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Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications

Table 3 Predictions derived from DFT as represented in Table 2

From: Testing encoding specificity and the diagnostic feature-detection theory of eyewitness identification, with implications for showups, lineups, and partially disguised perpetrators

  Discriminability prediction Theoretical basis Figure
Main effects 1) Full target > internal target Face processing literature 2
  2) Match > mismatch Encoding specificity 3
  3) Lineups > showups DFT 4
  4) Full face(s) at retrieval > internal face(s) at retrieval DFT 5
Simple effects 5) Full-full > full-internal Encoding specificity 6
  6) Internal-internal > internal-full Encoding specificity 6
  7) Internal-internal showup > internal-full showup Encoding specificity 7
  8) Full-full showup > full-internal showup Encoding specificity 7
  9) Full-full lineup > full-internal lineup Encoding specificity 8
  *10) Internal-internal lineup ≥ internal-full lineup DFT 8
  1. DFT = Diagnostic feature-detection theory; *The ≥ symbol here represents the fact that we expect these two conditions to be either equivalent or with a small discriminability advantage for Internal-Internal. However, critically, we expect this difference (if significant), to be weaker than for the other match versus mismatch predictions. This expectation is due to an assumed DFT process of discounting of non-diagnostic information, which should occur for lineups and not for showups. According to DFT, discounting of non-diagnostic information in lineups boosts discriminability, which we expect to either bring Internal-Full Lineup up to the level of Internal-Internal Lineup, or at least closer than for showups
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