender and scenario.