Remembering Better: Using Context to Improve Confidence in Eyewitness Accounts

Authors: Idan Pascal, Sky Liu

Field of Study: Psychology

Program Affiliation: SCALE

Faculty Mentors: Brittany Race

Easel: 23

Timeslot: Afternoon

Abstract: Eyewitness confidence plays a critical role in legal decision-making, yet it does not always reflect identification accuracy. One factor that may influence this relationship is post-identification context reinstatement (PICR), which involves re-exposing witnesses to contextual cues from the original event, after an identification decision. This study examined whether PICR improved the diagnostic value of eyewitness confidence following a delay. Participants viewed a video depicting a crime and completed a six person photo lineup that was either target-present or target-absent. After making an identification decision, half the participants left and returned in two days to complete the rest of the study. The other participants rated their confidence on a 0-100 scale. PICR was administered prior to confidence reporting while a control group proceeded without it. Preliminary findings suggest that PICR increased correct identifications without increasing incorrect identification, indicating that PICR may strengthen the relationship between confidence and accuracy after the delay.