Eyewitnesses' General Metamemory Beliefs Do Not Predict Culprit-Presence Detection

If eyewitnesses' general beliefs about their memory predicted whether they detect the culprit in a lineup, it could be useful in legal investigations to systematically assess general metamemory beliefs. Using a process-oriented approach, we tested this hypothesis in two experiments. In Experiment 1, 1627 participants responded to either several metamemory-belief questionnaires or, in the control condition, to a personality questionnaire, then watched a video of a staged crime and finally were presented with four lineups. In Experiment 2, 1467 participants first watched the staged-crime video, then responded to the questionnaires and finally were presented with the lineups. Using hierarchical multinomial modeling, we tested whether general metamemory beliefs were associated with culprit-presence detection. The results of both experiments provide evidence against the hypothesis that general metamemory beliefs predict culprit-presence detection. Accordingly, we caution against using general metamemory beliefs as indicators of how well a culprit can be detected.