Can the effectiveness of eyewitness expert testimony be improved?

Abstract

For over 35years, scholars have searched with little success for a legal safeguard that can sensitize jurors to eyewitness testimony. The present study explored whether expert testimony that uses the I-I-Eye method of analyzing eyewitness testimony can improve juror sensitivity to eyewitness evidence. Participants read a trial transcript with no expert testimony, standard expert testimony or expert testimony that used the I-I-Eye method. The two transcripts for the three expert groups had either strong or weak eyewitness testimony. Unlike the control participants, the I-I-Eye expert participants rendered significantly more guilty verdicts in the strong than in the weak case. The standard expert testimony did not affect verdicts even though it increased participants’ knowledge of the eyewitness factors. It appears that the I-I-Eye method improved sensitivity because it not only increased participants’ knowledge of eyewitness factors, but also explained how to use that knowledge in assessing eyewitness accuracy.