FBS 157

Question 1

Know statistics discussed about wrongful convictions (lecture and reading week 1)
– How many have there been as revealed through the Innocence Project?

Answer 1

10

Question 2

The National
Registry of Exonerations?

Answer 2

873

Question 3

What are the most common contributing causes of wrongful conviction?

Answer 3

Rape and Murder

Question 4

What is the problem (really, dual problem) of wrongful convictions?

Answer 4

-False accusation and false confession? They are receiving severe punishments
-The most common causal factors that contributed to the
underlying false convictions are perjury or false accusation (51%), mistaken
eyewitness identification (43%) and official misconduct (42%) – followed by
false or misleading forensic evidence (24%) and false confession (16%). T

Question 5

What does the existence of wrongful convictions reveal about the criminal justice
system?

Answer 5

Failing to identify and correct them after they occur

Question 6

What are some of the common elements recommended in the guidelines?

Answer 6

Build rapport, ask open ended questions, encourage witness to contact investigators when additional info is recalled, encourage witness to avoid contact with the media, when multiple witnesses separate them

Question 7

In what ways are the recommendations similar to recommendations made for the cognitive interview?

Answer 7

Building rapport, encouraging witness to report all details, avoid leading and close ended questions, ask witness to mentally recreate the circumstances, avoid interrupting the witness

Question 8

In what ways are they different from the Cognitive Interview?

Answer 8

The pre-interview. Reading prior info and determining the nature of the witness prior law enforcement contact. Cautioning witness to not guess
Interview Prep. Instructions
Reinstate context
Be Complete
Reverse Order
Change Persepctives

Question 9

According to research discussed throughout this section of the course, which protocol
should be followed and why?

Answer 9

Rapport getting your witness comfortable to talk

Question 10

What is the misinformation effect?

Answer 10

-incorporating misleading information into one’s memory of an event
-Ways that people’s memory can be distorted
- Co-witness information
- Suggestive/leading questions during a police
interview
- Written Summary
- Doctored pictures
The misinformation effect occurs when a person’s recall of episodic memories becomes less accurate because of post-event information

Question 11

How can the wording of questions effect responses?

Answer 11

You lead them to change their memory and they state that they saw something that didn’t happen

Question 12

What are rich false memories? What is an example from a research study (reading)

Answer 12

-Planting a false memory. Something that didn’t happen that was stressful
-Researchers in the mid-1990s devised a
number of techniques for planting whole events, or what have
been called “rich false memories.” One study used scenarios
made up by relatives of subjects, and planted false memories of
being lost for an extended time in a shopping mall at age 6 and
rescued by an elderly person (Loftus 1993; Loftus and Pickrell
1995). Other studies used similar methods to plant a false
memory that as a child the subject had had an accident at a
family wedding (Hyman Jr. et al. 1995), had been a victim of a
vicious animal attack (Porter et al. 1999), or that he or she had
nearly drowned and had to be rescued by a lifeguard (

Question 13

How does memory work?

Answer 13

encoding, storage, retrieval

Question 14

Encoding?

Answer 14

Time of event; might not remember everything or remember something wrong

Question 15

Storage?

Answer 15

Between event and interview; you might forget what occurred or might be influenced by others

Question 16

Retrieval?

Answer 16

Time of interview; remember things inaccurately, accurately, make up things or completely forget

Question 17

What makes memory fragile?

Answer 17

Memories are reconstructive. You can go in there and change it but others can too

Question 18

How does memory not work?

Answer 18

Like a recording device. Record info, call it up and play it back

Question 19

What can be done to improve eyewitness testimony?

Answer 19

Making open ended questions, building rapport, active witness participation, context reinstatement, multiple retrieval attempts

Question 20

How should we treat memory evidence as compared to other types of evidence?

Answer 20

With a grain of salt since it can also be altered by other people

Question 21

How does the typical interviewing approach compare to interviewing methods recommended by researchers?

Answer 21

Close ended questions, not building rapport, after listening they would ask short answer questions, Interviewer has pre determined set of topics or questions, the interviewer generally controls the flow of information
LABORATORY STUDIES
– Experimental control
FIELD STUDIES
– Ecological validity

Question 22

What is the cognitive interview?

Answer 22

An approach to interviewing cooperative witnesses toward increasing the amount of relevant information obtained
Based on:
–scientifically derived principles of memory
–communication theory
–analysis of police interviews

Question 23

How affective is it at achieving its goals?

