The Effect of Repeated Photographic Identification and Time Delay on the Accuracy of the Final Photographic Identification and the Rating of Memory

Abstract

Makiko Naka, the editor of this issue, is a cognitive and developmental psychologist in Japan. She is an associate professor of Tokyo Metropolitan University. She has a broad interest in memory and language and has published papers in English and Japanese on eyewitness testimony, mother-child communication, and effect of writing on memory, Her main research interest now is eyewitness testimony and child interviews. Itsukushima Yukio is a cognitive psychologist in Japan. He is a professor of Nihon University in Tokyo. He studies the impact of emotion on memory performance in the context of eyewitness identification. Yuji ltoh is a cognitive psychologist in Japan. He is a professor at Keio University in Tokyo. He is interested in memory for faces, and studies the verbal overshadowing effect on face recognition. Satoshi Hara is a forensic psychologist in Japan. He is a professor at Surugadai University in Saitama. His research interest is the contentbased criteria analysis of testimony and confession. ABSTRACTIn the historically well-krrown case of Teiyirr Jiken (the case of imperial Bank), eyewitnesses were presented with a large number of photos repeatedly, during a six-month investigation, before they finally identified a suspect. In this paper, by partially modelling their study on the investigation after Teigiu liken, the authors examine the possibly negative effect of repeated photo identification (RPI) and time delay on memory for a face, and subjects' ratings of the state of memory and confidence. Undergraduates participated in a staged event followed by a delay with or without RPI, and then the final photo identification. The results showed a cumulative effect of RPI and time delay. In particular, subjects with RPI were less accurate in the final photo identification, and their ratings of the state Of memory and confidence were less calibrated to accuracy.