Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Eyewitness'
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1
Carol, Rolando N. "Implicit Eyewitness Memory." FIU Digital Commons, 2013. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/907.
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After a crime has occurred, one of the most pressing objectives for investigators is to identify and interview any eyewitness that can provide information about the crime. Depending on his or her training, the investigative interviewer will use (to varying degrees) mostly yes/no questions, some cued and multiple-choice questions, with few open-ended questions. When the witness cannot generate any more details about the crime, one assumes the eyewitness’ memory for the critical event has been exhausted. However, given what we know about memory, is this a safe assumption? In line with the extant literature on human cognition, if one assumes (a) an eyewitness has more available memories of the crime than he or she has accessible and (b) only explicit probes have been used to elicit information, then one can argue this eyewitness may still be able to provide additional information via implicit memory tests. In accordance with these notions, the present study had two goals: demonstrate that (1) eyewitnesses can reveal memory implicitly for a detail-rich event and (2) particularly for brief crimes, eyewitnesses can reveal memory for event details implicitly that were inaccessible when probed for explicitly. Undergraduates (N = 227) participated in a psychological experiment in exchange for research credit. Participants were presented with one of three stimulus videos (brief crime vs. long crime vs. irrelevant video). Then, participants either completed a series of implicit memory tasks or worked on a puzzle for 5 minutes. Lastly, participants were interviewed explicitly about the previous video via free recall and recognition tasks. Findings indicated that participants who viewed the brief crime provided significantly more crime-related details implicitly than those who viewed the long crime. The data also showed participants who viewed the long crime provided marginally more accurate details during free recall than participants who viewed the brief crime. Furthermore, participants who completed the implicit memory tasks provided significantly less accurate information during the explicit interview than participants who were not given implicit memory tasks. This study was the first to investigate implicit memory for eyewitnesses of a crime. To determine its applied value, additional empirical work is required.
2
Russ, Andrew. "Diagnosing eyewitness accuracy." Thesis, University of Kent, 2015. https://kar.kent.ac.uk/53992/.
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Eyewitnesses frequently mistake innocent people for the perpetrator of an observed crime. Such misidentifications have led to the wrongful convictions of many people. Despite this, no reliable method yet exists to determine eyewitness accuracy. This thesis explored two new experimental methods for this purpose. Chapter 2 investigated whether repetition priming can measure prior exposure to a target and compared this with observers’ explicit eyewitness accuracy. Across three experiments slower responses to target faces were consistently observed irrespective of eyewitness accuracy in a lineup task. This indicates that repetition priming can provide a covert index of eyewitness accuracy. However this method could not reliably assess the accuracy of individual eyewitnesses. Chapter 3 therefore explored an alternative test of eyewitness accuracy which was based on a multiple lineup procedure for faces. The characteristics of this method were assessed over five experiments which showed that only some eyewitnesses can actually identify a perpetrator repeatedly. Chapter 4 then showed that such repeat-identifications can provide a direct index of eyewitness accuracy in a field study. Over two experiments, the success of this method was such that eyewitnesses who consistently acted on the same identity over six lineups were always accurate eyewitnesses. These results demonstrate that multiple lineups of faces could provide a useful method for assessing eyewitness accuracy. The implications of these findings, both for further study and for forensic application, are discussed.
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Cullen, Hayley. "Inattentional blindness in eyewitnesses to crime: Consequences for eyewitness safety, memory and credibility." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2020. https://hdl.handle.net/2123/25120.
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When attention is focused elsewhere, individuals may fail to notice unexpected events in plain sight, a phenomenon known as inattentional blindness (IB: Mack & Rock, 1998). In legal settings, eyewitnesses may experience IB and fail to notice entire crimes occurring (Hyman, 2016). The current thesis aimed to assess the impact of IB on eyewitness safety, memory, and credibility.
In the first two studies, IB for an assault crime was measured. The presence of a weapon was manipulated (Study 1), and memory for the crime was assessed (Study 1 & Study 2). The results showed that weapon presence did not impact rates of IB. Study 1 found that IB impacted the quantity, but not quality, of witness memory. However, when manipulating the recall instructions in Study 2, IB negatively affected both the quantity and quality of memory. Given that witnesses who experience IB may testify in court, subsequent studies were conducted to explore perceptions of eyewitness IB. In Study 3, lawyers, psychology students, and members of the public were surveyed regarding their beliefs about IB in legal scenarios. All populations overestimated visual detection across most legal scenarios. In Studies 4 and 5, mock-jurors read a trial containing two key witnesses: one who saw the crime, and one who experienced IB. Both studies showed that the witness who experienced IB was perceived as less credible than the witness who saw the crime. In Study 5, several factors (witness role, witness familiarity with defendant, and expert testimony) did not influence the negative perceptions of IB. Therefore, Studies 6 and 7 aimed to determine whether demonstrating IB and providing expert testimony on IB would improve perceptions of witness IB. Neither demonstrating IB nor expert testimony rectified the negative perceptions of witness IB. The findings within this thesis indicate that IB among eyewitnesses presents a unique challenge in criminal settings.
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Ferreira, Pedro João Bem-Haja Gabriel. "Psychophysiology of eyewitness testimony." Doctoral thesis, Universidade de Aveiro, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10773/22797.
