Eyewitness Evidence & Interviewing Witnesses:

Question 1

The memory process:

Three stages:

Answer 1

1. encoding (memory creation) - can be compromised by not paying attention.
2. storage (memory retention) - can be compromised by hearing other people describe the event incorrectly.
3. retrieval (accessing memories)

Question 2

Contributing causes of wrongful convictions:

Answer 2

• eyewitness misidentification
• informants/snitches
• unvalidated/improper forensics
• false confessions/ admissions.

Question 3

Factors that affect eyewitness identification:

Answer 3

Estimator variables:
Typically related to the event and the eyewitness themselves
Cannot be controlled by the legal justice system
Impact has to be estimated
Primarily related to the encoding and storage stages of memory (e.g. characteristics of the crime event such as stress, viewing quality, contamination of memory)
Key factors that make the memory trace weaker
System Variables:
Can be controlled by the criminal justice system
How law enforcement agencies retrieve and record witness memory
Only improvement in system variables can improve accuracy of eyewitness testimony.
Most closely related to the retrieval stage of memory (e.g. questions posed to witnesses)

Question 4

Encoding factors:

Factors affecting the quality and accuracy of memory encoding include:

Answer 4

• Stress
• weapon presence
• change blindness
• age
• intoxication
• Stereotyping

Question 5

Positive effect of stress on EW memory?

Answer 5

Police trainees had better accuracy and greater resistance to forgetting EW info when confronted with a high stress training stimulation compared to low.
However, those in the high stress condition consistently provided less info than those in the non-stress.
Studies on mem for amo stim suggest that we remember negatively valenced and high arousal stim better than neutral, low arousal stim.

Question 6

Negative effect of stress on EW memory?

Answer 6

Soldiers detained for 12 hours in a mock prison 9of war camp. - each soldier underwent a high or low stress interrogation.
Eyewitness recall was less accurate for the high, compared to low stress interrogations, accompanied by greater susceptibility to misinformation.

Question 7

Weapon focus:
A recent review of lab and real-life cases shows weapon focus is an important factor in eyewitness memory accuracy.
Two possible explanations:

Answer 7

Cue utilisation hypothesis:
- People narrow their attention to the weapon because of the threat: presence of a frightening object resulted in children remembering less about the researcher’s appearance than those who encountered neutral objects.
Weapons capture attention because they are unexpected:
- Unusual items specific to a certain context (e.g. a man entering a store holding a feather duster). Has a similarly detrimental effect on memory.
- No difference in the extent to which unusual non-weapon items impaired memory

Question 8

Change Blindness:

Answer 8

If a change in the witnessed event occurs while attention is not focused in that direction, it may not be noticed once attention is reverted:
61% did not notice that the identity of a burglar changed after the camera angle changed during a crime video

Question 9

Stereotyping:

Answer 9

Stereotypes or schemas about crimes might be used to fill any gaps in memory
The higher the cognitive load, the more likely people are to employ stereotypes

Question 10

age:

Answer 10

Big characteristic.
Young adults exhibit the most reliable memories.
Older adults are perhaps less accurate due to age-related declines in encoding quality.
Older witnesses more likely to remember fewer details about events and/or recall less accurate details than young adults.
Children found to be less reliable witnesses - improves with age.

Question 11

Storage factors:

Factors affecting the quality and accuracy of memory retention include:

Answer 11

• false memories
• delay
• post-event information
• emotional and traumatic memories.

Question 12

Post-event Information (Misinformation Effect):

Answer 12

For example, when people discuss what they saw with other witnesses they might learn information about the event that they did not actually observe themselves.

Question 13

Misinformation effect - study of Loftus et al, 1978.

Answer 13

Phase 1 - Original event:
- Exposure of all ppts to slide show of car accident including a critical slide showing a Datsun that stops at a stop sign.
Phase 2 - Misinformation phase:
- Questionnaires about slides, including:
- Contradicting info for misled condition - ‘yield sign’.
- Consistent info for control condition - ‘stop sign’
- Neutral info for control condition - ‘intersection’.
Phase 3 - Memory test:
- “Please indicate what sign you saw”.
- Two alternative forced choice recognition test for old/accurate slides or new slides containing misinformation.
Results:
- 57% of ppts in misled condition indicated they originally saw the yield sign.

Question 14

Memory impairment hypothesis.

Answer 14

• Misleading info permanently alters the original memory trace in some way. - by partially or completely overwriting the original memory trace.
• When recalling the original event an updated memory trace version containing the false info is retrieved instead of the original detail.

Question 15

Source monitoring hypothesis

Answer 15

False attribution of misleading details to the original event.
It is proposed that misleading post-event info is falsely attributed to the original event since indivs sometimes confuse the sources of info.

Question 16

Misinformation endorsement

Answer 16

Recency bias (false memory of yield sign is more recent), pure guessing - not an impairment.

