Teleconferencing model for forensic consultation, court testimony, and continuing education

A medical center-based forensic clinic that provides the necessary comprehensive consultation, continuing education, court testimony, and clinical services through an applied model of teleconferencing applications is addressed. Telemedicine technology and services have gained the attention of both legal and clinical practitioners, examining trends and models of health care for underserved populations, and identifying where consultation with a team of professionals may benefit service providers in rural communities. The contribution offered herein provides an understanding of the history of the development of the clinic, a theoretical model that has been applied to a clinical forensic program that employs telepsychiatry services, and the ethical and malpractice liability issues confronted in using teleconferencing services. This model is examined through a child and adolescent forensic evaluation clinic. The goals of this model are offered, as are a number of applications within the broad spectrum of services utilizing telemedicine. Finally, changing patterns are addressed in clinically based health-care delivery for criminal justice, social services, and forensic mental health.     

The effects of the age of eyewitnesses on the accuracy and suggestibility of their testimony

Previous studies have compared the performance of young adult eyewitnesses with that of children or elderly eyewitnesses, but few studies have allowed direct comparison of the performance of all three age groups. The accuracy and suggestibility of accounts of a video recording of a kidnapping were investigated using an experimental eyewitness paradigm. Subjects were drawn from three age groups: children (aged 7–9 years); young adults (aged 16–18 years) and elderly subjects (aged 60–85 years). Subjects' accuracy in answering non-misleading questions and their susceptibility to misleading information was measured. Both the elderly and child subjects gave fewer correct answers and more incorrect answers to non-misleading questions than did young adults. The elderly subjects gave fewer correct responses but also fewer incorrect responses to non-misleading questions than did child subjects. Children were more suggestible than either elderly or young adults. No significant difference was found in the suggestibility of elderly and young adults. Contrary to the trace strength hypothesis no relationship was found between accuracy of recall and suggestibility. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Beliefs and data on the relationship between consistency and accuracy of eyewitness testimony

Two studies concerned with consistency and accuracy of eyewitness testimony were conducted. In Study 1 potential jurors indicated the degree to which they considered that various witness on‐stand behaviours indicated testimonial accuracy. Witness statements that were inconsistent with previous statements were considered to be the strongest indicators of inaccuracy. Study 2 examined the relationship between consistency and accuracy of testimony. Witnesses viewed a film of a robbery and were interviewed twice (2 weeks apart) about the crime in a 4 (interview format)×2 (interview occasion) design. Regardless of whether consistency was operationalised in terms of direct contradictions between interviews, or degree of agreement on detail across interviews, no more than 10% of the variance in overall accuracy rate was explained by any individual measure. Number of contradictions and overall agreement between interviews did, however, make additive contributions to prediction of overall accuracy. Also, higher correlations between contradiction‐based consistency measures and interview two accuracy rate were detected. Neither consistency nor accuracy for specific testimonial dimensions were predictive of accuracy on the other dimensions, or overall accuracy. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Rate and accuracy of vowel recognition as a function of spoken reinforcers and age

Developmental differences among the effectiveness of three spoken reinforcers were evaluated by measuring rate and accuracy of performance on a vowel recognition task. Eighty-seven males were selected from grades 1 to 3, 6 to 7, and 11 to 12 of a predominantly urban, Black, parochial school. The effectiveness of approval and affirmation of correctness was related to grade level for accuracy of performance, but not for rate. For accuracy of performance a decreasing linear trend was found when approval effectiveness was evaluated across grades. For correctness, an increasing linear trend was found. The results were discussed in terms of a developmental hierarchy of reinforcers and information processing.     