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Doutoramento em PsicologiaAs testemunhas oculares são muitas vezes o único meio que temos para aceder à autoria de um crime. Contudo, apesar dos 100 anos de evidência de erros no testemunho ocular, a consciência das suas limitações como meio de prova só ganhou força no advento do ADN. De facto os estudos de exoneração mostraram que 70 % das ilibações estavam associadas a erros de testemunho ocular. Estes erros têm um impacto social elevado principalmente os falsos positivos, por colocar inocentes na prisão. De acordo com a literatura, deverão ser utilizadas novas abordagens para tentar reduzir o numero de erros de identificação. Destas abordagens, destacam-se a análise dos padrões de movimentos oculares e os potenciais evocados. Nos nossos estudos utilizamos essas novas abordagens com o objetivo de examinar os padrões de acerto ou de identificação do criminoso, usando um paradigma de deteção de sinal. No que diz respeito aos movimentos oculares, não foram encontrados padrões robustos de acerto. No entanto, obtiveram-se evidências oculométricas de que a fusão de dois procedimentos (Alinhamento Simultâneo depois de um Alinhamento Sequencial com Regra de Paragem) aumenta a probabilidade de acerto. Em relação aos potenciais evocados, a P100 registou maior amplitude quando identificamos um inocente. Este efeito é concomitante com uma hiperactivação no córtex prefrontal ventromedial (CPFVM) identificada na análise de estimação de fontes. Esta hiperativação poderá estar relacionada com uma exacerbação emocional da informação proveniente da amígdala. A literatura relaciona a hiperativação no CPFVM com as falsas memorias, e estes resultados sugerem que a P100 poderá ser um promissor indicador de falsos positivos. Os resultados da N170 não nos permitem associar este componente ao acerto na identificação. Relativamente à P300, os resultados mostram uma maior amplitude deste componente quando identificamos corretamente um alvo, mas não diferiu significativamente de quando identificamos um inocente. Porém, a estimação de fontes mostrou que nessa janela temporal (300-600 ms) se verifica uma hipoativação dos Campos Oculares Frontais (COF) quando um distrator é identificado. Baixas ativações dos COF estão relacionadas com redução da eficiência de processamento e com a incapacidade para detetar alvos. Nas medidas periféricas, a eletromiografia facial mostrou que a maior ativação do corrugador e a menor ativação do zigomático são um bom indicador de quando estamos perante um criminoso. No que diz respeito ao ritmo cardíaco, a desaceleração esperada para os alvos devido à sua saliência emocional apenas foi obtida quando a visualização de um alvo foi acompanhada por um erro na identificação (i.e., um falso negativo). Neste trabalho de investigação parece que o sistema nervoso periférico está a responder corretamente, identificando o alvo, por ser emocionalmente mais saliente, enquanto que a modulação executiva efectuada pelo CPFVM conduz ao falso positivo. Os resultados obtidos são promissores e relevantes, principalmente quando o resultado de um erro poderá ser uma condenação indevida e, consequentemente, uma vida injustamente destruída.
Eyewitnesses are often the only way we can access the author of a crime. However, despite 100 years of evidence of errors in eyewitness testimony, awareness of its limitations only gained strength with the advent of DNA. In fact, 70% of exonerations have been associated with eyewitness errors. These errors have a high social impact, mainly false positives. According to the literature, new approaches to try to reduce the number of identification errors should be used. Of these, the study of oculometric patterns and event-related Potentials (ERP) stand out. In our studies, these new approaches were used with the objective of examining patterns of accuracy, using a signal detection paradigm. Regarding eye movements, no entirely clear patterns were found. However, there was oculometric evidence that the merging of two procedures (Simultaneous Lineup after a Sequential Lineup with Stopping Rule) increases performance accuracy. Regarding ERPs, the P100 registered a larger amplitude when an innocent was identified. This effect is concomitant with a hyperactivation in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) identified by source estimation analysis. This hyperactivation might be related to an emotional exacerbation of the information coming from the amygdala. The literature relates the hyperactivation in the VMPFC with false memories, and these results suggest that the P100 component might be a promising marker of false positive errors. The results of the N170 do not allow to associate this component with accuracy. Regarding the P300, the results showed a greater amplitude of this component when a target was correctly identified but did not differ significantly from when an innocent was identified. However, source analysis in this time window (300-600 ms) showed a hypoactivation of Frontal Eye Fields (FEF) when a distractor was identified. FEF inactivations are related to the reduction of processing efficiency and to the inability to detect a target. Concerning the peripheral measures, facial electromyography showed that the greater activation of the corrugator and the lower activation of the zygomaticus are a good marker of when we are facing a perpetrator. Regarding heart rate, the expected deceleration for the targets due to their emotional salience was only obtained when the visualization of a target was accompanied by an error in the identification (i.e., a miss). In this research it seems that the peripheral nervous system is responding correctly, identifying the target, because it is emotionally more salient, while the executive modulation carried out by the VMPFC causes the false positive error. The results presently obtained are promising and relevant, especially when the result of an error might be an undue condemnation of an innocent and consequently a destroyed life.
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Hobson, Zoe J. "Eyewitness identification of multiple perpetrators." Thesis, London South Bank University, 2013. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.593649.
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Eyewitness identification is crucial in the apprehension and prosecution of criminals and it is thought to be one of the major determining factors in jury decision making. Making accurate identifications is therefore imperative, yet research has demonstrated that a number of variables can influence an eyewitness’ identification performance. One such factor is the number of perpetrators seen in the crime event. Recently, both within England and Wales and around the world, there has been a dramatic increase in crimes which involve multiple perpetrators. In contrast, only a few isolated studies have examined eyewitness performance of identifying multiple perpetrators of one crime, all of which have suggested that accuracy is poor, but few studies have made direct comparisons to single perpetrator identifications. This research aimed to explore multiple perpetrator identification performance, and extend previous literature to examine theoretical explanations behind eyewitnesses’ performance. The first study explored the extent of multiple perpetrator identifications within England and Wales and reports the results from a survey distributed to all police identification units within each force. Four further experimental studies were then conducted. Study 2 used an eyewitness paradigm to systematically explore the effects of single and multiple perpetrators at both the encoding (crime event) and retrieval (identification) stage, with results indicating that there was a multiple perpetrator disadvantage, highlighting that multiple perpetrators cause the greatest interference at the encoding stage of the process. Study 3 considered divided attention as a theoretical explanation for the poor identification performance of multiple perpetrators by integrating a change blindness paradigm and eyewitness paradigm, again comparing between single and multiple perpetrator crimes. As those who viewed a multiple perpetrator event were less likely to notice the change in perpetrator, and identification performance was poor, Study 4 questioned whether cueing a witness using intentional instructions could focus their attention to one particular perpetrator and subsequently improve identification performance, with positive results. Since the previous experiments had found an effect of divided attention, Study 5 examined whether the similarity of the perpetrators also caused interference at encoding, with results suggesting that they do. As multiple perpetrators in one crime event appear to cause interference in the perceptual process at the encoding, or crime, stage, future research needs to identify further methods of aiding witnesses to accurately encode the information and subsequently retrieve it, whether this is through elaborate instructions, or identification procedures.
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Kneller, Wendy. "Reducing errors of eyewitness indentifications." Thesis, University of Southampton, 2002. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/33508/.
