The relationship of compliance with inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity

The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity symptoms in predicting compliance. It was hypothesised that inattention symptoms are a better predictor of compliance than hyperactivity/impulsivity. There were two different groups of participants: 367 college students (both males and females) and 89 male prisoners. All participants had completed the Gudjonsson Compliance Scale (GCS) and the DSM-IV-TR (Screening) Checklist for adult ADHD symptoms. Significant correlations emerged between compliance and ADHD symptoms, but the correlations were higher for inattention than hyperactivity/impulsivity among both samples. This was confirmed by multiple regression analyses (hierarchical), which showed that the variance in compliance explained by ADHD inattention versus hyperactivity/impulsivity symptoms increased from 2% to 8% for college students and 8% to 24% for prisoners after entering inattention into the model (hyperactivity/impulsivity was entered first in the regression models). The findings suggest that inattention is a more powerful predictor of compliance than hyperactivity/impulsivity. This is a novel and an important finding.     

Understanding of the current police caution (England and Wales) among suspects in police detention

The current police caution (England and Wales) provides information about the right to silence to suspects in police detention. Though earlier studies, involving other populations, suggest that the caution would be too complex for detainees to understand fully, the issue has not previously been investigated directly among police detainees. Comprehension of the caution was investigated among two groups, police station suspects (N = 30) and individuals (N = 24) attending a job centre in the same area, matched for intellectual ability. In both groups, understanding was very limited and did not relate either to their situation at the time of testing or to self‐reported experience of the criminal justice system. Even under optimal experimental conditions, only 11% (six) of the participants were able to demonstrate full understanding of its meaning. Worryingly, though more than 96% (52) claimed to have understood the caution fully after it had been presented to them as it would be by the police, none of them did so. We suggest practical measures to ameliorate the difficulties, but the importance of devising a new, simplified, version of the current caution cannot be over‐emphasized; otherwise, miscarriages of justice are likely to occur. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Forensic psychology in Iceland: a survey of members of the Icelandic Psychological Society

Forensic psychology is a rapidly growing specialism within psychology. A survey was carried out among the 152 members of the Icelandic Psychological Society (Sálfradingafélagi Islands) about their involvement and role in court work. Out of 101 psychologists who responded to the survey, 39 reported having been involved in court work, of whom 34 had testified in court. The great majority of court work of the psychologists involved assessments relating to child-care and custody proceedings, but there was evidence that Icelandic psychologists are increasingly becoming involved in criminal cases concerning criminal responsibility and the reliability of testimony. They are working much more independently of medical colleagues than before.     

Individual and developmental differences in eyewitness recall and suggestibility in children with intellectual disabilities

This study examined two key issues: (1) whether there were developmental improvements in eyewitness memory performance for children with intellectual disabilities (ID); and (2) whether standardised measures of cognitive ability and suggestibility would relate to eyewitness recall and suggestibility. Children with ID and age‐matched controls (ages 8/9 and 12 years) watched a video of a crime and were asked a range of open‐ended and specific questions about the event in a subsequent interview. Free recall increased between the two age levels for children with and without ID, but at a faster rate for those without ID. For other question types, differences in performance between children with and without ID were far more marked than age differences. Standardised measures of interrogative suggestibility (Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale, GSS), verbal IQ, non‐verbal IQ, mental age and speed of information processing were related to eyewitness performance. In particular, higher eyewitness recall scores (free recall, non‐leading specific questions) were related to higher scores on the standardised GSS free recall measure; and higher eyewitness suggestibility scores were related to higher scores on the standardised GSS suggestibility measures. Mental age was a better predictor of performance on a range of eyewitness memory question types than verbal or non‐verbal IQ; and speed of information processing showed some relationships with eyewitness performance. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The recovery approach to the care of mentally disordered patients. Does it predict treatment engagement and positive social behaviour beyond quality of life?

The main aim of this study was to investigate whether the ‘recovery approach’ to the care of mentally disordered patients is associated with treatment motivation/engagement and positive social interactions on the ward beyond that of perceived quality of life. The participants were 75 service users in a medium secure unit in south-east England, who completed the Recovery Journey Questionnaire (RJQ), The Manchester Short Assessment of Quality of Life (MANSA), The Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS), and the Patient Motivation and Perception Questionnaires (PMI and PPQ). The patients’ primary nurse independently completed the Disruptive Behaviour and Social Problem Scale (DBSP) for 33 service users. Multiple regressions showed that after controlling for age, ethnicity and diagnosis (severe mental illness vs personality disorder), the RJQ contributed to the variance in treatment motivation, treatment engagement, and positive social interactions on the ward above quality of life with medium to large effect sizes. The strongest effect size was with regard to treatment engagement where the amount of variance explained increased from 22% to 51% after the RJQ was entered into the regression. The results indicate that the recovery approach explains treatment motivation/engagement and positive social interactions above and beyond quality of life.     

Development and preliminary validation of the Penny Beliefs Scale – Weapons (PBS-W)

Weapons carrying and use is an area of increasing concern and frequent media attention. Despite this, there is a distinct lack of psychological research into the reasons that people carry and use weapons. At present there is no adequate measure of beliefs that facilitate carrying and using weapons and the present investigation sought to develop and validate such a tool: the Penny Beliefs Scale - Weapons (PBS-W). The PBS-W was developed using themes identified in a literature review and through consultation with experienced Forensic Psychologists. The factor structure, reliability, and validity were ascertained by administering the PBS-W to 212 school pupils in South Wales, who were aged between 16 and 18 years. The final version of the PBS-W comprises of 36 items that measure young people’s beliefs about carrying and using weapons and load onto one factor named Potency. The new scale has excellent internal reliability (Cronbach’s alpha of .92), extremely good test-retest consistency (ICC = .833), male participants scored significantly higher on the PBS-W compared with female participants, and the PBS-W is significantly positively correlated with self-reported delinquency. These findings are discussed in the context of existing literature and future potential directions for research are proposed.     

The effects of memory trace strength on eyewitness recall in children with and without intellectual disabilities

Children with mild moderate intellectual disabilities (ID) were compared with typically developing peers of the same chronological age (CA) on an eyewitness memory task in which memory trace strength was manipulated to examine whether increased memory trace strength would benefit those with ID more than those without ID. No evidence was found for this claim or for the notion that different mechanisms are implicated in memory processes for children with ID versus CA controls. Fuzzy-trace theory was also used to contrast question types that probed verbatim memory versus gist memory. Manipulations of trace strength, when used with immediate recall (to reduce the impact of decay), were predicted to improve verbatim memory more than gist memory. The results broadly supported the predictions. Performance was not improved in the stronger trace strength condition on measures of recall that tapped gist memory (e.g., open-ended recall), whereas performance was significantly better in the stronger trace strength condition on two of the three measures of recall that tapped verbatim memory (i.e., closed misleading questions, open-ended specific questions). Differences in performance between the groups were quite marked on several question types, supporting previous findings that those with ID have certain vulnerabilities as potential witnesses compared with peers of the same CA.