Research Interests
My PhD thesis (supervised by Neil Brewer and co–supervised by Nathan
Weber) reports an investigation of a novel procedure for eliciting identification
information from eyewitnesses. Our procedure attempts to use confidence
estimates (elicited for each lineup member), rather than binary responses
(as in typical eyewitness identification tasks), to discriminate target
from foil stimuli. Various theories of confidence processing for recognition
decisions suggest that, in the eyewitness identification context, confidence
may provide a more direct index of a witness’ memory strength than
is afforded by the typical binary response. Thus, the confidence procedure
may offer effective diagnostic information and, compared to typical identification
procedures, be relatively insensitive to potentially damaging non–memorial
influences.
Current and future projects will continue along this theme.
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Additional Research Interests
Other current research topics:
With Neil Brewer and Matt Palmer:
– Mock–juror decision making, and procedures designed to
help mock–jurors better evaluate trial evidence
– Confidence in recall memory
With Neil Brewer, Nathan Weber and Tick Zweck:
– A field study investigating retention interval and identification
performance using simultaneous lineup presentation
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Selected Publications
Sauer, J. D., Brewer, N., & Weber, N. (in press). Multiple confidence
estimates as indices of eyewitness memory. Journal of Experimental
Psychology: General.
Sauer, J. D., Brewer, N., & Wells, G. L. (2008). Is there a magical
time boundary for diagnosing eyewitness identification accuracy in sequential
line-ups? Legal and Criminological Psychology, 13, 123-135.
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Conference Presentations
Sauer, J., Brewer, N., & Weber, N. (2007, July). Identifying the
culprit using patterns of confidence judgments across simultaneous lineup
members. 7th Biennial Conference of the Society for Applied Research in
Memory and Cognition, Lewiston, USA.
Sauer, J., Brewer, N., & Weber, N. (2006, July). The diagnosticity
of multiple eyewitness confidence assessments. The 4th International Conference
on Memory, University of New South Wales, Australia.
Sauer, J., Brewer, N., & Weber, N. (2006, April). Using multiple
confidence estimates to discriminate seen from unseen faces. 33rd Australasian
Experimental Psychology Conference, Brisbane.
Sauer, J., Brewer, N., & Wells, G.L. (2005, January). Diagnosing
accuracy in sequential lineups. 6th Biennial Conference of the Society
for Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, Wellington, New Zealand.
Sauer, J., & Brewer, N. (2005, January). Using multiple confidence
estimates to discriminate studied from unstudied faces. 6th Biennial Conference
of the Society for Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, Wellington,
New Zealand.
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