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Throughout the thesis, the issue of whether eyewitness decision strategy (relative or absolute) is indicative of accuracy was examined. Results were mixed but where an effect emerged (studies 1, 2a & 2b), the data suggested that eyewitnesses were more likely to be accurate when using an absolute decision strategy. The likelihood of using such a strategy was maximised when lineup members were viewed under a sequential presentation rather than a simultaneous presentation. In this respect, the sequential lineup was recommended over the more usual simultaneous lineup. The effect of lineup member similarity on accuracy and decision strategy usage was also examined through the manipulation of lineup construction methods (similarity-to-suspect; match-to-description). Results indicated that neither construction method significantly influenced accuracy or decision strategy usage. The thesis also examined the influence of an emergent factor - facial distinctiveness - with the expectation that a distinctive target would be easier to identify from a line-up because of (i) a more resilient memory trace, (ii) a representation which elicits less confusion with similar faces, or (iii) a more heterogeneous set of foils as a match to the distinctive target face. In a series of experiments (studies 2a, 2b, & 3) in which target presence, lineup construction, and lineup presentation type (simultaneous; sequential) were manipulated, distinctiveness failed to influence eyewitness performance. A partial replication of experiments of 2a and 2b in which delay was shortened also failed to find the expected distinctiveness advantage (study 4). The lack of a distinctiveness advantage was unlikely to be due to the particular targets used as a traditional laboratory-based old/new task yielded the expected advantage when recognising distinctive faces over typical faces in general, and the distinctive target over the typical target in particular (study 5).
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Van, Norman David. "Eyewitness suggestibility across presentation modalities." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 1992. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/454.
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Houston, Kate Alexandra. "The emotional eyewitness : an investigation into the effects of anger on eyewitness recall and recognition performance." Thesis, University of Aberdeen, 2010. http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=165532.
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The present thesis examined the effects of anger on the completeness and accuracy of eyewitness free and cued recall and recognition performance. Anger was revealed by a recent survey as the emotion experienced by the majority of eyewitnesses to crime, so is particularly important in this context. Previous literature has tended to use generic concepts such as ‘emotion’ or ‘stress’ to investigate emotion effects, but this thesis sought to examine the effect of the specific emotion of anger on memory. Experiment 1 tested theoretical predictions regarding the effects of anger on encoding and retrieval processes. In line with these predictions, angry participants provide more complete descriptions of a perpetrator compared to neutral participants. However, angry participants provide less complete descriptions of the perpetrator’s actions than their neutral counterparts. This pattern of results was replicated throughout all experiments in this thesis. Experiment 2 revealed that anger has no effect on the completeness and accuracy of victim descriptions. Experiment 3 found that the pattern of anger effects observed for a younger adult sample were also found when older adults were tested. This prompted a statistical comparison of younger and older adults which found very few age effects and no interactions between age of the participant, experience of anger and the category of detail recalled. The final experiment thoroughly investigated the effects of anger on participants’ ability to recognise the perpetrator from a photographic lineup. The main findings of this thesis suggest that while angry eyewitnesses may be able to provide a more complete description of the perpetrator, they may be less able to describe what he did, and less able to accurately recognise him from a lineup than neutral eyewitnesses. These findings are discussed in terms of cognitive and meta-cognitive models of encoding and retrieval.
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Hulse, Lynn Marie. "Eyewitness memory for emotionally arousing events." Thesis, University of Aberdeen, 2005. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.430970.
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For three decades, psychologists and forensic practitioners have been asking, “How does emotional arousal affect eyewitness memory?” Despite much research, a definite and comprehensive answer to this question has not been forthcoming. This thesis investigates some of the pertinent issues regarding the nature of the effects on memory (enhancements, impairments), the aspects of memory affected (completeness vis. Accuracy, recall vs. identifications, central vs. peripheral details), and the underlying mechanisms (selective cognitive processing including post-stimulus elaboration), employing empirical designs that are both novel and more ecologically valid than seen in previous research. Experiment 1 demonstrated the difficulties in studying the effects on memory as a function of the individual level of arousal experienced by participants during a live staged crime event. Therefore, the three experiments that followed compared memory for details from emotionally arousing vs. less or non-arousing events via dynamic videos and an interactive simulator. These experiments revealed that recall accuracy is often enhanced for event details central to the source of arousal. However, Experiments 2 and 3 demonstrated that the completeness of recall, particularly for event details preceding an arousal criminal act, tends to be impaired. Experiment 4 qualified the latter finding by demonstrating that impairments are not an inevitable consequence of arousal per se, nor is the activation of cognitive mechanism such as post-stimulus elaboration, but rather a consequence of the way in which arousal is induced (i.e. through the sight of weapons vs. through empathy and involvement in an unfolding plot). Lastly, recall for and identification of crime perpetrators were largely unaffected by emotional arousal.
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Wood, Jessica Dilan. "THE ROLE OF IMPLICATION IN EYEWITNESS MEMORY." MSSTATE, 2008. http://sun.library.msstate.edu/ETD-db/theses/available/etd-04042008-092213/.
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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.
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Nelson, Breanna. "The impact of training on eyewitness memory." Honors in the Major Thesis, University of Central Florida, 2013. http://digital.library.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ETH/id/889.
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In a large body of research, Elizabeth Loftus (1975) first illuminated major concerns about the inaccuracy of eyewitness accounts. The primary goal of the present research was to test whether training regarding common eyewitness mistakes and witness suggestibility could improve eyewitness accuracy. The experimental group watched a presentation on research conducted by Elizabeth Loftus (1975) on eyewitness testimony and suggestibility during a Psychology course. Afterwards, an actor interrupted the classroom and had a discussion with the teacher. Students were asked a series of questions about the disruption. Some of the questions were leading and suggested certain things about the disruption that were inaccurate. After the misleading questions were asked, students were instructed to write a brief summary of what they saw. One week later, the students were asked direct questions about the disruption. A control group did not receive the presentation on eyewitness testimony, but witnessed the exact same event as the experimental group and followed the same procedure. The results suggest that participants who were trained were not as influenced as participants in the control group. Additionally, students in the control group reported the actor's behavior as more threatening than did the experimental group. This research not only adds to the existing literature, but has the potential to improve current eyewitness identification procedures in order to strengthen our justice system.B.S.
Bachelors
Sciences
Psychology
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Ridley, Anne M. "The effect of anxiety on eyewitness testimony." Thesis, University of East London, 2003. http://roar.uel.ac.uk/1227/.
