Rebecca Ying

This experiment was designed to examine how viewing conditions could affect witnesses' vulnerability to suggestive influence. It was predicted that when the encoding conditions were stronger, accurate witnesses would be less likely to shift their decisions when prompted to reexamine the lineup, and that confirming feedback would effectively solidify influenced identifications. Participants ( N = 411) watched a simulated‐crime from two different viewing distances and were asked to identify the culprit from a photographic lineup. After voicing their identification decisions, participants were prompted to reexamine the lineup. Half the participants then received confirming‐feedback for their decisions. Twelve‐minutes later, witnesses viewed the same lineup and were asked again to identify the culprit. As predicted, accurate witnesses were less likely to shift their identification decisions when prompted to reexamine the lineup in the close, but not the far viewing condition. Also, shifted identification decisions that were reinforced with confirming feedback were asserted with higher confidence.