Factors that influence earwitness confidence
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Date
2018-12
Authors
Thiessen, Kelly
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Abstract
Researchers have examined the reliability of eyewitness testimony, but earwitness testimony has not received the same attention. The purpose of the current study was to examine whether biases exist that influence earwitness confidence regarding their target selection in a lineup. In this study, participants listened to a recording of a conversation (criminal, neutral, or vulnerable), completed a filler task, and then rated their confidence that each voice was the target in a six-voice lineup. The voices in the lineup varied in pitch (high, medium, and low) and in emotion (emotional or monotone). When the target voice was present in the lineup, participants reported the highest confidence in the target voice when there was a match in pitch and emotion, especially in the criminal context compared to the neutral or vulnerable contexts. In target-absent lineups, participants’ confidence ratings for the lineup voices were influenced by a voice frequency heuristic such that participants were least confident in high-pitched voices in the criminal content condition and low-pitched voices in the vulnerable content condition. Confidence ratings also negatively correlated with response time. It is suggested that emotion, content, and pitch should be controlled for in future earwitness research.
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Keywords
Earwitness testimony, Confidence, Voice pitch, Conversation content, Emotion, Response time, Voice identification