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Anxiety at the time of interview in witnesses to a crime has received scant attention from researchersin the eyewitnesst estimony field. In this thesis, the effects of state and trait anxiety on memory accuracy, suggestibility and confidence of accuracy were investigated. In addition, with respect to suggestibility, the effects of anxiety at the time of encoding misleading information was evaluated and compared to the effects of anxiety at the time of its possibler etrieval as a suggestibler esponse. Five laboratory-based studies were conducted. The first three used a standard suggestibility paradigm and anxious mood was induced by an experimental manipulation. The fourth study was a source identification experiment and the fifth was a line-up recognition study. The fourth and fifth studies both used questionnaire measures of state anxiety. Questionnaire measures of trait anxiety were used in all experiments. Neither state nor trait anxiety was found to affect memory accuracy, measured by cued-recall in Studies I to 3, nor did anxiety affect correct attributions to source in Study 4. In Study 5 there was a modest improvement in identification accuracy in the high state-anxious group, but only when the target was present in the line-up. Misleading post-event information (MPI) did not lead to suggestibility in Study 5, but it did affect accuracy. There was a strong effect of NTI in all other studies with misinformed groups more suggestible than controls. However, anxiety moderated the effect of MPI, with high state anxiety (whether experimentally induced or measured by questionnaire) being associated with reductions in suggestibility. In contrast, trait anxiety was associated with higher levels of suggestibility, but the effects of state anxiety were stronger. In Studies I-3 it was found that anxiety at either the encoding or the retrieval of WI generally resulted in lower levels of suggestibility. Anxiety affected confidence of memory accuracy, with more accurate confidence judgements generally observed in low anxious participants. In contrast, anxiety did not affect confidence in responsesto questionst esting suggestibility. Overall, the findings indicate that elevated state anxiety at interview does not adversely affect eyewitness performance and can reduce the negative effects of WI. Results are discussed in the light of both theories of cognition and emotion, for example cognitive biases associated with anxiety, and eyewitness testimony research,. in particular theories of suggestibility.
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Ling, Jonathan. "The development of eyewitness memory for colour." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 1997. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.266726.
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Martire, Kristy Anne Psychology Faculty of Science UNSW. "Helping jurors to evaluate eyewitness identifications: the role of expert evidence and judicial instruction." Publisher:University of New South Wales. Psychology, 2008. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/40801.
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Psychologists, legal practitioners and scholars share the knowledge that honest eyewitnesses can err in their attempts to identify the perpetrator of a crime. This thesis reports an experimental investigation of the extent to which expert evidence and judicial instruction can improve juror ability to discriminate between accurate and inaccurate identifications. Special attention is also paid to the logic of inferences which have been made by psychologists regarding the efficacy of expert evidence, and compares methodologies adopting direct measures of participant Sensitivity to Eyewitness Accuracy (SEA) with those that can only indirectly assess this construct. Study 1 surveys the knowledge and opinions of legal professionals regarding eyewitness identification issues (n = 35), showing that respondents expressed doubts that judicial instructions would exert an effect equivalent to that of eyewitness expert evidence. Accordingly, Experiments 1 to 4 (Experiment 1, n = 104; Experiment 2, n = 238; Experiment 3, n = 228; Experiment 4, n = 297) were conducted to directly assess the relative impacts of judicial instruction and expert evidence on participant juror SEA. The methodology utilised in these investigations incorporated the testimony of real eyewitnesses to a staged crime scenario in order to assess the impact of instruction on juror ability to discriminate between known accurate and known inaccurate eyewitnesses. Overall, little evidence was found to support the notion that expert evidence is more effective than judicial instruction, as no significant association was identified between instruction type and SEA. This result was found to hold irrespective of the objective quality of the expert?s testimony (accurate or erroneous). In light of the results from Experiments 1 to 4, Experiment 5 was designed to investigate why the experts were not able to improve the discrimination accuracy of the jurors. This study focused on the extent to which participants of varying levels of expertise could correctly classify eyewitness accuracy. The results of Experiment 5 (n = 145) suggest that experts were no better able to discriminate between accurate and inaccurate eyewitnesses than novice laypeople. Overall, the evidence reported in this thesis raises serious questions regarding the utility of eyewitness expertise in the completion of eyewitness discrimination tasks.
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Dickinson, Jason James. "Eyewitness decision-making with showups : probative or perilous?" FIU Digital Commons, 2005. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/2813.
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Cutshall, Judith Lynne. "Eyewitness’ characteristics and memory : an in situ analysis." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1985. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/25372.
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An extensive review of eyewitness testimony research reveals that (1) research findings are inconsistent in their assessments of the fallibility of eyewitness memory and in their attempts to delineate the factors which affect eyewitness' memory; (2) the criminal justice system questions the validity of generalizing these research findings to real-world eyewitnessing situations. It is suggested in this thesis that researchers' over-reliance on experimental methodology has led to a confused image of eyewitness' memory which is of questionable relevance to actual eyewitness situations.
A non-experimental examination of real-world eyewitnesses is therefore proposed as a first step toward collecting meaningful data relating to eyewitness memory. Two types of non-experimental research are presented in this thesis: archival research and a case study of eyewitnesses to a violent crime. The archival research, which was drawn from R.C.M. Police files, was designed as a means of gathering baseline data concerning actual eyewitnesses, for example, their gender and age and how often they are also victims of crime. The case study involved interviewing thirteen witnesses, all of whom had witnessed the same gunshooting incident. Witnesses were questioned by police at the time of the incident and interviewed by our research team four to five months later. Both statements were analyzed for the number and type of details reported and the accuracy of those details. Higher accuracy rates than those reported in the experimental literature were found in the witnesses' statements both at the time of the incident and several months later.
Although the data base established in these studies is insufficient to judge the validity or invalidity of prior eyewitness research, it does appear that experimental research has not appropriately assessed eyewitnessing ability in regard to witnessing a striking, violent real-world event. The generalizability of experimental research to this type of event is therefore highly suspect. It is concluded that the combination of archival and field research will yield the data base needed for developing an understanding of the behaviour of actual eyewitnesses.Arts, Faculty of
Psychology, Department of
Graduate
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Dupuis, Paul R. "Calibrating eyewitness identification accuracy using rank-combined lineups." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2001. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp05/MQ63296.pdf.
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Dysart, Jennifer E. "The effects of delay on eyewitness identification accuracy." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1999. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape10/PQDD_0003/MQ42609.pdf.
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Mingay, D. J. "Memory for eyewitness materials : Improving and predicting performance." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1986. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.372894.
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Maras, Katie. "Eyewitness testimony by adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder." Thesis, City University London, 2011. http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/1145/.
