Date of Conferral

2020

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Psychology

Advisor

Jerrod Brown

Abstract

For many years, psychologists and other social scientists have investigated the influence of postidentification verbal feedback on eyewitnesses’ identifications. However, the purpose of this study was to examine if the impact of nonverbal postidentification feedback cues on eyewitnesses’ confidence level can have the same effect as verbal postidentification feedback. The postidentification feedback effect has been well documented in regards to verbal feedback. The research questions for this study examined what effects on eyewitnesses’ confidence level that positive and negative nonverbal feedback would have. Participants (N=66) were selected at random from a local park and placed into one treatment group (positive, negative or no nonverbal feedback). Two separate questionnaires were completed by the participants and measured using a Likert scale. To conduct this quantitative study a mixed ANOVA was done to see the relationships between and within the pretreatment and posttreatment groups. The results indicate that there was a significant change in eyewitnesses’ confidence level after receiving the corresponding feedback. This indicates that an eyewitness can also be influenced by post identification feedback using nonverbal cues. Recommendations are made for ways of improving the lineup administration and other eyewitness identification processes to address common concerns associated with the current procedures and best practices. These findings can contribute to positive social change in law enforcement departments self-assessing their policy and procedures. This can also lead to less bias and suggestibility within the entire criminal justice system.

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