ABSTRACT

Although eyewitness researchers have used mock-witness measures to assess aspects of lineup fairness, they have paid little attention to their validity. The current study tested predictive validity, convergent validity, and discriminant validity of mock-witness measures from a meta-analytic perspective. Overall, mock-witness measures had predictive validity, particularly in target-absent (TA) lineups – the lineup fairness estimated by the measures reliably predicted eyewitnesses’ choosing behaviors and discriminability of a suspect from fillers in TA lineups. However, correlations between lineup fairness estimated by mock-witnesses and eyewitness performance were significant in target-present (TP) lineups only when eyewitnesses had a moderate memory for the perpetrator. Multitrait-multimethod correlations demonstrated significant intradomain correlations between mock-witness measures and other lineup fairness indices and nonsignificant interdomain correlations between the mock-witness measures and indices reflecting memory strength for the perpetrator, which supported convergent validity and discriminant validity, respectively. The implications for research and practice are discussed.

摘要

尽管目击者研究人员已经使用模拟见证措施来评估阵容公平性的各个方面，但他们很少关注其有效性。目前的研究从元分析的角度测试了模拟见证测量的预测效度、收敛效度和区分效度。总体而言，模拟目击者测量具有预测有效性，特别是在目标缺失 (TA) 阵容中——通过测量估计的阵容公平性可靠地预测了目击者的选择行为以及嫌疑人与 TA 阵容中的填充物的区分能力。然而，只有当目击者对肇事者有适度的记忆时，模拟目击者估计的阵容公平性与目击者表现之间的相关性在目标呈现 (TP) 阵容中才显着。多特征-多方法相关性表明，模拟见证测量与其他阵容公平指数之间存在显着的域内相关性，而模拟见证测量与反映犯罪者记忆强度的指数之间存在不显着的域间相关性，分别支持收敛效度和区分效度。讨论了对研究和实践的影响。