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Eyewitness testimony is central to the criminal justice system, and may include that given by individuals with ASD. Despite the memory difficulties that are experienced by people with ASD, sparse research to date has examined the reliability of their testimony. This thesis presents a series of experiments that are aimed at exploring factors affecting eyewitness testimony in adults with ASD. Findings across five experiments suggest that individuals with ASD can recall as much and as accurately as their typical counterparts if they are interviewed appropriately. It seems that high-functioning ASD individuals at least are no more or less suggestible than their typical counterparts, and that both ASD and typical individuals modulate memory with arousal typically as demonstrated by their attenuated forgetting rates over time for arousing events compared to neutral events. However, a particularly pertinent finding from the present work was that the widely used police Cognitive Interview (CI) not only fails to increase the reporting of details by individuals with ASD, but it also significantly reduces their accuracy of recall. It seems that the main component of the CI - „context reinstatement‟ - is problematic for individuals with ASD, not because they fail to encode an event with its contextual details to start with, but because they have difficulty in following the CI‟s series of verbal instructions in order to retrieve this context to trigger their memory of the event. Findings indicate that recall by individuals with ASD can in fact be aided by more supportive context cues: when they physically return to the same environmental context in which they encoded the event their recall is enhanced to that of their typical counterparts. These findings have important implications for ascertaining the reliability of reports given by witnesses with ASD and highlight that, whilst the CI should not be used to interview them, there may be appropriate context-supportive interviewing techniques that can help to enhance their recall. A number of future research directions are highlighted by the present findings. These are discussed along with the implications and limitations of this work in the final chapter.
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Chung, Cheuk-fai Bell, and 鍾灼輝. "Lineup superiority effects in cross-racial eyewitness identification." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2010. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B45147607.
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Ellis, Heather. "Unconscious transference : an investigation of eyewitness identification errors." Thesis, University of Aberdeen, 2002. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.248645.
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The thesis investigates the unconscious transference phenomenon which has been implicated in cases of mistaken identity. When an eyewitness to a crime misidentifies an innocent, but previously encountered person as the perpetrator in response to a lineup which does not include culprit, it has been speculated that the eyewitness confuses the two people by transferring their identities across contexts. This traditional definition of unconscious transference was investigated in one of two experiments. A videotaped, staged theft scenario was shown to 770 participant witnesses who attempted to identify the perpetrator from a photographic lineup. Those who viewed an innocent bystander prior to the crime scenario, were more likely to mistake that familiar person for the perpetrator when the latter was absent from the lineup, compared to control participants who were not shown the bystander. Bystander misidentifications obtained indicate that transference did occur. A significant minority of participants consciously inferred that the bystander and the perpetrator were the same person seen in different settings. Others realised that the two confederates were different individuals but misattributed the source of their memories. In a second experiment, evidence of another type of unconscious transference, characterised as a commitment effect, was obtained. Three months after the initial lineup, a second lineup administered to 505 participants from the first investigation indicated that an innocent person initially misidentified is likely to continue to be misidentified even if he/she was unfamiliar to the eyewitness prior to his photograph being shown. Further, a repeat misidentification is likely even when the perpetrator is included in the subsequent lineup. Cognitive mechanisms implicated in the transference effects include some monitoring and memory blending. However, relative judgements, demand characteristics and changes of presentation media were also implicated. The ramifications for forensic eyewitness situations are such that unconscious transference demands increased attention from eyewitness researchers.
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Crossland, Deborah. "Investigating the influence of alcohol on eyewitness memory." Thesis, University of Winchester, 2017. http://repository.winchester.ac.uk/848/.
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Whilst many eyewitness factors have been researched, one issue that has been largely overlooked until very recently is witness intoxication. Police officers in study 1 of this thesis, however, indicated that intoxicated witnesses are a common occurrence. With so little research there are no specific guidelines for the Criminal Justice System detailing the capabilities of intoxicated witnesses. To understand the abilities of these individuals, this thesis tested the theory currently underpinning intoxicated witness research: Alcohol Myopia Theory (AMT). This theory considers alcohol to particularly impair the recall of low, as opposed to high, salience details. Within this thesis, in contrast to previous research, but consistent with AMT, salience was determined by spatial location and semantic meaning, as opposed to information type or centrality. At low (MBAC=.06%) to moderate (MBAC=.09%) levels of intoxication, recall was not impaired when memory was assessed through free recall or a true/false recognition test. At higher intoxication levels (MBAC=.14%; study 3; a field study), contrary to the propositions of AMT, alcohol was only seen to impair free recall completeness, with high rather than low salience details suffering the greater deficit. In seeking to improve the recall of highly intoxicated witnesses, study 4 (a field study) adopted a modified Enhanced Cognitive Interview (ECI) procedure, applying the report everything and mental reinstatement of context mnemonics. The ECI, improved the correct recall, accuracy and completeness of moderately (MBAC=.05%) and severely intoxicated (MBAC=.14%) witnesses. With this thesis indicating that low to moderate intoxication levels are not particularly detrimental to recall, study 5 looked at juror perceptions of intoxicated witness credibility. The knowledge that the witness was intoxicated, rather than the actual testimony, resulted in poorer credibility ratings. In light of this thesis’ findings it is argued that AMT does not account for alcohols effect on eyewitness recall, but high levels of intoxication impair recall completeness but not accuracy. Based on this thesis it is recommended that police officers are provided with clear guidelines on how to deal with intoxicated witnesses, including interviewing with the ECI, even in the modified form. In addition, it is recommended that all parties in the judicial process be educated on the limited effect moderate intoxication has on witness recall, and that severe intoxication impairs recall completeness but not accuracy.
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Pace, Torrian M. "The Influence of Social Media on Eyewitness Accounts." Youngstown State University / OhioLINK, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ysu1433759197.
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Vredeveldt, Annelies. "The benefits of eye-closure on eyewitness memory." Thesis, University of York, 2011. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/2052/.
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Eyewitness memory is not perfect. However, recent research suggests that eyewitnesses remember more about a witnessed event if they close their eyes during the interview. The experiments reported in this thesis investigated applied and theoretical aspects of the eye-closure effect. Experiments 1-2 examined whether the effect extended to recall of violent events. Eye-closure was found to be as beneficial for recall of physiologically arousing violent events as it was for non-violent events, extending the generalisibility of the effect. Experiment 3 examined recall after a delay and repeated recall attempts, and found no benefits of eye-closure during immediate free recall, but substantial benefits in both free and cued recall after one week. Experiments 4-5 examined the theoretical underpinnings of the eye-closure effect. No evidence was found for an “ear-closure” effect on a written recall test. Nevertheless, meaningless visual and auditory distractions during an oral interview impaired recall performance, particularly for information presented in the same modality as the distraction. These impairments could be overcome by eye-closure or, to a lesser extent, by looking at a blank screen. The data were fitted to the newly proposed Cognitive Resources framework, to estimate the relative importance of general and modality-specific processes. Experiment 6 enhanced the ecological validity of the research. A forensically relevant event was staged on the street, after which witnesses were interviewed either in a quiet interview room or on a busy street. Eye-closure had substantial benefits in free recall and helped witnesses to provide detailed correct answers about visual aspects of the event. It was most effective for witnesses interviewed inside, suggesting that mental context reinstatement might play a role in the eye-closure effect. Taken together, the findings suggest that the eye-closure instruction could provide a simple alternative to the Cognitive Interview, particularly when police resources are limited.
