Child eyewitness: seeing is believing
Article Abstract:
Two studies examined perceptions of child and adult eyewitness' credibility. In Study 1, college students evaluated transcribed testimonies of 8-year-old and adult witnesses to a videotaped stage crime. Half were misinformed about the witness's age (i. e., either believing a child's testimony was provided by an adult or vice versa). Neither actual age nor ostensible age affected participants' evaluations. In Study 2, adults (N = 85) viewed videotaped testimonies of 8-year-old, 12-year-old, and adult eyewitnesses. Half viewed 1 witness's testimony and then evaluated his or her credibility. The others viewed only a still frame of 1 witness, then imagined the testimony the witness had provided, and finally evaluated his or her credibility without having actually heard the testimony. Young children were judged more favorably when their entire testimony, rather than a still frame, was viewed. This was not true for the older eyewitness. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)
Publication Name: Journal of Applied Psychology
Subject: Social sciences
ISSN: 0021-9010
Year: 1995
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Facilitating children's eyewitness recall with the revised cognitive interview
Article Abstract:
Eighty-six 2nd-grade children participated in a Simon says game with an unfamiliar adult. The children were subsequently interviewed twice with either a standard interview or the revised cognitive interview (CI), once within 3 hr of the event and then 2 weeks later. On both the initial interview and the 2-week delayed interview, children receiving the revised CI recalled significantly more correct information than did children receiving a standard interview. In addition, children who were interviewed twice with the revised CI recalled more unique accurate facts (M=25.44) than children who received 2 standard interviews (M=16.75). The CI also elicited more inaccurate facts; however, the accuracy rate (proportion of reported facts that were accurate) for the 2 groups was equivalent. The research has implications for police and others who interview real child victims and witnesses. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)
Publication Name: Journal of Applied Psychology
Subject: Social sciences
ISSN: 0021-9010
Year: 1995
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Effects on mock jurors of experts favorable and unfavorable toward hypnotically elicited eyewitness testimony
Article Abstract:
Mock jurors were told that a rape victim's initial identification of the defendant was made either during a police interrogation or a hypnotic interrogation. Jurors given the hypnotic interrogation case then saw a videotape of an expert who was favorable toward hypnotically elicited testimony, an expert who was unfavorable, or both experts. Jurors' private beliefs of the defendant's guilt (assessed before exposure to the experts) was not influenced by knowledge that the witness had been hypnotized. However, jurors' guilt ratings were significantly influenced by both the favorable and the unfavorable experts and by the process of deliberation. Juries in all treatments strongly favored acquittal, and jury verdicts were not significantly influenced by expert testimony. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)
Publication Name: Journal of Applied Psychology
Subject: Social sciences
ISSN: 0021-9010
Year: 1989
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