What Change Blindness Can Teach Us About Skilled Observation: A Law Enforcement and Student Comparison
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University of Dayton / OhioLINK
2014
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| Online Access: | http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=dayton1398933046 |
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ndltd-OhioLink-oai-etd.ohiolink.edu-dayton13989330462021-08-03T06:24:19Z What Change Blindness Can Teach Us About Skilled Observation: A Law Enforcement and Student Comparison Smart, Shannon Psychology Cognitive Psychology change blindness law enforcement police photo lineup identification observation errors attention errors mistaken identity Although it is often assumed that law enforcement officers possess acute observational skills due to their expertise and training, perhaps resulting in a reduction in attentional errors (e.g., change blindness), no prior research has compared officers with a lay sample on this phenomenon. In the current investigation, students and law enforcement agents participated in a change blindness task and attempted to identify the target(s) from four photo lineups. Law enforcement officers (n = 61) and college students (n = 40) viewed a videotaped, mock traffic stop in which the identity of the driver was changed. Officers and students were equally susceptible to change blindness regarding the switch in the target's identity, but students were more likely than officers to detect changes in the target's clothing. Students also performed better on the lineup task, overall, than officers. Additionally, whereas students' confidence was positively correlated with identification accuracy under some circumstances, officers' confidence was either uncorrelated or negatively correlated with accuracy. Years of experience in police work did not account for any differences in the law enforcement sample. This comparison suggests that change blindness and mistaken identity are common attentional errors, perhaps even in situations involving specialized familiarity (i.e., a traffic stop is well within the professional domain of law enforcement officers). The findings of the current study also demonstrate the importance of continued research into law enforcement training and have practical implications for examinations of eyewitness identifications. 2014-06-06 English text University of Dayton / OhioLINK http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=dayton1398933046 http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=dayton1398933046 unrestricted This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws. |
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NDLTD |
| language |
English |
| sources |
NDLTD |
| topic |
Psychology Cognitive Psychology change blindness law enforcement police photo lineup identification observation errors attention errors mistaken identity |
| spellingShingle |
Psychology Cognitive Psychology change blindness law enforcement police photo lineup identification observation errors attention errors mistaken identity Smart, Shannon What Change Blindness Can Teach Us About Skilled Observation: A Law Enforcement and Student Comparison |
| author |
Smart, Shannon |
| author_facet |
Smart, Shannon |
| author_sort |
Smart, Shannon |
| title |
What Change Blindness Can Teach Us About Skilled Observation: A Law Enforcement and Student Comparison |
| title_short |
What Change Blindness Can Teach Us About Skilled Observation: A Law Enforcement and Student Comparison |
| title_full |
What Change Blindness Can Teach Us About Skilled Observation: A Law Enforcement and Student Comparison |
| title_fullStr |
What Change Blindness Can Teach Us About Skilled Observation: A Law Enforcement and Student Comparison |
| title_full_unstemmed |
What Change Blindness Can Teach Us About Skilled Observation: A Law Enforcement and Student Comparison |
| title_sort |
what change blindness can teach us about skilled observation: a law enforcement and student comparison |
| publisher |
University of Dayton / OhioLINK |
| publishDate |
2014 |
| url |
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=dayton1398933046 |
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