Categorization,attitude and memory for the source of attitude statements

In a study of factors influencing recognition-memory for the sources of attitude statements, a final sample of 107 subjects, aged 15–16, first rated their agreement with 24 statements concerning drug-use, 12 of which were attributed to one, and 12 to another, fictitiously named newspaper. Later, the statements were re shown to subjects with half the names altered, and subjects had to indicate which names were correct (i.e., unaltered). Discrimination sensitivity was very significantly higher in a condition where the initial relationship between the sources and the statements was systematic, so that the 12 most pro-drug statements were attributed to one newspaper and the 12 most anti-drug statements to the other, than in two conditions where the initial relationship was random, in which discrimination was at chance level. In the first of these conditions, subjects were also more likely to claim that the attributed source was correct if they had previously agreed with the statement. overall, subjects were more accurate in discriminating correct and incorrect sources for statements to which they had previously given a more moderate, or a more negative response on the agreement scale.     

Speech errors, disfluencies, and self-repairs of stutterers in two accuracy conditions

The purpose of the present study was to see whether the covert repair hypothesis, which views normal disfluencies as the by-products of covert self-repairing of internal speech (programming) errors, applies to habitual stutterers. To this end, we examined the effects of emphasis on speech accuracy in stutterers on three sorts of incidents: speech errors, disfluencies (also including stuttering), and self-repairs. In a condition in which they performed a speech task under instructions stressing the accuracy of speaking, stutterers made considerably fewer speech errors, than in a condition in which speech accuracy could be ignored. On the other hand, disfluency and self-repair rates remained about the same. They did increase, however, relative to speech error rates with accuracy emphasis. A control group of normal speakers performed in a similar way. Apparently, disfluencies behaved like self-repairs. These results support the covert repair hypothesis of disfluency, both for stutterers and for normal speakers.     

The effect of cross‐examination on the accuracy of adult eyewitness testimony

Cross‐examination permits styles of questioning that increase eyewitness error (e.g. leading questions). Previous research has shown that under cross‐examination children change many of their initially accurate answers. An experiment is reported in which the effect of cross‐examination on accuracy of adult eyewitness testimony was investigated. Twenty‐two student witnesses watched a video of a staged theft, either in pairs, or individually. Paired witnesses discussed the video with their co‐witnesses, but did not know they had seen slightly different versions. Participants in the co‐witness condition demonstrated memory conformity and recalled less accurately than witnesses in the control condition. After approximately 4 weeks all participants were cross‐examined by a trainee barrister. Following cross‐examination there was no difference in accuracy between the two experimental groups. Witnesses in both conditions made many changes to their previous reports by altering both initially correct and incorrect answers. The results demonstrate negative effects of cross‐examination on the accuracy of adult eyewitness testimony. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Some conditions that affect admissions of attitude change

Previous research has shown yielders to persuasive communications to be negatively evaluated by observers of the persuasion but positively evaluated by the persuaders. Resisters of persuasion, on the other hand, are evaluated positively by observers but negatively by the initiators of the persuasive effort. Two studies were conducted to determine (a) whether individuals are aware of the differing evaluations of yielders and resisters by persuaders and observers and (b) the extent to which targets of influence attempts strategically employ this information to enhance their images in the eyes of others. Experiment 1, a role-playing study, demonstrated that targets of persuasive appeals are cognizant of the pattern of evaluations provided to yielders and resisters by persuaders and observers. Experiment 2 indicated that targets' public reports of attitude change were shaped so as to produce the most positive evaluations from the audience to those reports. The greatest stated influence occurred in the sole presence of the persuasive agent, an intermediate amount of stated change occurred when both persuader and observer were present, and still less occurred in the sole presence of an observer to the influence attempt. The results of anonymous, private measures of change paralleled in pattern those of the publicly admitted change, but were not significant.     

Initial attitude,source credibility,and involvement as factors in persuasion

Source credibility was manipulated in factorial combination with the measured variables of initial attitude, issue involvement, and sex, using Japanese university students as subjects. A significant credibility × initial attitude interaction replicated previous findings and was attributed to disparagement of the less credible of two communicators by subjects whose initial attitudes were extremely discrepant from the position advocated. The significant involvement × initial attitude interaction reflected the greater resistance of highly involved subjects to persuasion under extreme rather than under moderate communicator-recipient discrepancy.     

