Date of Award

5-2014

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

College/School

College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Department/Program

Psychology

Thesis Sponsor/Dissertation Chair/Project Chair

Jason Dickinson

Committee Member

Peter Vietze

Committee Member

Anthony D’Urso

Abstract

Investigator bias is an ongoing problem in police interrogations and eyewitness identification. Recently, videotaping these processes has been suggested to combat this problem. Participants watched an eyewitness identification video depicting an interaction between an investigator and witness. Following the video the participants answered questions designed to tap observers’ perception of the lineup, the witness, and the investigator. Three variables were manipulated. Participants either saw a female or a male witness. Participants either saw a video with a biased or non-biased investigator. Participants viewed this interaction from one of three camera angles: witness focused, investigator focused, and equal focused. Results of this study provided evidence that observers are capable of recognizing investigator bias when present regardless of camera angle or witness gender.

File Format

PDF

Included in

Psychology Commons

Share

COinS