Unconscious Transference

1
Unconscious Transference

• Dwight J. Peterson
• Eyewitness Identification Seminar
• University of Northern Iowa

2
Unconscious Transference

• Definition
• Identifying a innocent foil, who is familiar from
  some context, instead of the actual perpetrator
• Different from identifying any old foil face from
  the lineup?
• Unfortunately, yes, this phenomenon presents yet
  another problem with eyewitness IDs

3
Transference Effect
Joe

• I see Joe steal a car
• Police show up
• I am the witness to the crime
• Cops have no one in custody
• I see Tom while flipping through a mugshot book
  at the police station
• Later on, Im given the following lineup

Tom
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Transference Effect

• What happens if I pick number 4?
• What happens if number 4 (Tom) has two priors for
  grand theft auto?

5
History

• Glanville Williams (1955)
• Coined the term
• Houts (1956)
• The sailor and the ticket agent
• Elizabeth Loftus (1976)
• Pioneer study of the UT effect
• TA lineup 60 chose previously viewed
  bystander
• Thompson (1988)
• Rape victim confusion related to source of
  familiarity

6
Associated Problems

• Mugshot books
• Different context, but familiarity remains
• Lineups after mugshots increased probability
  for misidentification
• Innocent bystanders
• Same context, retrieve and identify innocent face
  from lineup

7
Theories

• Source monitoring errors
• Distinguishing between memory sources
• Automatic processing
• Implicit Memory
• Infer identity at encoding or retrieval
• Conscious Inference
• Read et al., (1990)

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Source Monitoring

• External
• Based on sensory experience and subsequent
  perception
• Internal
• Based on thoughts, feelings
• Easier to distinguish between one internal and
  one external memory
• Reality Monitoring Harder to distinguish between
  two external (or two internal) memories
• Lindsay Johnson (1989)

9
Automatic Processes

• Remembering old non-famous names as famous
• Jacoby, Kelly, Brown, Jasechko (1989)
• Familiarity without recognition
• Jacoby, Woloshyn, Kelley (1989)
• Automatic processing of faces may lead to
  familiarity without conscious attention to
  features necessary for differentiation

10
Conscious Inference

• Retrieval
• Bystander does not come into play until the
  lineup is presented
• Read et al., (1990)
• Encoding
• Ross et al., (1994)
• Erroneously thinking the bystander is the
  assailant while encoding the crime, and later
  thinking they are one in the same

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Differentiating Between Bystander and Perpetrator

• One in the same?
• TA-lineups increase transference
• Lineups with BOTH the bystander and perpetrator
  cause a different type of trouble for
  transference participants
• Awareness that the two are DIFFERENT decreases
  transference
• Ross et al., (1994) (Experiment 2)
• Phillips, Geiselman, Haghighi, Lin (1997)

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Evidence for Unconscious Transference

• Loftus (1976)
• Read et al., (1990) Experiment 5
• View conscious inference as occuring at retrieval
  
• Ross et al., (1994) Experiments 1, 2, 3, 4
• Evidence for conscious inference at encoding
• Experiments 3 4 manipulated encoding
• Found conscious inference was made soon after
  viewing the portion of video displaying the crime

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Meta-analysis

• Deffenbacher, Bornstein, Penrod (2006)
• Mainly a review of problems with mugshots
• Commitment effects
• Retroactive Interference
• Unconscious Transference
• Effect size twice as large for studies looking at
  the mugshot exposure compared to studies looking
  at exposure to an innocent bystander

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Memory and Mugshot Books

• Commitment effects pose a problem
• Dysart, Lindsay, Hammond, Dupuis (2001)
• Found greater inaccuracy rates for commitment
  group (Experiment 2)
• No difference between control conditions and
  transference conditions (Experiment 2)

15
Other Related Issues

• Older participants
• Higher misidentification rates for younger facial
  stimuli
• More errors related to identity confusion for
  older participants
• Perfect Harris (2003)
• Other-race faces and context memory
• More errors for which context (background) a face
  was observed for African American faces
• Horry Wright (2008)

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A Recent Theory

• Unconscious transference as a type of change
  blindness?
• Davis, Loftus, Vanous, Cucciare, (2008)
• Illusions of continuity
• Levin Simons (2000)
• Continuous vs. Discontinuous Innocent
• Misidentification rates higher for the CI

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What do you think?

• Is the evidence for unconscious transference
  compelling enough to attempt policy suggestions
  or even worthy of mention in court by expert
  witnesses?
• Does talking about this phenomenon decrease the
  credibility of the expert witness?
• What about Kassin, et als (2001) position on
  reliable evidence?

18
Thank You!

• Any comments or constructive criticism you may
  have regarding this presentation would be greatly
  appreciated!

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References

• Davis, D., Loftus, E. F., Vanous, S., Cucciare,
  M. (2008). Unconscious transference can be an
  instance of change blindness. Applied Cognitive
  Psychology, 22, 605-623.
• Deffenbacher, K. A., Bornstein, B. H., Penrod,
  S. D. (2006). Mugshot exposure effects
  Retroactive interference, mugshot commitment,
  source confusion, and unconscious transference.
  Law and Human Behavior, 30, 287-307.
• Dysart, J. E., Lindsay, R. C. L., Hammond, R.,
  Dupuis, P. (2001). Mugshot exposure prior to
  lineup identification Interference,
  transference, and commitment effects. Journal of
  Applied Psychology, 86, 1280-1284.
• Geiselman, R. E., Haghighi, R., Stown, Ronna
  (1996). Unconscious transference and
  characteristics of accurate and inaccurate
  eyewitnesses. Psychology, Crime, and Law, 2,
  197-209.
• Horry, R., Wright, D. B. (2008). I know your
  face but not where I saw you Context memory is
  impaired for other-race faces. Psychonomic
  Bulletin Review, 15, 610-614.
• Kassin, S. M., Tubb, V. A., Hosch, H. M.,
  Memon, A. (2001). On the general acceptance of
  eyewitness testimony research. American
  Psychologist, 56, 405-416.
• Loftus, E. F. (1976). Unconscious transference in
  eyewitness identification. Law and Psychology
  Review, 2, 93-98.
• Perfect, T. J., Harris, L. J. (2003). Adult age
  differences in unconscious transference Source
  confusion or identity blending? Memory
  Cognition, 31, 570-580.
• Phillips, M. R., Geiselman, R. E., Haghighi, D.,
  Lin, C. (1997). Some boundary conditions for
  bystander misidentifications. Criminal Justice
  and Behavior, 24, 370-390.
• Read, D. J., Tollestrup, P., Hammersley, R.,
  McFadzen, E., et al. (1990). The unconscious
  transference effect Are innocent bystanders ever
  misidentified? Applied Cognitive Psychology, 4,
  3-31.
• Ross, D. F., Ceci, S. J., Dunning, D., Toglia,
  M. P. (1994). Unconscious transference and
  mistaken identity When a witness misidentifies a
  familiar but innocent person. Journal of Applied
  Psychology, 79, 918-930.