RETHINKING RELIANCE ON EYEWITNESS CONFIDENCE

[...] because of the occurrence of confirmatory feedback over the course of an investigation, the relationship between confidence and accuracy is likely to gel weaker, rather than stronger, before trial. In a recently published study involving 14 witnesses to an actual anneri robbery, the findings again supported the general scientific conclusion thai witness confidence is noi a reliable predictor ol' accuracy of recall.1 In that study, the witness's recollections were checked against store video cameras that recorded the entire event.\n Thal is. unlike the oilier four elements of lie Biggen lest, the eyewitness's degree of certainty can be recorded only after the suggestive procedure has been used. [...] lile degree of cenai my can be "engendered by the suggestive element itself."