Question

Article Worksheet 5: Tenney et al. (2007)

Calibration Trumps Confidence as a Basis for Witness Credibility

Elizabeth R. Tenney,1 Robert J. MacCoun,2 Barbara A. Spellman,1 and Reid Hastie3

1. What was the main purpose of this article? 2. In Experiment 1, what were the two independent variables? 3. In Experiment 2, what were the two dependent variables 4 What do the results tell us (i.e., what’s the take-home message)? 5. What did you like, or dislike, about this paper? (1pt)

Answer 1

1. The main purpose of the two experiments was to study the effect of confidence and accuracy on evaluating the credibility of the witnesses.

2. The two independent variables in Experiment 1 were the Confidence and Accuracy of the participants.

3. The two dependent variables were errors and credibility of the participants.

4. The results were that assertion of individuals with confidence are deemed to be accurate, but, if this assertion fails to be true then the assertion of individuals with low level of confidence while stating but are correct gains the credibility. The over confident individuals assertions that proved to be faulty loose their credibility.

5. This is true about how we rate people's assertion or claims with respect to their level of confidence but, once these confident assertions fail, we tend to take the assertion with a bit of skepticism. Also when any individual's claim that was asserted with less confidence proves to be correct, we tend infer the assertions to be correct next time without any doubt. Thus, calibration trumps confidence as a basis for witness credibility.

The draw back of these experiments that questions the reliability of this study is that the experiments were carried out on the wriiten accounts of the participants than an eyewitness account.