The Emergence of an Own-Gender Bias Within a Change Blindness and Eyewitness Paradigm

<p>Studies exploring the change blindness phenomenon have consistently shown that individuals are surprisingly poor at detecting changes to visual scenes and identities in real-world interactions. The area of eyewitness identification has revealed a similar type of visual processing error; specifically, the tendency for eyewitnesses to incorrectly identify a perpetrator. Recently, researchers have attempted to merge these two areas, creating a combined change blindness/eyewitness paradigm, allowing for the study of variables of similar interest within the two areas. Using this type of combined paradigm, the present study explored the possibility of an own-gender bias within a change blindness/eyewitness experience. Participants viewed a video of a simulated house burglary, with the identity of the burglar changing halfway through the film. To assess for gender bias, two videos were created: one with two female burglars and one with two male burglars. After viewing the video, 144 participants were given a photo lineup and asked to identify the correct burglar. Contrary to what was expected, an own-gender bias failed to emerge in both change detection and identification accuracy. Implications for change blindness and eyewitness misidentification are further discussed.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Year

2009

Author dc:creator

• Finstad, Alison E.

• Psychology

Repository record dc:identifier

https://commons.und.edu/theses/897

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:commons.und.edu:theses-1899