Empirical validation of affect, behavior, and cognition as distinct components of attitude

A prevalent model of attitude structure specifies three components: affect, behavior, and cognition. The validity of this tripartite model was evaluated. Five conditions needed for properly testing the three-component distinction were identified. Two new studies were then designed to validate the tripartite model. A consideration of the tripartite model's theoretical basis indicated that the most important validating conditions are (a) the use of nonverbal, in addition to verbal, measures of affect and behavior, and (b) the physical presence of the attitude object. Study 1, in which subjects' attitudes toward snakes were examined, indicated very strong support for this tripartite model: The model was statistically acceptable, its relative fit was very good, and the intercomponent correlations were moderate (.38 less than r less than .71). Study 2 was a verbal report analogue of Study 1. Results from Study 2 indicated that higher intercomponent correlations occurred when attitude measures derived solely from verbal reports and when the attitude object was not physically present.     

Discrepancies between implicit and explicit attitude measures as an indicator of attitude strength

The current research investigates whether implicit–explicit attitudinal discrepancy (IED) weakens attitudes as explicit discrepancies do. Across two experiments, we found that IED is an indicator of weak attitudes. In Experiment 1, we found that individuals with greater IED toward exercise were more swayed by a self‐perceptual manipulation than individuals with lower IED toward exercise. In Experiment 2, we found that the stability and predictive power of attitudes toward alcohol were lessened for participants who had greater IED. These effects occurred independently of the participants' levels of explicit ambivalence and evaluative–cognitive consistency. The present research broadens our understanding of the ways in which evaluations that may not be easily verbalized can affect our thoughts and behavior. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Crime and socioeconomic conditions: Evidence for non-cultural domain specificity in evolutionary forensic psychology

In disagreement with the explanatory utility of niche-construction in crime–culture interaction, this article reviews a variety of evidence for non-cultural domain specificity in criminal behavior. However, this review does subscribe to Durrant and Ward's integrative framework for evolutionary theory in criminology. Moralistic self-deception is implied in Black's self-help theory of social control, and is argued to facilitate victimization while maintaining social norms. Strong empirical evidence of social control in reliable criminal responses to cues of economic conditions, policing and community relatedness is clearly related to domain-specific theories of criminal behavior in evolutionary forensic psychology. Domain-specific interaction between individual differences and socioeconomic complexity can possibly be mistaken for cultural processes, where game-theoretic and information-theoretic interpretations of social interaction provide insight into evolutionary-recurrent features of complex socioeconomic processes in human society. The review concludes that there is indeed support for a productive integration of theory between evolutionary forensic psychology and the interdisciplinary field of criminology.     

Confession evidence,psychological vulnerability and expert testimony

There have been major changes in English Law with regard to confession evidence, which followed the implementation of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) in January 1986. This paper reviews the main legal changes that are relevant to the admissibility and reliability of confessions and their psychological importance within the context of both research and expert testimony.     

Dogmatism,age, and educational level as correlates of feminism for males and females

Male and female subjects completed a dogmatism scale and a feminism scale and provided information about their age, amount of education, and present occupation. The variables correlating with feminism depended upon the sex of the respondent. The more dogmatic individuals of both sexes supported feminism less than the less dogmatic individuals, with the effect being somewhat stronger for the males. The older female supported feminism less than the younger female. Age was unrelated to feminism for the males. The poorly educated female supported feminism less than the better-educated female, but the effect was diminished when dogmatism and age were held constant. Educational level was unrelated to feminism for males. The differences between the sexes are discussed in the context of perceptions of issues and situational ambiguity.The authors would like to thank Joan Joesting for her comments on an earlier version of this paper. Support for the statistical analyses was given by the Maryland State College Information Center.