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A systematic review and meta-analysis examining the effect of stress at encoding on line-up performance

Although much research has been conducted on the effect of stress on eyewitness memory, the answer to this question remains unclear. Whereas a previous meta-analysis (Deffenbacher et al., 2004) concluded that stress negatively affects eyewitness identification ability, recent studies have shown a la...

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Main Author: Gering, Milton Anthony
Other Authors: Tredoux, Colin G
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Psychology 2022
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access_status_str Open Access
author Gering, Milton Anthony
author2 Tredoux, Colin G
author_browse Gering, Milton Anthony
Tredoux, Colin G
author_facet Tredoux, Colin G
Gering, Milton Anthony
author_sort Gering, Milton Anthony
collection Thesis
description Although much research has been conducted on the effect of stress on eyewitness memory, the answer to this question remains unclear. Whereas a previous meta-analysis (Deffenbacher et al., 2004) concluded that stress negatively affects eyewitness identification ability, recent studies have shown a lack of consensus. As most crimes are stressful events and eyewitness evidence is influential in courts; clarity on the effect of stress is important to legal systems around the world. It is difficult to summarise extant research as many studies use differing methods making the source of disagreement unclear. Added to that, many studies report insufficient detail needed to judge the rigour of research designs, and thus the effects of stress. The present systematic review attempts to synthesise the literature and presents an analysis using recent meta-analytic techniques that allow for the influence of moderator variables to be quantified. It shows that the effect of stress at encoding on line-up decisions is not clear, with studies reporting both positive and negative effects, and examines reasons for differences in effects found between studies. A finding of note is that sequential or simultaneous line-up presentation has a moderating effect of stress on line-up performance. Additionally, a multilevel model shows that using continuous, rather than dichotomous, measures of stress may clarify the stress-performance relationship. Recommendations for further research are made in the hope that new studies can answer the important question of whether witnesses who experience high levels of stress at encoding are likely to make better or worse line-up decisions.
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:33:08.525Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2022
publishDateRange 2022
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spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/36453 A systematic review and meta-analysis examining the effect of stress at encoding on line-up performance Gering, Milton Anthony Tredoux, Colin G Nortje, Alicia psychology Although much research has been conducted on the effect of stress on eyewitness memory, the answer to this question remains unclear. Whereas a previous meta-analysis (Deffenbacher et al., 2004) concluded that stress negatively affects eyewitness identification ability, recent studies have shown a lack of consensus. As most crimes are stressful events and eyewitness evidence is influential in courts; clarity on the effect of stress is important to legal systems around the world. It is difficult to summarise extant research as many studies use differing methods making the source of disagreement unclear. Added to that, many studies report insufficient detail needed to judge the rigour of research designs, and thus the effects of stress. The present systematic review attempts to synthesise the literature and presents an analysis using recent meta-analytic techniques that allow for the influence of moderator variables to be quantified. It shows that the effect of stress at encoding on line-up decisions is not clear, with studies reporting both positive and negative effects, and examines reasons for differences in effects found between studies. A finding of note is that sequential or simultaneous line-up presentation has a moderating effect of stress on line-up performance. Additionally, a multilevel model shows that using continuous, rather than dichotomous, measures of stress may clarify the stress-performance relationship. Recommendations for further research are made in the hope that new studies can answer the important question of whether witnesses who experience high levels of stress at encoding are likely to make better or worse line-up decisions. 2022-06-08T13:50:11Z 2022-06-08T13:50:11Z 2022 2022-06-08T13:49:50Z Master Thesis Masters MA http://hdl.handle.net/11427/36453 eng application/pdf Department of Psychology Faculty of Humanities
spellingShingle psychology
Gering, Milton Anthony
A systematic review and meta-analysis examining the effect of stress at encoding on line-up performance
thesis_degree_str Master's
title A systematic review and meta-analysis examining the effect of stress at encoding on line-up performance
title_full A systematic review and meta-analysis examining the effect of stress at encoding on line-up performance
title_fullStr A systematic review and meta-analysis examining the effect of stress at encoding on line-up performance
title_full_unstemmed A systematic review and meta-analysis examining the effect of stress at encoding on line-up performance
title_short A systematic review and meta-analysis examining the effect of stress at encoding on line-up performance
title_sort systematic review and meta analysis examining the effect of stress at encoding on line up performance
topic psychology
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/36453
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AT geringmiltonanthony systematicreviewandmetaanalysisexaminingtheeffectofstressatencodingonlineupperformance