Malpass, R. & Devine, P. (2003). Increasing Eyewitness Accuracy in the Lineup Procedure Is All in How You Ask the Question. The author of this brief overview of the research presents a very clear and concise problem statement for the research undertaken. Eyewitness accuracy when it comes to lineups is the primary issue of concern to the researchers, and the problem statement given at the top of the summary article specifically identifies the issue of false identifications -- witnesses wrongly identifying the wrong person in a lineup and leading to false arrests and even false convictions -- as the area of primary concern. This relates directly to the experiment the researchers design and carried out and to the results of this experiment, making this clearly focused and very concise problem statement relevant throughout the entire research study. The purpose of the research is clearly and immediately identified, helping the reader to quickly and accurately determine if this particular piece of research matches their needs or area of interest.

Though the summary article does not provide an assessment of previous research conducted along this line of inquiry, the authors do cite several decades' worth of research on the subject of eyewitness testimony. It is also made clear that there are many recorded...

Given the citations provided in the summary and the basic foundations upon which the researchers built their inquiry and through which they guided their conclusions and recommendations, it seems evident that extensive prior evidence was examined by these researchers.
A compelling argument was made regarding the need for this information on both research and practical grounds, making it all the more clear how necessary the inquiry was and how useful its findings are. The research gap the researchers identified was not examining eyewitness testimony itself, as previous research and inquiries had already indisputably shown that eyewitness testimony was unreliable. Instead, these researchers sought to identify ways in which the reliability of eyewitness testimony could be improved, and specifically how false identifications of perpetrators could be reduced. This leads right to the practical aspect of this research, as identifying a way to improve eyewitness testimony and reduce the number of false identifications would serve the interests of justice (and the interests of the falsely identified) in directly observable…