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Frowley, Jason N. "The effect of social stereotypes on eyewitness behaviour." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 1994. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/15121.
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Eyewitness behaviour is a very important issue in social psychology. Recent years have seen a boom in research in this area; however, very little of this research has addressed the important and fundamental issues raised by the social factors that are involved when eyewitnessing takes place. The present thesis reports research which addresses the effect of social- stereotypic information upon a number of aspects of the eyewitness situation. Of particular interest is the effect of stereotypic information upon the judgment of aggressive and violent actions, and face and body stimuli; on memory for information associated with a dramatic staged incident, when presented either before or after target material; and its impact in an eyewitness interview situation. Finally, an interview technique is designed and tested which aims to reduce the negative impact of stereotypic information on eyewitness memory. Throughout, the impact of stereotypic information presented at encoding and at retrieval is contrasted and compared. The effect of delay between encoding and retrieval is also considered. It is concluded that stereotypic information may affect judgments of information relevant to the eyewitnessing situation whether presented before or after target material. Similarly, stereotypic information may affect memory when it is presented before target material. Little effect is however to be expected on memory when stereotypic information is presented at retrieval, although the exact effects may be found to vary with the nature of the target stimuli used. The source-monitoring interview, based on research by Marcia Johnson and her colleagues, appears a promising means of reducing the distorting effect of stereotypes on memory; particularly when a delay occurs between the encoding and retrieval of target material.
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Colloff, Melissa F. "Eyewitness identification performance on lineups for distinctive suspects." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2016. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/90153/.
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When constructing lineups for suspects with distinctive facial features (e.g., scars, tattoos, piercings), current police guidelines in several countries state that the distinctive suspect must not stand out. To this end, police officers sometimes artificially replicate a suspect’s distinctive feature across the other lineup members (replication); other times, they conceal the feature on the suspect and conceal a similar area on the other members by pixelating the area (pixelation), or covering the area with a solid rectangle (block). Although these three techniques are used frequently, little research has examined their efficacy. This thesis investigates how the lineup techniques for distinctive suspects influence eyewitness identification performance and, in doing so, tests the predictions of a new model of eyewitness decision-making—the diagnostic-feature-detection model (Wixted & Mickes, 2014). The research uses a standard eyewitness identification paradigm and signal detection statistics to examine how replication, pixelation, and block techniques influence identification performance: [1] compared to doing nothing to stop the distinctive suspect from standing out; [2] in young, middle-aged and older adults; and [3] when the culprit does not have the feature during the crime. It also examines [4] how variation in the way the suspect’s feature is replicated influences identification performance. The results converge to suggest that all three lineup techniques currently used by the police to accommodate distinctive suspects are equally effective and, when the culprit has the feature at the time of the crime, all enhance people’s ability to discriminate between innocent and guilty suspects more than doing nothing to prevent a distinctive suspect from standing out. All three lineup techniques enable people of all ages to make highly confident decisions when they are likely to be accurate. These findings align with the predictions of the diagnostic-feature-detection model, which suggests that the model remains a viable theory of eyewitness decision-making.
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Sattar, Ghazala Roohi. "The interviewing and preparation of child witnesses for legal purposes." Thesis, University of Portsmouth, 2000. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.323288.
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The thesis focused on three areas in the child eyewitness literature that have received limited research attention: (1) the use of props to facilitate children's recall; (2) the effect of individual differences (in particular ethnicity) on children's recall; and (3) the preparation of children for court. Three recently developed prop-based techniques designed to facilitate children's recall were evaluated. The felt board technique did not significantly increase children correct (and erroneous) free recall, thus supporting the previous limited research (Poole, 1992). The auditory feedback technique also did not significantly increase children's correct (and erroneous) additional recall, though descriptive analyses suggested this technique to be most beneficial for older children. The pictorial cue cards technique did not significantly increase children's correct (and erroneous) free recall. Descriptive analyses revealed that children who were instructed in how to use the cue cards provided more correct free recall and less erroneous free recall than children who practised using the cue cards before the interview. Children'S ethnicity and interviewer's ethnicity were not found to significantly effect children's recall but did have some effect on children's response to questioning. The findings of the interview studies suggested that greater attention needs to be given to the examination of how individual differences affect children's recall. Professionals who were surveyed about their views and experience of preparation of child witnesses for court were found to be aware of the systeminduced trauma suffered by child witnesses and thus the need to support them with preparation. Overall, professionals' experience suggested that child witnesses received preparation that was often insufficient and variable in quality. The survey findings highlighted the need for further research in this neglected area and for better training and greater resources for professionals tasked with supporting child witnesses.
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Holmes, Amanda E. Weaver Charles A. "Assessing the phenomenology of eyewitness memory for product identification." Waco, Tex. : Baylor University, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/2104/5027.
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Neilson, David D. "Society at war : eyewitness accounts of sixteenth century Japan /." view abstract or download file of text, 2007. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1421612371&sid=1&Fmt=2&clientId=11238&RQT=309&VName=PQD.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2007.Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 368-373). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.
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Moston, S. J. "Social support and the quality of children's eyewitness testimony." Thesis, University of Kent, 1989. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.234441.
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Newlands, Pamela Jane. "Eyewitness interviewing : does the cognitive interview fit the bill?" Thesis, University of Westminster, 1997. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.362662.
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Dixon, Susan. "The effects of post-event feedback on eyewitness testimony." Thesis, University of Aberdeen, 2007. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.445158.
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This thesis raised new questions about how eyewitness evidence might be distorted by information encountered after having witnessed an event. First, Experiment 1 explored eyewitness perceptions of ambiguous, unfolding scenarios, before post-event feedback (PEF) had been administered. The study identified the main risk cues used by eyewitnesses to assess the likelihood of whether a crime might occur, which included situation, behaviour, physical appearance and emotion details. Behaviour (particularly, actions and movements) was the most frequently reported cue. Subsequent experiments introduced different types of PEF and examined the effects of each on specific aspects of eyewitness evidence. Experiment 2 explored participants’ beliefs regarding actions and details ‘common or typical’ of a mugging incident. Experiment 3 then asked how PEF about the outcome of a seemingly ambiguous event might affect eyewitness recall. Eyewitnesses told the outcome was a mugging were more likely to rate the character of the perpetrator and victim more negatively then a neutral and no outcome group. Eyewitnesses who believed the outcome would be a mugging reported more details consistent with that outcome (based on the mugging script generated in Experiment 2), highlighting the need to acknowledge eyewitnesses’ own beliefs about an event. Experiment 4 explored the effect of feedback that could be administered during or after an interview. High agreement with co-witnesses significantly increased eyewitnesses’ reports about how confident they had been at the time of making a judgement about a crime event compared to those told agreement with others was low. However, in an exploration of the effects of pre-identification feedback, Experiment 5 revealed that co-witness feedback based on recall performance did not significantly affect performance on an identification task.
