Effects of integrative memorial and cognitive processes on the correspondence of eyewitness accuracy and confidence.

Reported correlations between accuracy and certainty of eyewitness identifications are sometimes positive, but equally often nil. Examination of theory and research in eyewitness, cognitive, and social psychology suggests that these discrepancies are due to differential instigation of integrative memorial and cognitive processes across eyewitness situations. These processes occur unconsciously and therefore may alter either memory or confidence independently of each other. As a result, accuracy-confidence correspondence should be inversely related to the extensiveness of reconstructive memory processes (which change memory but not confidence) and/or suggestive social influences (which change confidence but not memory). Noncorrespondence is expected when memory is altered by inconsistent information, a criminal stereotype, or a descriptive label of the suspect; or when confidence is altered by factors that promote commitment to testimony or trust in facial memory. It is suggested that police and lawyers avoid behaviors that facilitate these effects and that, along with jurors and possibly even witnesses, they be informed that confidence is often a poor index of accuracy.