Test 3: Psych 230 Flashcards
What case is used to highlight issues with eyewitness testimony confidence?
The case of Jennifer Thompson and Ronald Cotton.
How does eyewitness confidence typically change over time?
It often increases, but confidence is not stable.
Which is more predictive of accuracy: initial or later confidence?
Initial confidence.
What type of cases typically rely on children’s testimony?
Cases of sexual abuse.
Why is children’s testimony critical in these cases?
They are often the only eyewitnesses.
Why is sex with children considered socially reprehensible?
It violates their ability to freely choose and participate.
What is the age of consent in Canada?
16, with an allowance for partners up to two years younger.
Why can’t children “choose” to engage in sexual acts with adults?
They are not capable of giving voluntary, informed consent.
What analogy highlights the risks of sexual acts with children, even if no immediate harm occurs?
Driving on the wrong side of the road—risky behavior increases the chance of harm.
What did the study by Stephen, Ceci, and Bruck (1993) find about children’s ability to create false memories?
58% of children produced false stories that fooled investigators.
Can persistent memories still be false?
Yes, both false and real memories can feel real.
What are the two sources of error regarding memories of sexual violence?
- Rejecting a true incident as false.
- Accepting a false incident as true.
What is “The Courage to Heal” and what does it discuss?
A book by Bass & Davis (1988) addressing denial and repression of child sexual abuse.
What symptoms are common in victims of child sexual abuse?
Shame, powerlessness, unworthiness, perfectionism, and deficient goals.
What techniques can produce false memories?
Visualization, hypnosis, and strong suggestions from authority figures.
Why are memories recovered under hypnosis or drugs unreliable?
They are prone to distortion and fabrication.
What did Williams (1995) find about forgetting abuse?
Forgetting abuse, including by perpetrators, happens.
How reliable are memories from before the age of 3?
Especially unreliable.
What can be distressing, whether true or false?
Both real and false memories.
What are the two types of information processing in a trial?
Central and peripheral processing.
Why is trustworthiness important in a trial?
Trust is the foundation of relationships; without it, nothing is believable.
What are the basic qualifications to be on a jury in Canada?
- Must be a Canadian citizen
- 18+
- no criminal convictions
- not have served on a jury in the past 3 years
What are some professions typically excluded from jury duty?
- Law enforcement
- legal professionals
- emergency services
- professors
What are the characteristics of desirable jurors?
- Representative of the population
- impartial
- serious about the task
- open-minded
- able to understand court proceedings.
What is general prejudice?
Stereotyping or discriminating against outgroups.
What is normative prejudice?
The tendency to conform to community norms, resulting in pressure to agree with the majority in the jury room.
What is specific prejudice?
Bias specific to the case, e.g., a juror with personal experience related to the crime.
What is interest prejudice?
When a juror has a personal stake in the trial’s outcome.
How do “death-qualified” jurors typically differ from others?
- favor crime control
- are more supportive of the prosecution
- less supportive of protecting defendant rights.
How can group values impact a trial? (Rodney King case)
Jurors with shared conservative, pro-law, and order values can bias the trial outcome, influencing their interpretation of evidence.
What is majority influence in a jury?
Conformity to the majority opinion, with little room for independent dissent.
How does authority influence work in a jury?
Higher-status, more verbal jurors can dominate discussions and sway opinions.
What is minority influence?
When a minority opinion gains focus, potentially leading others to change their stance.
Why is moving to an acquittal more likely than to a guilty verdict?
Convictions require certainty, while acquittals allow for reasonable doubt.
What is group polarization?
The tendency for a group to shift towards a more extreme version of the majority’s initial opinion.
What is groupthink?
a psychological and sociological phenomenon in which members of a group will conform to majority opinion to maintain group harmony rather than stating their own opinions
What are the consequences of groupthink?
- Conformity pressure
- illusion of unanimity
- rationalization of flawed decisions.
What are the goals of retribution in sentencing?
To make the offender “pay” for their crime, focusing on values like security and power.
What is denunciation in sentencing?
Sending a message to the community about the unacceptability of certain behaviors.
What is the goal of deterrence?
To prevent others from committing similar offenses by demonstrating consequences.
What is incapacitation?
Removing offenders from society to prevent further harm.
What is reparation?
Making amends for harm done, often through compensation or restitution.
What is rehabilitation?
Helping offenders become contributing members of society.
What is restoration in sentencing?
Repairing harm and rebuilding relationships within the community.
What is dominance and power as a sentencing goal?
