Self-study
Researchers investigating the accuracy of eyewitness accounts staged and made a video of a crime, and showed it to test subjects. █ ██████ ██ ███████████ ████ ██ ████ ███ ███ ██████ ███████ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ██████ ███ ████ █████ ██ ███ █████████ ████ ███ ████████ ████ ███ ████ ████ ███ ███████ █████ ███ ██ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ███████ ██ ████ █████████████ ███ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ███ █████████ ████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ ████ ██████████████████ ████ ████ ████ ████ ████ ███ ███████ █████ ███ ██ ██ ███ ███████
Summary
Researchers showed test subjects a video of a staged crime. A lineup of “suspects” was then shown to the test subjects. The person playing the criminal in the video was not in this lineup.
When the test subjects were not told that the suspect may not be in the lineup, most of them misidentified a person in the lineup as the suspect. When the test subjects were told that the suspect may not be in the lineup, less than half of them misidentified a person in the lineup as the criminal.
Strongly Supported Conclusions
When people expect to see someone in a lineup, they are more likely to think they see that person, even if the person is not actually present.
16.
Which one of the following ██ ████ ████████ █████████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██████
a
Eyewitnesses are no ████ ██████ ██ ██████████ ██████ █ ███████ ████ █ ██████ ████ ███ ██████ ███ ███ █████ ██ ████████ ██████ ███████████ ██ ███ ████████
This answer is unsupported. There was not a test group in the stimulus where people were given a verbal description of the suspect, so we can't make that comparison.
b
People tend to ████ ██ ███████ ███ ██████ ████████████ ██ █████ ███ ███ ████ ███ ████████████
This answer is unsupported. We don’t know from the stimulus whether the researchers stated to the test subjects an expectation that they would identify the suspect in the lineup.
c
When specifically directed ██ █ ██████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ████ █████████ ██ █████ █ █████ ██ ██████ ████ ██ ██ ████ ████ ██████ ████ ███████
This answer is unsupported. There's no indication in the stimulus that the researchers specifically directed the test subjects in this way.
d
People fail to █████████ ███ ████████ ████████████ █████ █ █████ ██ ██████ ██████ ████ ███ █████ ███████████ ██ ████████ ██ ██████ ██████
This answer is unsupported. We don’t know from the stimulus whether the test subjects failed to recognize any similarities between people.
e
People are less ██████ ██ █████ ████ ███ █████████ ████ ██ ███ ████████ ███████ ███ ████ ████ ██████ ██ ███ ███
This answer is strongly supported. This is a more general statement of the idea that expectations can lead to false perceptions. The study had fewer misidentifications when the subjects were informed that the suspect may not be present, i.e. when they had less of an expectation.