Answer 23

-It increases the accuracy and amount of info that is reported
-The CI elicits 35-50% more
information from witnesses
without affecting the
accuracy rate

Question 24

The CI

Answer 24

1. Intro
2. Open ended narration
3. Probing memory scenes
4. Reviewing the interview
5. Closing the interview

Question 25

Introduction

Answer 25

Building rapport, teamwork, encourage concentration, completeness, context recreation

Question 26

Open ended narration

Answer 26

“Tell me in your own words whatever you can remember about this event. I want as much detail as possible”
›Very important skill – do not interrupt the
eyewitness during the narrative report
–Wait until eyewitness has completed the
narration, and only then, when finished, should
you ask follow-up questions
›Note the eyewitness’s scenes and images during the narrative
so that you may probe them for additional information later
›Take rough notes, with just enough information to later re-
create the scenes using the eyewitness’s key words and
phrases

Question 27

Probing memory scenes

Answer 27

Going to be asking more detailed questions.
Probing the scene —-> open ended questions, request elaborate detail, keep in present tense, multiple retrieval attempts
›Now let the interviewee know that you are going to be asking
more detailed and probing questions about the incident
›Remind the eyewitness that it’s a difficult task and requires
intense concentration
–Block out distractions, encourage to close eyes

Question 28

Reviewing the interview

Answer 28

Allows you to check the accuracy of your understanding
›The purpose of the review is to…
–allow you to check the accuracy of your notes and understanding, and allow the eyewitness to search through memory one more time
for new information
›If new information is provided, probe for details as usual

Question 29

Closing the interview

Answer 29

“You will remember things later so I’ll give you a call in two days”
There are two main goals for the close of the interview:
(1) to create a positive, lasting impression
(2) to extend the functional life of the interview
–ex. “You will remember things later, so I’ll
call you in two days to follow up”

Question 30

Open ended questions

Answer 30

Describe to me the man you saw

Question 31

Close ended questions

Answer 31

Did the man walk to this house?

Question 32

Multiple choice

Answer 32

Was the car blue or black?
Ex. Was he white, black, or Hispanic?

Question 33

Yes/No

Answer 33

Was the car green?

Question 34

Suggestive

Answer 34

You saw the man leaving that apartment building?

Question 35

Leading question

Answer 35

-force the witness into an assumption that may not be true
– Ex. Was he white?
The man was wearing a black hoodie right?

Question 36

Types of questions that SHOULD be used?

Answer 36

›Open-ended questions encourage the eyewitness to provide a
lengthy response; a closed-ended question usually requires a short,
even one-word answer
› Funnel approach
– Start with your open-ended question(s)
– Next probing memory scenes (still with
open-ended questions)
– Finally, if needed, you can ask closed
questions (ex. What color was the car?)
■ Yes/no questions should be avoided (ex.
Did the robber have a gun?)
› **Whenever possible, ask open-ended
questions

Question 37

Types of questions that should NOT be used?

Answer 37

› Leading – force the witness into an assumption that may not be true
– Ex. Was he white?
■ How could you ask this in a better way?
› Multiple choice
– Ex. Was he white, black, or Hispanic?
› Double-barreled – asking 2 questions simultaneously, often only allowing for one answer
– Ex. He had a gun with him? Did he have any other weapons?
› Negative wording – using negative word/wording
– Ex. a course in statistics should not be required for the major
› Double negative – two instances of negation
– Ex. Does it seem possible or impossible that the moon landing never took place?

Question 38

What is meant by the “funnel approach”? Why is this approach recommended?

Answer 38

A way of ordering questions in a questionnaire so that general questions are asked before specific questions

Question 39

Why are interruptions detrimental to witness interviewing?

Answer 39

It discordances the e/w from taking an active role and can cause info to be lost
›Interrupting in the middle of a response discourages the
eyewitness from taking an active role
›Interrupting could cause some information to be lost
›Allow a pause after each response

Question 40

Why is varied and multiple retrieval recommended for this interviewing protocol? What are
the different ways to have witnesses engage in varied and multiple retrieval?

Answer 40

A search process that can lead to more finds. Reverse order and another perspective
›Memory retrieval is a search process and more searches can
lead to more finds
›In other words, can result in recalling more information that
wasn’t originally reported
›Also helps strengthen memory
›Encourage the eyewitness to conduct multiple retrieval
attempts, and here are two reliable techniques
(1) Ask the eyewitness to describe the events in backward
(reverse) order, or by starting with the part that impressed
him/her the most and work backward
(2) Consider requesting the eyewitness to adopt someone else’s
perspective, but remind the eyewitness to only report those
things that he/she actually witnessed and to not make
anything up
- Also, consider different physical perspectives

Question 41

Why are people resistant to using CI

Answer 41

Post-training follow up evaluation of detectives in the
UK and Canada (and now the US) –
›None used all basic components of the CI protocol
in any interview
›One-half to two-thirds used several CI components
in over half their interviews
›It is difficult to change old habits

Question 42

Importance of closing the interview

Answer 42

Leave a lasting impression and extend the functional life of interview
There are two main goals for the close of the interview:
(1) to create a positive, lasting impression
(2) to extend the functional life of the
interview
–ex. “You will remember things later, so I’ll
call you in two days to follow up”

Question 43

Why is the CI better than the standard police interview?

Answer 43

›Reliably increases the amount of information obtained
›Preserves the rate of accuracy, and typically without increasing
the number of errors
›Effective for a variety of witnesses
›Part of law enforcement interviewing in many countries
(England, Scotland, Norway, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand)
›Reduces misleading question effects
›Relatively simple to train and to implement
›CI interviews are rated by mock jurors as being less manipulative and just as credible as standard interviews