Punishing offenders to assert control and make them suffer beyond retribution.
How do offender characteristics impact sentencing?
Factors like prior experiences, ability to control actions, and taking responsibility influence sentencing.
What role does age play as a mitigating factor?
Younger or older offenders might receive more lenient sentences due to a sense of reduced responsibility
How do victim characteristics affect sentencing?
Greater impact (e.g., victim is a child or disabled), use of violence, or breach of trust often leads to harsher sentences.
What did the Castellow et al. (1990) study examine?
The influence of attractiveness on judgments of guilt in a sexual harassment case.
What were the results of Castellow et al. (1990)?
An attractive man assaulting an unattractive woman was deemed less believable due to societal biases about appearance.
How can narrative influence sentencing judgments?
If a case’s storyline aligns or conflicts with jurors’ biases (e.g., attractiveness), it can affect perceived credibility and verdicts.
Why is memory unreliable for specific details?
Details can fade or become distorted over time, especially under stress or poor conditions like bad lighting.
What are the three stages of memory?
Encoding: Witness processes and stores event details (e.g., faces, actions).
Storage: Memory is kept for future use but may degrade or become distorted.
Retrieval: Memory is recalled, but errors can occur at this stage.
What are common problems during encoding?
- Lack of focus (e.g., due to stress, intoxication, or fatigue).
- Vivid events are more memorable, but attention to detail is hard in stressful situations.
What storage issues affect memory?
- Memory integrates with prior knowledge or external information.
- Details may be altered to fit narratives or expectations.
- Interaction with others can modify stored memories.
What are challenges during retrieval?
- Accurate recall requires cues (e.g., returning to the crime scene).
- State-dependent memory: easier to recall in a similar state of mind.
- Confidence in memory increases if others validate the narrative.
What did Loftus’s “Misinformation Effect” study demonstrate?
Eyewitness memory can be altered by misleading information, like suggesting a stop sign was a yield sign.
What did the Gary Wells study reveal about eyewitness reliability?
A confident eyewitness identified an innocent man under poor viewing conditions, leading to wrongful conviction.
Why is eyewitness memory not a “photographic record”?
Memory is selective and reconstructive, often filling in gaps to fit a logical narrative.
Why are eyewitnesses considered persuasive in court?
Jurors tend to trust confident eyewitnesses, even if discredited, due to the belief that “some evidence is better than none.”
Why are lineups and face recognition error-prone?
Stress, poor conditions, and suggestive procedures can lead to misidentifications.
What is the legal system’s misconception about memory?
It overestimates the reliability and accuracy of eyewitness memory.
peripheral processing
- taking in information unconsciously
- the less we are aware of the info we are processing, the more it influences us and impacts our neuro-systems
central processing
- taking in information consciously
- taking it in and choosing to evaluate it
when judging a persons testimony they assessing CREDIBILITY by:
- believability
- accuracy
- trustworthiness
- honesty
aspects jurors use peripheral processing to judge
- appearance
- physical attractiveness
- similarity
biases used by jurors when judging multiple accounts
- overemphasis of vivid/ emotional events
- misattributing causation
- misunderstanding randomness
- illusory correlation
- attributing motivation + intention
- fundamental attribution error
- anchoring / perseverance effect
Why do lawyers carefully prepare their questions and language?
To lead to the desired outcome by structuring information strategically.
What type of language do successful defense lawyers use?
Abstract language and legal jargon.
Why does using abstract language and legal jargon help defense lawyers?
It makes them appear more knowledgeable and competent.
What communication style helps prosecution lawyers win cases?
Speaking longer and using aggressive statements.
Why is this style effective for prosecution lawyers?
It demonstrates dominance and conveys confidence in the “truth.”
How does letting witnesses testify in a narrative style impact the jury?
It enhances the witness’s credibility by making the testimony feel more natural and emotionally impactful.
Why are emotion-inducing questions effective?
They evoke stronger emotions, which can sway the jury more effectively.
What is the issue with judges instructing jurors to “disregard evidence”?
It can backfire, as jurors are more likely to focus on the evidence once told to ignore it.
Why does instructing jurors to disregard evidence often fail?
Jurors perceive the evidence as important since the judge highlighted it, making it more memorable.
Why do jurors struggle to follow judges’ instructions?
The instructions often contain complex legal jargon.
How effective are jurors at understanding judge’s instructions?
Only about one-third can accurately paraphrase them.
Why do jurors struggle with statistical evidence?
They often lack the skills to interpret numbers and require visual aids to comprehend the data.
