Misleading post-event information--Cognitive processing differences.

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Hypnosis has gained substantial support in the psychological community, as well as related health professions. The intense renewal of interest in hypnosis has also affected our legal-judicial system. Many police investigators trained in hypnosis operate from an exactcopy memory theory. They claim eyewitness eyewitness retrieve veridically stored memory traces from long-term memory, if questioned under hypnosis. Conversely, other researchers ascribe to a reconstructive memory theory. They believe hypnosis increases the likelihood of eliciting erroneous memories from eyewitnesses, especially under leading questioning. The purpose of the present investigation was to test the effects of hypnotic induction and anxiety on the accuracy of subjects' memory for eyewitnessed events when questioned with leading, non-leading, and embedded misinformation questions.

According to the misinformation effect, exposure to misleading post-event information typically impairs memory for the original event. Such findings are generally obtained in the laboratory using the misinformation paradigm. One component of the typical misinformation paradigm is that most of the post-event information corresponds with the event information, implying that the context surrounding the misinformation is the same as that of the original event. The present experiments investigated the role of such implication by presenting the experimental conditions with misleading items in a narrative that differed from the original event (a slide show) to varying degrees; both the location of the event and the persons described were varied. A significant misinformation effect was obtained regardless of implication condition. Even when a relationship between the witnessed event and post-event narrative was not implied, memory was impaired by the presence of misleading information. The findings are discussed in terms of retrieval blocking.

The field of eyewitness memory has long been concerned with identifications but functioned in the absence of an explanatory theory. Recently Charman and Wells (2007) developed applied lineup theory to address this deficiency. They argue that quality of memory and the decision process interact to determine lineup decision accuracy. In a series of experiments I tested whether their theoretical assumptions hold for face recognition tasks and tested the theory using simple manipulations with lineups. Experiments 1 through 7 utilized a face recognition paradigm. In Experiments 1 through 5, the relationship between quality of memory and face recognition accuracy was explored as a function of frequency of viewing, duration of viewing, and depth of processing. The results indicated that, as expected, increased frequency of viewing and deeper processing of faces at encoding led to better recognition memory. Unexpectedly, increasing the duration of viewing did not increase recognition memory. In the remaining experiments (Experiments 6 to 9) I manipulated the decision process by manipulating the match between a face image shown at encoding and retrieval and how quickly participants were able to respond. The results of Experiments 6 and 7 only weakly supported applied lineup theory. In Experiments 8 and 9 I used a lineup paradigm and again found little support for applied lineup theory. Notably, the manipulations of decision process were relatively unsuccessful in Experiments 6 to 9. The stimulus manipulations used may not have been sufficient to produce differences in the decision process or applied lineup theory may not account for lineup decisions. Suggestions for future research on lineup decision processes to clarify whether applied lineup theory can account for lineup decisions are made. / Thesis (Ph.D, Psychology) -- Queen's University, 2010-09-18 16:10:43.637

To date, research on the effect of depressive symptomatology on victim-witness identification is scarce even though depressive symptomatology is highly prevalent in the victim-witness experience. Furthermore, being a victim-witness often instigates the use of counselling services, which could cause a shift in affect, and applying mood dependent memory theories, any change in affect should be detrimental to eyewitness accuracy. Still, individuals suffering from subclinical depression, or dysphoria, have exhibited heightened perceptual skills, and depressed affect exhibits remarkable stability over time. Therefore, I theorized that: (1) dysphoric people’s heightened sensitivity and motivation towards accurate understanding may result in more accurate eyewitness identifications, and (2) individuals who express stable levels of dysphoria should have greater eyewitness identification accuracy than should people with stable levels of nondysphoria, with stable levels of severe depressive symptomatology, or with unstable depressive symptomatology. In Study One, 132 students were randomly assigned to one of three autobiographical mood inductions: a positive, negative, or neutral/control. Following this manipulation, participants completed 12 experimental trials each consisting of a target exposure, a 30-second distraction task, and lastly, a six-person simultaneous line-up. Higher levels of dysphoria were associated with greater overall identification accuracy and that temporary mood conferred an advantage only when participants recalled highly sad memories. In Study Two, 173 participants were exposed to 12 target faces at a first session and returned two-to-four weeks later to identify these faces from 12 six-person simultaneous line-ups. Individuals who exhibited stable levels of dysphoria from eyewitness event to the line-up task performed significantly better on the simultaneous line-ups than all of the other groups. Among those exhibiting unstable dysphoria, people whose depressive symptomatology improved were almost as accurate as those who had stable dysphoria. These results support the need for victim-witnesses to receive immediate help to stabilize or improve depressive symptomatology not just for their mental well-being but also to preserve eyewitness accuracy. / Thesis (Master, Psychology) -- Queen's University, 2010-09-23 13:11:50.153

