Verbal, visual, and voice identification of a rape suspect under different levels of illumination

Abstract

To investigate eyewitness testimony, 64 male and 64 female undergraduates observed a slide and voice tape presentation of sexual assault and implied rape of a female victim by a male assailant under 1 of 4 simulated illumination conditions: daylight, start of twilight, end of twilight, and night vision. Ss were tested for free recall and judgments of self-accuracy and completeness, cued-recall and certainty of recall, visual identification, voice identification, and subjective confidence in identification performance. Three of the general guidelines articulated by the US Supreme Court ( Neil v. Biggers, 1972) for the determination of eyewitness accuracy were tested. Support was found for Principle 1 (i.e., the opportunity of the witness to view the criminal at the time of the crime); however, little support was found for either Principle 3 (the accuracy of the witness's prior description of the criminal) or Principle 4 (the level of certainty demonstrated by the witness at the time of confrontation) as important predictors of eyewitness accuracy. Results also show that Ss did not allocate greater attention and memory for voice identification as the quality of visual observation conditions declined. Few reliable memory differences between males and females were found, although males indicated greater certainty in cued recall. (24 ref) (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)