Showing papers in "Journal of Applied Psychology in 1981"

Beyond Attribution Theory: Cognitive Processes in Performance Appraisal

Abstract: Performance appraisal is construed as the outcome of a dual-process system of evaluation and decision making. Attention, categorization, recall, and information integration are carried out via either an automatic or a controlled process. In the automatic process, aspects of an employee and his/her behavior are noted and the employee is categorized without conscious monitoring. The automatic process is dominant except when decisions are problematic, in which case a consciously monitored categorization process takes place. Subsequent recall of the employee is biased by the attributes of prototypes (abstract images) representing categories to which the employee has been assigned. Dispositional and contextual factors influence the availability of categories during both assignment and recall. Categorization also biases any subsequent search for information about the employee, and interacts with task type to produce halo, leniency/ stringency biases, and racial, sexual, ethnic, and personalistic bias as well. The same automatic and controlled processes can, however, account for accuracy of evaluations. Suggested research includes the study of behavior taxonomies, individual differences in cognitive structure, the validation of behavior-sampling techniques, and laboratory studies of appraisal processes.

Can People Detect Eyewitness-Identification Accuracy Within and Across Situations?

Abstract: Thefts were staged 108 times for as many witnesses who were subsequently given a photo lineup for identifying the thief The thefts were staged under conditions designed to yield low (33%), moderate (50%), or high (74%) proportions of correct identifications of the thief Corroborating past research, the relationship between witnesses' identification accuracy and witnesses' confidence was negligible within conditions There was no evidence that the confidence-accuracy relationship changed across conditions or that witness confidence changed across theft conditions A representative sample of 48 witnesses (8 accurate-iden tification and 8 false-identification witnesses from each of the three theft conditions) was cross-examined Subjects (n = 96) viewing the cross-examinations showed no ability to detect accurate- from false-identification witnesses within conditions as measured by subjects' belief of witnesses Although subjects changed their rate of belief of witnesses as a function of the theft conditions (62%, 66%, and 77%, respectively), the rate at which subjects discounted witnesses' testimony was insufficient across conditions Subjects were shown to be especially overbelieving of witnesses when the rate of witness accuracy in that condition was low

The Tractability of Eyewitness Confidence and Its Implications for Triers of Fact

Abstract: A theft staged for 80 unsuspecting eyewitnesses was followed by a picture lineup that did or did not contain the thief. In an attempt to see if eyewitness confidence is tractable after the identification, half of the eyewitnesses who identified the thief (accurate witnesses) and half who identified an innocent suspect (inaccurate witnesses) were briefed by a "prosecutor" who suggested they rehearse answers to potential questions that would be asked under cross-examination. Cross-examinations of 10 accurate briefed witnesses, 10 accurate nonbriefed witnesses, 9 inaccurate briefed witnesses, and 9 inaccurate nonbriefed witnesses were viewed by 152 subject-jurors in groups of 4. Briefed eyewitnesses rated themselves as more confident that they had identified the thief than did nonbriefed witnesses. This increase was primarily due to inaccurate eyewitnesses increasing their confidence, and the briefing manipulation served to eliminate the confidence-accuracy relationship. Subject-jurors were significantly more likely to vote guilty in conditions in which the eyewitness had been briefed than in the nonbriefed conditions. It is argued that briefing eyewitnesses, although legal, simply serves to increase the eyewitnesses' confidence in their memory, not the accuracy of memory. It is also argued that an accurate eyewitness may have memories that are already associated with high confidence, and therefore, briefing may primarily inflate the confidence of inaccurate eyewitnesses.

Functional Turnover: An Empirical Assessment.

Abstract: : It has been argued that the traditional method of categorizing employee turnover as voluntary or involuntary has the effect of overstating the gravity of turnover on the organization. A recently suggested taxonomy is used to identify the extent of 'functional/dysfunctional' and 'unavoidable/controllable' employee separations. The analysis of data on employees (N=1389) of Western bank branches which considers both the replaceability and quality of department employees indicates substantial levels of functional (71%) and unavoidable (52%) turnover. The results suggest that the traditional dichotomy may, in fact, substantially overstate the impact of voluntary turnover. (Author)

Task Differences as Moderators of Aptitude Test Validity in Selection: A Red Herring

Abstract: This article describes results of two studies, based on a total sample size of nearly 400,000, examining the traditional belief that between-job task differences cause aptitude tests to be valid for some jobs but not for others. Results indicate that aptitude tests are valid across jobs. The moderating effect of tasks is negligible even when jobs differ grossly in task makeup and is probably nonexistent when task differences are less extreme. These results have important implications for validity generalization, for the use of task-oriented job analysis in selection research, for criterion construction, for moderator research, and for proper interpretation of the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures. The philosophy of science and methodological assumptions historically underlying belief in the hypothesis that tasks are important moderators of test validities are examined and critiqued. It is concluded that the belief in this hypothesis can be traced to behaviorist assumptions introduced into personnel psychology in the early 1960s and that, in retrospect, these assumptions can be seen to be false.

Effects of the Type of Incident and the Number of Perpetrators on Eyewitness Memory

Abstract: The accuracy of eyewitness testimony and identification following the unprepared witnessing of either a violent (mugging) or a nonviolent (direction seeking) videotaped incident in which one, three, or five perpetrators participated was investigated, together with the relationship between the witnesses' objective accuracy and their subjective feeling of certainty concerning correctness. Sixty subjects, 30 male and 30 female unpaid undergraduates with an average age of 21.7 years, were tested individually. Testimony was less accurate following the witnessing of the violent incident, and the decrease in accuracy was a function of the increase in the number of perpetrators seen, especially under the violent condition. The accuracy of identificatio n was very low, with only 27% of the subjects making a correct identification; chance performance was observed with five perpetrators. Whereas a positive accuracy-confidence relationship held for identification under the nonviolent condition, this was not the case under the violent condition. These findings were related to court cases in which violence was interpreted as rendering eyewitness memory more reliable than in nonviolent situations.

How do triers of fact infer the accuracy of eyewitness identifications? Using memory for peripheral detail can be misleading.

Abstract: Eyewitnesses (n = 107) to a staged theft made identifications from a photo spread and then responded to 11 questions that measured their memory for peripheral details (e.g., how many pictures were in the room where the theft occurred?). Results indicated that witnesses who accurately identified the thief (n = 57) averaged fewer correct answers on the peripheral details test than did eyewitnesses who identified an innocent person (n = 32). The remaining witnesses (n = 18) made no identification. Cross-examinations of willing eyewitnesses who made an identification (47 accurate and 24 inaccurate) were conducted using a method that either scrutinized and documented the witnesses' memory for the peripheral details or did not. Subjects in the role of jurors (n = 96) viewed cross-examinations and indicated their belief that the witness had properly identified the thief versus an innocent person. The cross-examination that scrutinized and documented the witnesses' memory for trivial details lowered subjects' belief of the eyewitnesses' identification accuracy (from 72.9% to 47.9%). This discrediting effect was stronger for accurate eyewitnesses (75.0%-37.5%), however, than it was for inaccurate eyewitnesses (70.8%-58.3%). It is argued that subjects assumed a positive correlation between accuracy in identifying the thief and memory for peripheral details, which led to more discrediting of the witnesses who should have been believed than it did of the witnesses who should have not been believed.