Poster presented at APS 2014 Abstract This study was conducted to determine if explaining criminal behavior influences later identification. Schooler and Engstler- Schooler’s (1990) Experiment 5 was replicated with the additional condition of describing why the criminal engaged in the behavior. No differences were found between those who described facial features and those that described motivation. People quickly make judgments about others. Do these judgments influence our ability to recognize others? The present study was conducted in conjunction with the APS Replication Initiative focusing on Schooler and Engstler-Schooler’s (1990) study on the verbal overshadowing effect. The verbal overshadowing effect refers to the impairment of recalling visual details of an experienced event due to verbally rehearsing that event. In the original study, Schooler and Engstler-Schooler compared verbally describing the facial features (face verbalization) of a bank robber shown in a video with a control condition (Experiment 1). Face verbalization was also compared with face visualization, and statement verbalizations, respectively, in Experiments 2, 3, and 5. Across experiments, face verbalization lead to impaired identification of the bank robber from a picture line-up with seven distractor faces. It appears that verbal overshadowing does not compromise the visual information associated with the faces but shifts processing to local features instead of global features which are important for face recognition (Lloyd-Jones, Brown, & Clarke, 2006). In the present study, the control and facial verbalization conditions from Schooler and Engstler-Schooler (1990) were combined with a motive verbalization condition in subjects described the reasons behind the individual robbing the bank in the video. The motive verbalization condition required the subjects to describe the bank robber without focusing on visual characteristics. Therefore, the description remains centered on the bank robber without shifting attention from global to local features of the face. Introduction Finger, K., & Pezdek, K. (1999). The effect of the cognitive interview on face identification accuracy: Release from verbal overshadowing. Journal of Applied Psychology, 84, Rickard, L. N. (2014). Perception of risk and the attribution of responsibility for accidents. Risk Analysis, 34, Schooler, J., & Engstler-Schooler, T. Y. (1990). Verbal overshadowing of visual memories: Some things are better left unsaid. Cognitive Psychology, 22, Condition Results show no differences in recognition across conditions. Likewise, no differences in identification times were found across conditions nor were there differences in confidence ratings. Although the results indicate that face and motive verbalization produce similar identification rates, no verbal overshadowing was found when these conditions were compared to the control condition. It is possible that the failure to find verbal overshadowing may be attributed to the filler task which may have provided a release from verbal overshadowing (Finger & Pezdek, 1999). Choice Unlike Schooler and Engstler-Schooler (1990), who found that subjects correctly identifying the bank robber were more confident in their selection than those who either misidentified or missed the bank robber, the current results show that those who correctly identified or missed the bank robber were equally confident and more confident than those who misidentified the bank robber (F(2, 102) = 10.14, p <.001). However, identification times were significantly faster for subjects who correctly identified the bank robber than for subjects who did not (F(2, 104) = 3.98, p <.03). Gender Differences Females were significantly faster at identifying the bank robber than males (t(101) = 2.06, p <.05). However, males were marginally more confident in their selection than females (t(99) = 1.95, p <.06). Attributions In general, people tend to ascribe internal attributions to the actions of others. This is true even when external factors play an important role in the outcome (cf., Rickard, 2014). However, a qualitative review of the motives provided by subjects reveals that external factors were used to describe the reason behind robbing the bank. Results and Discussion References Subjects 132 psychology students volunteered to participate in the study for class credit. However, in order to match the demographic composition of Schooler and Engstler-Schooler’s (1990), only Caucasian subjects between 18 to 25 years of age were retained. This restriction eliminated 11 subjects due to race and five due to age. Procedure Participants were randomly assigned to the control and two experimental conditions. All subjects were told that they participating in a perception and memory experiment that had several tasks. The first task was to pay attention to a short video. They were then shown a video of a mock bank robbery. After watching the video, subjects in the control condition were instructed to write down as many countries and their capitals as they could in five minutes. Subjects in the features experimental group were instructed to write down as much as they could remember about the facial features of the bank robber in the video. Subjects in the motive experimental group were instructed to write down possible motives behind the individual’s decision to rob the bank. This five-minute task was followed by 20 minutes in which subjects worked on a crossword puzzle. Once the puzzle task was complete, subjects were instructed to identify the bank robber from a picture line-up. Subjects then rated their confidence in their selection using a seven-point scale. Method Do Descriptions of Facial Features or Personal Motivations Improve Line Ups? Christopher Koch, Remi Gentry, Jenifer Shaheed, & Kelsi Buswell Note: This study was conducted as part of the initial APS Replication Project examining Schooler and Engstler-Schooler ‘s (1990) overshadowing effect. Links to the study protocol and application to participate, as well as to the full project site on Open Science Framework, can be found at: ConditionnMalesFemales Control Features Motive20812 Totals