Question 17

Retrieval factors:

Factors influencing the accuracy of memory retrieval:

Answer 17

Question format.
Suggestive questioning.
Retrieval enhancement.
Confidence.
Accuracy-informatives trade-off.

Question 18

Shortcomings of a traditional investigative interview:

Answer 18

Establish little rapport.
Use complex questions or lang.
Rely on direct, often pre-scripted questions and suggestive/leading questions.
Use predetermined question orders/allow for little flexibility.
Neglect to tailor interviews to witnesses’ developmental, social and or cognitive abilities (age, IQ, any disability).

Question 19

Cognitive and social factors affecting children’s interview performance:

Answer 19

Vocabulary (expanding).
Narrative ability
Conceptual understanding
Willingness to indicate misunderstanding
Source monitoring - locating the source of the info may be difficult for the child.
Suggestibility - children are highly suggestible.

Question 20

Achieving best practice (ABE): child interviewing

Answer 20

Consultation with other professionals.
Prior to interview - collection of additional evidence from crime scene, interview other witnesses.
Age, gender, culture, religion, intellectual ability and other everyday routines should be taken into account.
All these aspects will also inform:
Who will perform the interview
Number of interviews required (in order to get all your info needed).
Prior examination of the case characteristics and determination of what information will be sought from the interviewees

Question 21

Types of Questions:

Answer 21

• invitation
• cued invitation
• directive
• option posing
• suggestive

Question 22

invitation:

Answer 22

Open-ended request to the child in order to let them freely recall info about the incident.
Can be formulated as a statement, question or imperative.
Examples: ‘tell me everything that happened’. ‘Tell me more about that

Question 23

cued invitation

Answer 23

A type of invitation which refocuses the child’s attention on details they mentioned and uses them as cues to prompt further free recall of info.
Examples: ‘you mentioned [event, action, object], tell me more about that.’ ‘you mentioned [action], then what happened?’

Question 24

directive

Answer 24

A cued-recall prompt that focuses that child’s attention on information already mentioned and request additional information of a specific sort, typically using wh-questions (who, what, when, where, how).
examples :
‘What colour was that shirt’ (that was mentioned).
‘where/when did that happen?’
‘Where did he touch you’.

Question 25

option posing

Answer 25

A prompt that focuses the child’s attention on aspects or details not previously mentioned, requiring confirmation, negation or selection of an interviewer-given option.
Examples:
‘Did it hurt’
‘Were your clothes on when that happened’

Question 26

Suggestive

Answer 26

An utterance that assumes information not disclosed by the child or implies that a particular response is expected.
Examples:
‘Did it hurt when he put his finger in you?’ - when the child has not mentioned digital penetration.
‘He wanted him to kiss him, didn’t he?’

Question 27

Basic research on interviewing and child development:

Answer 27

Children should be interviewed as soon as possible after alleged offences.
Interviewers MUST:
- introduce as little info as possible.
- encourage children to provide as much info as possible in the form of narratives elicited using open-ended prompts. ‘Tell me what happened’
Interviewers must give priority to open-ended recall prompts and use recognition prompts ‘did he touch you’ as late in the interview as possible and only when needed to elicit undisclosed forensically relevant info.
Interviewers must avoid the ‘yes/no’ questions which are especially likely to elicit erroneous info from young children. ‘Did it hurt when he forced himself on you?’.

Question 28

Evidence-based protocol for investigative interviews with children:

Answer 28

• pre-substantive phase
• transitional phase
• substantive phase

Question 29

Pre-substantive phase:

Answer 29

Interviewers introduction.
Children must demonstrate that they understand the diff between ‘truth’ and ‘lies’ before they can provide testimony.
The interviewer may ask questions such as ‘if i said that you took your shoes off when you came into the room, would that be true or not true’?
Establish ground rules: practised with children to ensure comprehension.
Children should refrain from guessing, and instead say they do not know.
They should indicate when they do not understand a question.
They should correct any mistakes made by the interviewer.

Question 30

RAapport building

Answer 30

The interviewer aims to create a relaxed and supportive env.
Interviewers attempt to establish rapport with the children so that they feel comfortable talking with and disclosing info that may be traumatic or embarrassing.
NICHD protocol - asking children open-ended q’s about their likes and dislikes.

Question 31

substantive phase

Answer 31

Transition - use a series of open-ended prompts to encourage the children to identify the target event.
To avoid being suggestive, interviewers attempt to get children to identify the target event with as little as possible. - e.g. tell me why you’ve come to talk to me today’.
Once a target event is identified;
Interviewers first request that children narrate by using an invitation prompt. - ‘tell me everything you can remember’
Then follow up on info that children mention (with cued invitations) to elicit additional details.
Once the children’s free recall is exhausted, the interviewers may return to information that the children previously mentioned during free recall and follow up with directive questions (e.g. “You said that other people saw what happened. Who was there?”).
Finally, if critical details are still missing from the children’s reports, the interviewer may resort to some option-posing questions (often take the form of yes-no questions (e.g. “Was anyone else home when it happened?”) but their use should be limited.