Keywords
dunning kruger effect
confidence accuracy
self-perception
How to Cite
Abstract
Using a quantitative approach, this study examines the confidence accuracy relationship of eyewitness memory and observation skills and explores the relationship between self-perception and accuracy (The Dunning Kruger Effect). The present study has three purposes. The first purpose is to highlight the importance of understanding one's limitations and self-assessment abilities to ensure effective training and preparedness for high-stress situations of a police officer. The second purpose is to show that eyewitness memory accounts in consequential settings such as court should not rely on confidence as an indicator of accuracy. The third purpose is to show that eyewitness accounts of police officers are not always more correct than those of civilians. Using Humber College’s Conflict Resolution FAAC Digital Simulator, 18 subjects (17 students and 1 police officer) were assigned to take part in a virtual, pre-recorded simulation experiment. Participants’ confidence in observation skills and their eyewitness memory abilities were assessed. Results found no correlation between confidence and accuracy in eyewitness memory, though it revealed that people can be extremely confident in their wrong answers, demonstrating that confidence is not always a good indicator of accuracy. Despite assumptions that police officers make better eyewitnesses, findings include that there was no significant difference in memory abilities between the police officer and Humber students.
References
Adams, B. D. (2005). Trust vs. confidence. Defence Research and Development Canada-Toronto.
Christianson, S. Å. (1992). Emotional stress and eyewitness memory: a critical review. Psychological Bulletin, 112(2), 284.
DeCarlo, J. C. (2010). A study comparing the eyewitness accuracy of police officers and citizens (Vol. 71, Issue 12). ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.
Krajc, M., & Ortmann, A. (2008). Are the unskilled really that unaware? An alternative explanation. Journal of Economic Psychology, 29(5), 724–738. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joep.2007.12.006.
Kruger, J., & Dunning, D. (1999). Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77(6), 1121–1134. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.77.6.1121.
Loftus, E. F., Loftus, G. R., & Messo, J. (1987). Some Facts About “Weapon Focus.” Law and Human Behavior, 11(1), 55–62. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01044839.
Muller, A., Sirianni, L. A., & Addante, R. J. (2021). Neural correlates of the Dunning–Kruger effect. The European Journal of Neuroscience, 53(2), 460–484. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejn.14935.
Perfect, T. J. (2004). The role of self‐rated ability in the accuracy of confidence judgements in eyewitness memory and general knowledge. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 18(2), 157-168.
Perfect, T. J., Watson, E. L., & Wagstaff, G. F. (1993). Accuracy of confidence ratings associated with general knowledge and eyewitness memory. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78(1), 144.
Qaderi, A., Alexandre, L., & Thomson, D. (2016). Academic Integrity: The Fool’s Dilemma. International Journal for Digital Society, 7(2). https://doi.org/10.20533/ijds.2040.2570.2016.0142
Schlösser, T., Dunning, D., Johnson, K. L., & Kruger, J. (2013). How unaware are the unskilled? Empirical tests of the “signal extraction” counter explanation for the Dunning–Kruger effect in self-evaluation of performance. Journal of Economic Psychology, 39, 85–100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joep.2013.07.004.
Spearing, E. R., & Wade, K. A. (2022). Long retention intervals impair the confidence–accuracy relationship for eyewitness recall. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition.
Vredeveldt, A., & van Koppen, P. J. (2016). The Thin Blue Line-Up: Comparing Eyewitness Performance by Police and Civilians. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 5(3), 252–256. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jarmac.2016.06.013.
Wise, R. A., Sartori, G., Magnussen, S., & Safer, M. A. (2014). An examination of the causes and solutions to eyewitness error. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 5, 93346.
Zhou, X., & Jenkins, R. (2020). Dunning–Kruger effects in face perception. Cognition, 203, 104345.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.