Yarmey (2004)- Evaluation

Yarmey (2004)- Evaluation

1. Strengths

   • The photo line-up findings support Haber and Haber's findings (2001), which suggests that there is some reliability in this study. Both found that witnesses tend to be about 50% accurate in line-up identification when the target is present
   • The study was carried out in the natural environment of the participants and so has ecological validity.
   • The control over the conditions means that the study could be replicated and is likely to be found to be reliable, especially given the support of findings from other studies
   • The range of ages of the participants and the focus on gender to ensure a balance means that there is likely to be good generalisability of the findings

2. Weaknesses

   • While this study found that age was better identified than other physical characteristics such as height and weight, Yuille and Cutshall's study found more or less the opposite
   • The photo-lineup is not the same as a real-life line-up- a photo of a face is not the same as the actual being there. This means it lacks validity
   • The witness recall focused on a situation where the participant had met and spoken to the target. This is not always the case for an eyewitness to an event, so the findings should only be applied to similar situations