Vulnerable Witnesses: Older and Other

Question 1

Name the types of psychological vulnerability?

Answer 1

Gudjonsson (2006)

1. ) Mental disorder (mental illness, personality disorder)
2. ) Abnormal mental state (bereavement, drugs)
3. ) Intellectual functioning (Borderline IQ scores)
4. ) Personality (suggestibility, compliance)

Question 2

How easy is it identify vulnerable witnesses?

Answer 2

Plotnikoff and Wolfson (2007) - police face challenge of identifying vulnerable witnesses and learning disability

O’Mahony et al (2011) suggest that police find it difficult to identify vulnerable witnesses with mental health problems

Crime victims demographics inconsistently relate to self-reported vulnerability (Aihio et al, 2017)
38% of sample identified themselves as vulnerable where as home office identified 5-7%

Question 3

How can the CJS help vulnerable witnesses/ victims?

Answer 3

Special Measures (YJCEA, 1999)
Applies to witnesses 17 and under, those with mental disorder, learning disability or physical disability

Question 4

What type of witness is increasing?

Answer 4

Elderly - older people are more likely to witness crimes (McMahon,2000)
Older adults are more likely to be victims of certain types of crime such as distraction burglaries (Maras and Wilcock, 2013)

Question 5

How does the brain age?

Answer 5

Albert and Killiany (2001)

Frontal lobes (executive function, planning, attention, working memory) Volume of lobe decreases and has less activation

Hippocampus (memory) - Decrease in volume and changes in structures of the brain which produce neurotransmitters involved in memory

Question 6

What is the effect of age on perceiving information?

Answer 6

Fozard and Gordon-Salent (2001)
Losses in sensory system
Vision - dark adaption, colour, visual processing
Hearing - most commonly reported impairment

Question 7

How does age affect attention?

Answer 7

Poorer at selective attention (Plude et al. 1994) Poorer at sustained attention tasks and tend to be slower to shift their attention

Question 8

How does age affect memory?

Answer 8

Older have poorer working memory (word list learning) Kester et al (2002)

Poorer memory for contextual details (Schacter et al (1998)

Poorer episodic memory (Balota et al, 2002)

Reduced specificity at retrieval - larger age difference in memory for verbatim info than in memory for gist (Brainerd and Reyna, 2005)

Question 9

What is stereotype threat?

Answer 9

Occurs when fear that poor performance will confirm a negative, self-relevant stereotype

Hess et al. (2003) - fictional news article about the affects of aging - no threat vs threat condition

Age difference in memory performance for threat condition

Question 10

What is the accuracy of older eyewitness testimony?

Answer 10

Yarmey and Kent (1980) - older witnesses poorer recall

Yarmey (1984 - older witnesses recalled less information than younger witnesses

Question 11

What is the relationship between age and suggestibility?

Answer 11

Cohen and Faulkner (1989) - older adults were significantly more likely to be misled than younger adults and were confident in their answers

Question 12

What did Mueller-Johnson and Ceci (2004) find when investigating different types of suggestibility?

Answer 12

Younger (18-20) Older (65-93)

4 different types of suggestibility (misinformation) - Appearance, Touching x 2, Identity of actor, Source monitoring x 2, Decisions

Results
Overall older adults were sig. poorer on non critical items and more likely to incorporate misinformation than young.
Older adults were sig. more confident about answers containing misinformation.

Question 13

What are the effects of the CI on misinformation?

Answer 13

Holliday et al (2012) - younger adults vs older adults viewed film of purse snatch - later interviewed using SI or modified CI.

Accuracy - rates of recall there was a sig. effect of the interview but no effect of age group

Misinformation effects were not found for younger adults or older adults interviewed using Modified CI but they did exist for older adults who had the Si

Question 14

What was the effect of the MRC and memory in older witnesses?

Answer 14

Dando (2013)
51 older p’s viewed 1 minute verbal exchange
Interviewed using sketch MRC, MRC or control instructions 48 hours later

Sketch MRC p’s recalled significantly more correct info and significantly less incorrect info than MRc and control

More correct info elicited during both free recall and questioning phases

Question 15

What is the effect of a self-administered interview and older adults?

Answer 15

Gawrylowicz et al (2014)

Event 1 - Video 1 or 2, filler tasks, SAI or FR

1 week delay

Event 2 - Video 1 or 2, filler tasks, FR

Results
Event 1 - SAI had a positive effect on older adults immediate recall

SAI seemed to convey skills which older adults can use to effectively recall future events