When conducting initial forensic interviews, facilitating later retrieval in an efficient and timely manner is often important. A tool called The Self-Administered Interview (SAI) has been shown to facilitate later retrieval when completed initially. Even if less time-consuming than other interviewing protocols, it still takes considerable time to complete. This study compared the capability to facilitate later retrieval and temporal aspects of SAI and its separate parts to investigate the relative worth of each part. The two separate parts were a written, free recall and the rest of SAI without the free recall. Forty-five participants completed either of the parts after watching a fictious crime. Six days later a memory test was administered. This study used the same research design as two previous studies which allowed for integrated analysis using data from the three studies. SAI facilitated later retrieval by significantly increasing number of correct answers and decreasing number of incorrect answers. SAI without a free recall significantly decreased number of incorrect answers. SAI took approximately twice as long to complete as a written, free recall. SAI without free recall had comparable results as a free recall but took almost the same time to complete as SAI. An overall pattern for all initial actions was that an increase in complexity and comprehensive design, increased performance but also took longer to complete. If performance is priority and time is not a factor, SAI is recommended. If lowering time of completion is priority a free recall is the quickest action.

Brigham and Bothwell (1983) claimed that jurors have a scientifically incorrect view of eyewitness testimony. The purpose of this study was to examine the most beneficial way to assist the jury in dealing with eyewitness testimony. Duckworth, Kreiner, Stark-Wroblewski, and Marsh (2011) applied interactive participation in an eyewitness activity and expert testimony to a mock-jury dealing with eyewitness testimony and found that those who participated in the activity had significantly fewer convictions. The methodological framework of the Duckworth et al. study was applied to East Tennessee State University criminal justice undergraduates. Although this study did not find any significant effects in hearing expert testimony on empirical findings regarding eyewitness testimony or participating in an individual recall activity, cross tabulation frequencies indicated a directional pattern of relationship when independent variables were compared to the control group.

This study partially replicated the research of Cook, Kwak, Hoffman, & Loftus where they examined post-event activities that induces subjects to pick a wrong person in a forced choice identification procedure. The goal was to investigate if providing a neither option to a match to sample task increases the accuracy of responding. Subjects were asked to study three faces for 10 seconds, after which they were asked to pick out the faces in a forced choice setting where two other faces were presented. Later the subjects were asked to pick out faces in a setting in which they could use a neither option. Results indicated that a generalization effect occurs when identifying faces and the effect is seen as subjects choosing the wrong face. This suggests that when using faces with some similar features in a lineup setting the procedure may cause the subject to pick the wrong person.

Children who have developmental disorders that involve memorial deficits and impairments in social interaction and communication, such as Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), can present challenges to professionals seeking their testimony when they are victims or witnesses of a crime. Most forensic interviews involve long delays after an event, underscoring the importance of conducting experimental studies which consider the effect of delay on children's memory. In this research, fifty-nine children (age 6-15 years) with ASD (N=27) and without disabilities (N=32) were questioned about their participation in a set of activities after a two-week delay and again after a two-month delay, using the Revised National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Investigative Interview Protocol. A detailed coding scheme was designed to code and analyse the interviewers' utterances and the children's responses in 118 interviews. Transcripts were coded for completeness (with respect to the gist of the event), amount of narrative details, and accuracy. Results indicated that autistic children did not differ from typically developing (TD) peers on any dimensions of memory after both delays. Specifically, both groups of children provided equivalently complete accounts on both occasions. However, children in both groups provided significantly fewer narrative details about the event in the second interview, and the accuracy rates were lower. Recall prompts elicited more detailed and more accurate responses from children in both groups than recognition prompts. Although autistic children recalled fewer correct narrative details than TD peers when questioned using open-ended recall prompts, they were as accurate as TD peers in response to recognition prompts. The informativeness and accuracy of children's reports remained unchanged over time. Finally, social support was beneficial when children were interviewed for the first time but not after a longer delay. The findings indicate that autistic children can provide meaningful and reliable testimony about an event they personally experienced, but several aspects of their memory reports deteriorate over time.