Can the effectiveness of eyewitness expert testimony be improved?
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Wise RA
PROVIDER: S-EPMC7476630 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Similar Datasets
Project description:To examine legal professionals' knowledge of a wide range of factors that affect eyewitness accuracy in China.A total of 812 participants, including 210 judges, 244 prosecutors, 202 police officers, and 156 defense attorneys, were asked to respond to 12 statements about eyewitness testimony and 3 basic demographic questions (i.e., gender, age, and prior experience).Although the judges and the defense attorneys had a somewhat higher number of correct responses than the other two groups, all groups showed limited knowledge of eyewitness testimony. In addition, the participants' responses to only four items (i.e., weapon focus, attitude and expectations, child suggestibility, and the impact of stress) were roughly unanimous within the four legal professional groups. Legal professionals' gender showed no significant correlations with their knowledge of eyewitness testimony. Prior experiences were significantly and negatively correlated with the item on the knowledge of forgetting curve among judges but positively correlated with two items (i.e., attitudes and exposure time) among defense attorneys and with 4 statements (i.e., the knowledge of attitudes and expectations, impact of stress, child witness accuracy, and exposure time) among prosecutors.The findings suggest that knowledge of the factors that influence eyewitness accuracy must be more effectively communicated to legal professionals in the future.
| S-EPMC4734833 | biostudies-other
Project description:To investigate dual-process persuasion theories in the context of group decision making, we studied low and high need-for-cognition (NFC) participants within a mock trial study. Participants considered plaintiff and defense expert scientific testimony that varied in argument strength. All participants heard a cross-examination of the experts focusing on peripheral information (e.g., credentials) about the expert, but half were randomly assigned to also hear central information highlighting flaws in the expert's message (e.g., quality of the research presented by the expert). Participants rendered pre- and post-group-deliberation verdicts, which were considered "scientifically accurate" if the verdicts reflected the strong (versus weak) expert message, and "scientifically inaccurate" if they reflected the weak (versus strong) expert message. For individual participants, we replicated studies testing classic persuasion theories: Factors promoting reliance on central information (i.e., central cross-examination, high NFC) improved verdict accuracy because they sensitized individual participants to the quality discrepancy between the experts' messages. Interestingly, however, at the group level, the more that scientifically accurate mock jurors discussed peripheral (versus central) information about the experts, the more likely their group was to reach the scientifically accurate verdict. When participants were arguing for the scientifically accurate verdict consistent with the strong expert message, peripheral comments increased their persuasiveness, which made the group more likely to reach the more scientifically accurate verdict.
| S-EPMC5606931 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Study on the microbial community of a bioleaching column test
| PRJEB9810 | ENA
Project description:Sleep aids the consolidation of recently acquired memories. Evidence strongly indicates that sleep yields substantial improvements on recognition memory tasks relative to an equivalent period of wake. Despite the known benefits that sleep has on memory, researchers have not yet investigated the impact of sleep on eyewitness identifications. Eyewitnesses to crimes are often presented with a line-up (which is a type of recognition memory test) that contains the suspect (who is innocent or guilty) and fillers (who are known to be innocent). Sleep may enhance the ability to identify the guilty suspect and not identify the innocent suspect (i.e. discriminability). Sleep may also impact reliability (i.e. the likelihood that the identified suspect is guilty). In the current study, we manipulated the presence or the absence of sleep in a forensically relevant memory task. Participants witnessed a video of a mock crime, made an identification or rejected the line-up, and rated their confidence. Critically, some participants slept between witnessing the crime and making a line-up decision, while others remained awake. The prediction that participants in the sleep condition would have greater discriminability compared to participants in the wake condition was not supported. There were also no differences in reliability.
