Feeling the future of eyewitness research

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose. The data were presented at the 2020 meeting of the Psychonomic Society. This study was supported by a grant from Arnold Ventures. The funding source had no role other than financial support.Peer reviewe

Filler siphoning theory does not predict the effect of lineup fairness on the ability to discriminate innocent from guilty suspects : reply to Smith, Wells, Smalarz, and Lampinen

Smith, Wells, Smalarz, and Lampinen (2017) claim that we (Colloff, Wade, & Strange, 2016) were wrong to conclude that fair lineups enhanced people’s ability to discriminate between innocent and guilty suspects compared to unfair lineups. They argue our results reflect differential-filler-siphoning, not diagnostic-feature-detection. But a manipulation that decreases identifications of innocent suspects more than guilty suspects (i.e., that increases filler-siphoning or conservative responding) does not necessarily increase people’s ability to discriminate between innocent and guilty suspects. Unlike diagnostic-feature-detection, fillersiphoning does not make a prediction about people’s ability to discriminate between innocent and guilty suspects. Moreover, we replicated Colloff et al.’s results in the absence of fillersiphoning (N=2,078). Finally, a model is needed to measure ability to discriminate between innocent and guilty suspects. Smith et al.’s model-based analysis contained several errors. Correcting those errors shows that our model was not faulty, and Smith et al.’s model supports our original conclusions

Evaluating Case Attrition along the Medico-Legal Case Referral Pathway for Sexual and Domestic Violence Survivors in Kenya:A Secondary Data Analysis

Case attrition along the medico-legal referral pathway for sexual and domestic violence survivors has drawn attention worldwide. Despite much research about the prevalence of sexual and domestic violence in Kenya, little is known about factors impacting progress through the medico-legal referral pathway. To address this research gap, we analyzed data from the Wangu Kanja Foundation, based in Nairobi, to test which key case characteristics have explanatory power in predicting case progression. We used a sequential logit model to evaluate case progression as a series of distinct choices. Our analysis revealed that age of the survivor was the strongest predictor for all steps of the pathway, and that the presence of forensic evidence was also associated with increased odds of moving through each step. These findings reflect cultural ideas about what legitimizes a case of sexual or domestic violence and can be used to inform policy targeted at strengthening the case referral pathway in Kenya.</p

Child witness expressions of certainty are informative

Peer reviewe

Determining water requirements for Black Box (Eucalyptus largiflorens) floodplain woodlands of high conservation value using drip-irrigation

Black Box (Eucalyptus largiflorens F. Muell.), is a keystone tree species of lowland semi-arid floodplain ecosystems in south-eastern Australia. E. largiflorens woodlands are of high conservation value and threatened by climate change-induced drought and irrigation water diversions due to their location on upper floodplain areas where flood frequency has declined. Water requirements of E. largiflorens have not been well quantified using empirical data. Accordingly, knowledge gaps exist in relation to volumes of environmental water required to maintain and improve ecological condition for disconnected floodplain woodlands. To further assist conservation and water resource management, we tested the use of drip irrigation to provide a variety of water regimes to experimental plots in order to monitor tree responses. Water was provided via irrigation delivery across four regimes representing known volumes of water, referred to as an environmental water provision, applied over a 22-week period for two Austral summers. Benefits to trees were identified by measuring transpiration and plant water status using sap flow sensors and a Scholander pressure chamber, respectively. Results indicate that volumes of 0.3, 0.4, 0.7 and 0.8 ML increased transpiration and improved plant water status in comparison to a control, with delivery recommended to commence early autumn. Greater volumes (1.4 ML), substantially increased transpiration and improved water status, especially when delivered at a rate of similar to 25 mm week(-1) compared to a monthly 'burst' which broadly represented natural, sporadic summer rainfall in the region. For an environmental watering provision of 25 mm week(-1), similar to 178 ha of E. largiflorens woodland can be watered with a 1 GL environmental water allocation. The study methods presented are relevant worldwide and our results further the collective understanding of the benefits environmental water provides to E. largiflorens.The authors gratefully acknowledge funding from the BiodiversityFund of the South Australian Murray-Darling Basin Natural ResourceManagement Board. We thank Riverland West Landcare and RebeccaTurner for their support and assistance; Treasury Wine Estates PtyLtd for provision of environmental water and for establishing andmaintaining the drip irrigation, led by Brendan Turner; Kelly Marsland(MDBA) and Kate Holland (CSIRO Land and Water, Adelaide) foradvice on experimental design; Kate Frahn (SARDI) and JodiePritchard (CSIRO) for field assistance; Martin Nolan and Sultan Umoru(CSIRO Land and Water, Adelaide) for GIS assistanc

Perpetrator pose reinstatement during a lineup test increases discrimination accuracy

Peer reviewe

Performance of typical and superior face recognisers on a novel interactive face matching procedure

Unfamiliar simultaneous face matching is error prone. Reducing incorrect identification decisions will positively benefit forensic and security contexts. The absence of view-independent information in static images likely contributes to the difficulty of unfamiliar face matching. We tested whether a novel interactive viewing procedure that provides the user with 3D structural information as they rotate a facial image to different orientations would improve face matching accuracy. We tested the performance of ‘typical’ (Experiment 1) and ‘superior’ (Experiment 2) face recognisers, comparing their performance using high quality (Experiment 3) and pixelated (Experiment 4) Facebook profile images. In each trial, participants responded whether two images featured the same person with one of these images being either a static face, a video providing orientation information, or an interactive image. Taken together, the results show that fluid orientation information and interactivity prompt shifts in criterion and support matching performance. Because typical and superior face recognisers both benefited from the structural information provided by the novel viewing procedures, our results point to qualitatively similar reliance on pictorial encoding in these groups. This also suggests that interactive viewing tools can be valuable in assisting face matching in high performing practitioner groups