Change blindness and the sequential lineup: age-related comparisons

Abstract

Change blindness (CB) refers to a lack of awareness regarding changes that occur within our environment. Recently, CB has been discussed as a potential factor that increases false eyewitness identifications when one’s view of the culprit is obstructed. CB has not been studied in a forensic setting with seniors. Furthermore, past CB research has failed to consider how an alternative procedure to the simultaneous lineup may affect false identifications due to CB. In this study, a sample of young adults (n = 90) and seniors (n = 90) viewed one of two mock-theft videos where the culprit changed (CB video) or did not change (control video) during the video. To address identification, culprit-present and culprit-absent sequential lineups were used. Results indicated that 28.9% of young adults and 37.8% of seniors displayed CB (p = .46), but surprisingly, it was not found that CB affected their identification accuracy. Findings are presented in terms of the potential benefits of the sequential lineup in reducing the effects of CB.