| S-EPMC6936295 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ObjectiveAnalysis of twins with epilepsy to explore the genetic architecture of specific epilepsies, to evaluate the applicability of the 2010 International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) organization of epilepsy syndromes, and to integrate molecular genetics with phenotypic analyses.MethodsA total of 558 twin pairs suspected to have epilepsy were ascertained from twin registries (69%) or referral (31%). Casewise concordance estimates were calculated for epilepsy syndromes. Epilepsies were then grouped according to the 2010 ILAE organizational scheme. Molecular genetic information was utilized where applicable.ResultsOf 558 twin pairs, 418 had confirmed seizures. A total of 534 twin individuals were affected. There were higher twin concordance estimates for monozygotic (MZ) than for dizygotic (DZ) twins for idiopathic generalized epilepsies (MZ = 0.77; DZ = 0.35), genetic epilepsy with febrile seizures plus (MZ = 0.85; DZ = 0.25), and focal epilepsies (MZ = 0.40; DZ = 0.03). Utilizing the 2010 ILAE scheme, the twin data clearly demonstrated genetic influences in the syndromes designated as genetic. Of the 384 tested twin individuals, 10.9% had mutations of large effect in known epilepsy genes or carried validated susceptibility alleles.ConclusionsTwin studies confirm clear genetic influences for specific epilepsies. Analysis of the twin sample using the 2010 ILAE scheme strongly supported the validity of grouping the "genetic" syndromes together and shows this organizational scheme to be a more flexible and biologically meaningful system than previous classifications. Successful selected molecular testing applied to this cohort is the prelude to future large-scale next-generation sequencing of epilepsy research cohorts. Insights into genetic architecture provided by twin studies provide essential data for optimizing such approaches.
| S-EPMC4166361 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Children can identify who is benevolent or malevolent not only through first-hand experiences and observations but also from the testimony of others. In this study, we investigated whether 5- and 7-year-olds (N = 128) would form their attitudes toward others after hearing testimony about that person's past moral behavior and whether the valence of testimony would differently influence the children. In the positive condition, half of the participants gained information about three puppets: puppet A's prosocial behavior by their own first-hand observation, testimony about puppet B's past prosocial behavior, and testimony about puppet C's past neutral behavior. In the negative condition, the other half also learned information about the three puppets: puppet A's antisocial behavior by their own first-hand observation, testimony about puppet B's past antisocial behavior, and testimony about puppet C's past neutral behavior. Then they engaged in tasks that measured their behavioral attitudes toward the puppets and evaluated the goodness of each puppet to assess their attitudes at a cognitive level. Our results concluded that the children form their behavioral attitudes toward others based on testimony starting at the age of 7, and attitude formation at the cognitive level based on testimony is seen at age 5. Negative testimony, rather than positive testimony, influences the children's attitudes toward others. In addition, the 7-year-olds' use of testimony differs depending whether they are the allocators or the receivers of rewards. Our findings deepen understanding of how children rely on the verbal information around themselves when they navigate interactions with others.
| S-EPMC8694454 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Although healthy aging is accompanied by a general decline in memory functioning, environmental support at retrieval can improve older adults' (+65 years) episodic remembering. Despite those over the age of 65 years representing a growing proportion of the population, few environmental retrieval support methods have been empirically evaluated for use with older witnesses and victims of crime. Here, the efficacy of a novel retrieval technique, the Sketch Mental Reinstatement of Context, is compared with a standard Mental Reinstatement of Context and a no support control (Control). Fifty-one participants witnessed an unexpected live event, and 48 hours later were interviewed using one of three aforementioned techniques. In line with predictions emanating from cognitive theories of aging and the environmental support hypothesis, participants in the Sketch Mental Reinstatement of Context condition recalled significantly more correct information and fewer inaccurate items. The Sketch Mental Reinstatement of Context technique appears to scaffold memory retrieval in an age-appropriate manner during a post-event interview, possibly by encouraging more effortful retrieval and reducing dual-task load. As such, this procedure offers an effective alternative to current approaches, adding to the toolbox of techniques available to forensic and other interviewers.
