ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses description of the basic structure of an eyewitness identification lineup. It considers three main sources of empirical evidence offered in support claims namely a target-to-foils shift when the target is removed from the lineup, witnesses self-reports regarding their decision processes and comparisons of unbiased and biased lineup instructions and simultaneous and sequential lineups. Much of the theorizing in eyewitness identification research has invoked dichotomous distinctions-that eyewitness identification decisions are based on absolute or relative judgments, automatic recognition or deliberative processes, true recognition or guessing. The distinction between absolute and relative judgments seems very compelling, and indeed it has provided the main theoretical framework for eyewitness identification research for decades. Regarding the oversimplification, eyewitness identification decisions are often described as if it is process-pure. The correlations between response time, self-reported decision strategies, and identification accuracy do not provide definitive evidence for the operation of different decision strategies.