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Noon, Elizabeth. "An investigation of eyewitness memory and the cognitive interview." Thesis, University of Leicester, 1993. http://hdl.handle.net/2381/34678.
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Eyewitness testimony is widely held to be the most powerful and pervasive type of evidence routinely introduced into courts of law and the most important source of evidence leading to conviction. The aim of the current research was to address the issue of eyewitness testimony in the British legal system. Specifically, the research was designed to examine contemporary understanding of the potential limitations of eyewitness memory and to compare the Cognitive Interview with the 'standard' British police interview. The survey of opinion about the limitations of eyewitness memory included all those groups involved in the legal process; police investigators, solicitors, barristers and members of the public (potential eyewitnesses and jurors). The major findings from this survey were that there was considerable lack of awareness of the actual implications of adjudicative facts that bear on the reliability of eyewitness testimony, and that solicitors and barristers were more in tune with findings of empirical research than were police officers. Investigation of the Cognitive Interview and its constituent parts failed to replicate the extremely positive results reported in the body of previous research by the interview authors, Fisher and Geiselman: significant and consistent enhancement effects were not typically found. The practical and theoretical explanations of these findings are discussed with particular reference to the importance of the method of training and the recent developments of the Cognitive Interview.
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Bartlett, Robin Myers. "Individual differences and suggestibility of children's eyewitness memory reports." Morgantown, W. Va. : [West Virginia University Libraries], 2000. http://etd.wvu.edu/templates/showETD.cfm?recnum=1374.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2000.Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains ix, 140 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 63-70).
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Lougklou, Fani. "Attachment and memory does attachment experience influence eyewitness testimony? /." Huntington, WV : [Marshall University Libraries], 2002. http://www.marshall.edu/etd/descript.asp?ref=123.
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Flowe, Heather D. "The effect of lineup member similarity on recognition accuracy in simultaneous and sequential lineups." Diss., Connected to a 24 p. preview or request complete full text in PDF format. Access restricted to UC IP addresses, 2005. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ucsd/fullcit?p3189995.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2005.Title from first page of PDF file (viewed March 1, 2006). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references ( p. 113-116).
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Gurney, D. J. "The misleading potential of communicative hand gestures in a forensic interview." Thesis, University of Hertfordshire, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/2299/6003.
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A wealth of research has highlighted the susceptibility of eyewitnesses to verbal influence. However, considerably less attention has been paid to the role of nonverbal influence in police questioning. The purpose of this thesis was to evaluate the extent to which gestures can exert an influence on witnesses and skew their responses when questioned. Study 1 initially investigated this by presenting participants with an on-screen 'police' interviewer who accompanied his questions with gestures conveying either accurate or misleading information about a piece of video footage they had witnessed. Results showed that, for one question in particular, participants' responses concurred with the information conveyed to them in gesture; accurate gestures led more participants to giving correct responses and misleading gestures led more participants to giving fabricated responses. Study 2 built on this by examining whether gestures could also affect the confidence attributed to their responses in order to give insight into whether gestures were knowingly processed for information. It was found that, in some cases, gestures were able to increase confidence in both accurate and misled responses. Study 3 examined participants' awareness of gesture further by studying their attention to gesture during its performance and ability to identify it retrospectively on a recognition task. A new set of questions confirmed that gestures could influence the responses of participants (including those working in the legal profession) and revealed that the influence of gesture appears to be at its strongest when unnoticed by participants. Finally, study 4 considered whether the results of the previous studies could be replicated in a more ecologically valid interview scenario and confirmed that gestures continued to be influential when performed face-to-face. Overall, it was concluded that gestures can impact accurate eyewitness testimony and can be a powerful influential tool in police interviews.
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Krahenbuhl, Sarah Joanne. "The effect of question repetition on young children's eyewitness testimony." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2007. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.487599.
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Children who have been the victims of crime will be interviewed by police officers. Current interviewing guidelines warn against repeating questions, because children may interpret the repetition to mean that their first response was incorrect and therefore change their response. Previous researchers have not investigated the ways police interviewers use repeated questions. Given the guidelines we expected repeated questions to be rare. In Study 1 we analysed 95 police interviews with children aged 4-11 alleging abuse. Almost all contained repetition, and on average repeated questions accounted for a quarter of all questions asked. Repetitions led to changes in 75% of children's responses (55% were novel responses, 20% extended the original information elicited). We identified four principal question repetition styles used in police interviews: . verbatim, gist, open' questions repeated as closed, and closed questions repeated as open. In Studies 2, 3, 4 and 5 we interviewed children aged 4-5, 6-7 and 8-9 about a staged event they had witnessed earlier (Studies 2, 3 and 4), or about an activity in which they had participated (Study 5). In these studies we varied the type and number of repetitions. We also varied the delay between repetitions and between the event and the interview. The children's responses were assessed for accuracy and consistency. The number of accurate responses increased with age but decreased with repetition. Repetitions led to changes in approximately 25% of responses. The number of changed ,responses decreased with age and differed depending on whether the question was answerable or unanswerable. Most changes in responses led to a further inaccurate response (after an original inaccurate response), or resulted in accurate responses becoming inaccurate. We did not find any pattern of repetition, or type of repeated question that consistently enhanced accuracy. The implications of these results for interviewing practices are discussed.
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Caiola, Marisa Anna Lucia. "Effects of alcohol intoxication and encoding conditions on eyewitness memory." FIU Digital Commons, 1993. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/1969.
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Several researchers have investigated the effects of alcohol on memory. Few researchers have studied the effects of alcohol on an eyewitness's recall and recognition of crime events. This study proposed to examine the effects of alcohol and viewing conditions on subjects' ability to recall information regarding a videotaped bank robbery. Thirty male and 22 female subjects participated in a 2 (consumption: alcohol v. no alcohol) x 2 (lighting: good v. poor) factorial experiment with Average Accuracy and Total Amount of Information recalled as the primary dependent measures. There was no significant difference between the Intoxicated and Sober subjects regarding the amount of information recalled or their average accuracy. The main effect for lighting conditions and gender differences were also not significant.