| S-EPMC3726749 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Load Theory (Lavie, 1995, 2005) states that the level of perceptual load in a task (i.e., the amount of information involved in processing task-relevant stimuli) determines the efficiency of selective attention. There is evidence that perceptual load affects distractor processing, with increased inattentional blindness under high load. Given that high load can result in individuals failing to report seeing obvious objects, it is conceivable that load may also impair memory for the scene. The current study is the first to assess the effect of perceptual load on eyewitness memory. Across three experiments (two video-based and one in a driving simulator), the effect of perceptual load on eyewitness memory was assessed. The results showed that eyewitnesses were less accurate under high load, in particular for peripheral details. For example, memory for the central character in the video was not affected by load but memory for a witness who passed by the window at the edge of the scene was significantly worse under high load. High load memories were also more open to suggestion, showing increased susceptibility to leading questions. High visual perceptual load also affected recall for auditory information, illustrating a possible cross-modal perceptual load effect on memory accuracy. These results have implications for eyewitness memory researchers and forensic professionals.
| S-EPMC5003837 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Providing eyewitness testimony involves monitoring one's memory to provide a detailed and accurate account: reporting details likely to be accurate and withholding potentially inaccurate details. Autistic individuals reportedly experience difficulties in both retrieving episodic memories and monitoring their accuracy, which has important implications for eyewitness testimony. Thirty autistic and 33 IQ-matched typically developing (TD) participants viewed a video of a mock bank robbery followed by three phases of questions (with judgments of confidence). In Phase 1, participants freely generated the granularity of their responses (i.e., fine- or coarse-grained). In Phase 2, participants answered the same questions but provided both a fine- and a coarse-grained answer. In Phase 3, participants were instructed to maximize accuracy over informativeness by selecting one of their Phase 2 answers as their final answer. They either received the questions socially (from the experimenter) or answered them online. There were no group differences in accuracy or metacognitive monitoring, with both autistic and TD witnesses demonstrating: (a) a strong preference for reporting fine-grained details at the expense of accuracy; (b) improved though still suboptimal grain size reporting when instructed to maximize accuracy over informativeness; (c) effective accuracy monitoring; and (d) higher overall accuracy when questions were delivered socially. There was, however, a subtle difference in metacognitive control, with autistic witnesses performing more poorly than TD witnesses when questions were delivered socially, but not when they were delivered online. These findings contrast with evidence suggesting that autism is marked by impairments in episodic memory and metacognitive monitoring and control. Autism Res 2020, 13: 2017-2029. © 2020 The Authors. Autism Research published by International Society for Autism Research published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: Autistic people have been reported to experience subtle difficulties in monitoring and regulating their information reporting, which has important implications for providing eyewitness testimony. We found that autistic witnesses' testimony comprised a similar level of detail and accuracy as non-autistic witnesses' accounts. However, autistic people found it difficult to optimize their testimony when the questions were delivered socially-but not when they answered the questions online. © 2020 The Authors. Autism Research published by International Society for Autism Research published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
| S-EPMC7754119 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Eyewitnesses to crimes sometimes search for a culprit on social media before viewing a police lineup, but it is not known whether this affects subsequent lineup identification accuracy. The present online study was conducted to address this. Two hundred and eighty-five participants viewed a mock crime video, and after a 15-20 min delay either (i) viewed a mock social media site including the culprit, (ii) viewed a mock social media site including a lookalike, or (iii) completed a filler task. A week later, participants made an identification from a photo lineup. It was predicted that searching for a culprit on social media containing the lookalike (rather than the culprit) would reduce lineup identification accuracy. There was a significant association between social media exposure and lineup accuracy for the Target Present lineup (30% more of the participants who saw the lookalike on social media failed to positively identify the culprit than participants in the other conditions), but for the Target Absent lineup (which also included the lookalike) there was no significant association with lineup identification accuracy. The results suggest that if an eyewitness sees a lookalike (where they are expecting to see the culprit) when conducting a self-directed search on social media, they are less likely to subsequently identify the culprit in the formal ID procedure.
| S-EPMC8081957 | biostudies-literature