Date of Award

5-10-2026

Date Published

June 2026

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Advisor(s)

Dan Corral

Subject Categories

Cognitive Psychology | Psychology | Social and Behavioral Sciences

Abstract

Eyewitness identification is fundamentally a recognition memory task, yet the field has historically been disconnected from broader memory research. The present dissertation bridges this gap by applying foundational recognition memory principles, including list length effects, encoding strength, output interference, and retention interval, to eyewitness lineup identification across three experiments. Using signal detection theory (SDT) as a theoretical framework, discriminability was assessed through both theoretical (d′) and empirical (AUC) measures, alongside positive predictive value (PPV) and confidence-accuracy calibration analyses. Experiment 1 employed a 4 × 3 × 3 factorial design (n = 181) to examine the effects of lineup size, encoding strength, and retention interval on sequential lineup performance. Results confirmed significant main effects of all three variables on discriminability, with 3-person lineups producing the highest empirical discriminability. Experiment 2 used a 2× 2 × 2 design (n = 82) to examine interactions among these variables, revealing thatencoding strength amplified the discriminability advantage of smaller lineups. PPV wasnot invariant across encoding strength conditions, though it remained stable acrossretention intervals. Experiment 3 (n = 174) compared simultaneous lineups, sequentiallineups with and without a stopping rule, and a novel merged procedure combiningsequential and simultaneous elements. Simultaneous lineups yielded the highestempirical discriminability, while the merged procedure approached comparableperformance and enabled meaningful error correction through recanting behavior. Together, these findings support the integration of memory theory into eyewitness research, validate confidence as a diagnostic tool, and highlight the promise of hybrid lineup formats for improving identification accuracy.

Access

Open Access

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