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Berman, Garrett L. "Effects of inconsistencies in eyewitness testimony on mock-juror decisionmaking." FIU Digital Commons, 1995. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/1627.
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In attempting to impeach eyewitnesses, attorney's often highlight inconsistencies in the eyewitness's recall. This study examined the differential impact of types of inconsistent testimony on mock-juror decisions. Each of 100 community members and 200 undergraduates viewed one of four versions of a videotaped trial in which the primary evidence against the defendant was the testimony of the eyewitness. I manipulated the types of inconsistent statements given by the eyewitness in the four versions: (1) consistent testimony, (2) information given on-the-stand but not given during the pre-trial investigation, (3) contradictions between on-the-stand and pre-trial statements, and (4) contradictions made on the witness stand. Subjects exposed to any form of inconsistent testimony were less likely to convict and found the defendant less culpable and the eyewitness less effective. These effects were larger for contradictions than for information given on the stand but not during pre-trial investigations.
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Paterson, Helen M. Psychology Faculty of Science UNSW. "Co-Witnesses and the effects of discussion on eyewitness memory." Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of Psychology, 2004. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/20663.
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The research presented in this thesis was designed to investigate the effects of co-witness information on the accuracy and completeness of eyewitness memory. Co-witness information is defined as information that one eyewitness conveys to another about an event that they both observed. Very little research has focused on co-witness discussion, so the first two studies surveyed real eyewitnesses and police officers to determine how often witnesses discuss the event with one another. The results from these surveys suggested that co-witnesses commonly talk about the event with each other and this outcome provided a clear justification for studying the effects of co-witness discussion on memory. Previous research on co-witness discussion has reached inconsistent conclusions, and the possibility exists that these discrepancies are due to methodological differences. Therefore, this research aimed to determine whether co-witness discussion helps or hinders individual recall, and to investigate this within a closely defined methodological set. In a series of five experiments, participants were shown a crime video and then asked to discuss the video in groups (some of which received experimentally induced misinformation from a cowitness). Following the discussion, participants were asked to give their individual accounts of what happened. These experiments showed that exposure to postevent information from a co-witness can cause people to incorporate this information into their individual testimonies, regardless of the accuracy of the information. This phenomenon has become known as 'memory conformity'. Relevant theories were tested in order to contribute to knowledge regarding the causes of memory conformity. Furthermore, the experiments also aimed to establish whether it is possible to mediate any negative effects of co-witness discussion by employing our theoretical understanding of the causes of memory conformity. Five approaches were utilized in an attempt to reduce the negative effects of co-witness discussion: warnings about possible misinformation, source monitoring, free recall, confidence ratings, and 'remember/know judgments' (Tulving, 1985). Some evidence was found to suggest that when using 'remember/know judgments' it may be possible to distinguish 'real' memories from information obtained from a co-witness. These results are discussed in terms of theoretical and practical implications.
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Appavoo, P. Michael. "Application of the remember-know judgement paradigm to eyewitness stimuli." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1997. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp04/mq24373.pdf.
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Pryke, Sean Patrick. "Multiple independent identification decisions, a method of calibrating eyewitness identifications." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2001. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp05/NQ63445.pdf.
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Materazzo, Felicity. "Witnessing a stressful event : impact of anxiety on eyewitness identification /." Title page, contents and abstract only, 1994. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09ARPS/09arpsm425.pdf.
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Mortimer, Geoffrey. "Perceptions of the Thirty Years War in eyewitness personal accounts." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1999. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.310295.
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Zarkadi, Theodora. "Eyewitness identification : improving police lineups for suspects with distinctive features." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2009. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/3834/.
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Eyewitnesses‘ descriptions of suspects often refer to distinctive facial features, such as tattoos or scars, and the police have to decide how best to create fair lineups in these circumstances. This issue, despite its importance, has attracted insufficient attention in the eyewitness identification literature. Informed by the Police and Criminal Evidence Act code of practice and current police practice, I conducted an empirical evaluation of the different lineup techniques that investigators currently use for suspects with distinctive features. To ensure that a suspect does not stand out because of his distinctive feature, and also to extract more information from the eyewitness, the police either replicate the distinctive feature across all foils in the lineup or conceal the distinctive feature on the face of the suspect. These techniques were tested either in a crossover recognition-memory paradigm (Study 1), or in a lineup-identification paradigm (Studies 2, 3, and 4), either in computer-based laboratory experiments or real-world field experiments using both target-present and target-absent lineups. The results showed that replication is a better technique than concealment. Compared to concealment, replication increases target identifications in target present lineups—in some cases by decreasing foil identifications in target-absent lineups. The hybrid-similarity (HS) model of face recognition was used to assess whether it could be applied in this domain. Across seven experiments (Studies 1, 2, and 3) and three paradigms, the HS model was able to model the qualitative pattern of results. The purpose of this experimental work was to demonstrate the importance of constructing fair lineups for people with distinctive features and to provide results that will have practical implications for legal contexts and will improve our understanding of face recognition and recognition memory in general.
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Ahern, Frank. "Eyewitness to change : the Irish health service reforms 2000-2006." Thesis, University of Brighton, 2011. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.543196.
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Schachter, Ashley M. "Improving eyewitness testimony methods for more accurate recall of events." Honors in the Major Thesis, University of Central Florida, 2011. http://digital.library.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ETH/id/514.
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Eyewitness testimony has as long history in the court system, and is very persuasive to juries. Jurors are hard pressed to ignore a witness' assertion of a perpetrator's identity. However, the juror's perception of eyewitness testimony is problematic as it has been documented as inaccurate and unreliable in numerous experiments. With the advent of DNA testing and efforts such as The Innocence Project, it has become apparent that faulty eyewitness accounts are central to many wrongful convictions. The intent of this thesis was to explore how law enforcement can facilitate more accurate eyewitness accounts via their interview process. Research suggests that a key problem in the current interviewing system is "post-event information," or outside information introduced by leading questions, exposure to police conversations or other witnesses' accounts. This information can contaminate a witness's memories of events and lead them to report things they did not see. The current experiment explores the effects of 1) warning and educating witnesses about suggestibility and 2) interviewing with leading or open-ended questions. Accuracy scores were then compared for each condition. The hope was to gain insight into methods for improving accurate recall of events and reducing memory contamination from "post-event information."B.S.
Bachelors
Sciences
Psychology
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Braun, Blair E. "Correcting eyewitness suggestibility: does explanatory role predict resistance to correction?" Kent State University / OhioLINK, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1605620664101365.
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