Abstract
In the historically well-known case of Teigin 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 Teigin Jiken, 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.
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