Being a good witness: The roles of benevolence and working memory capacity in rapport’s effect on eyewitness memory

Prior studies suggest that building rapport with eyewitnesses can produce measurable recall improvements, but the underlying mechanisms of rapport’s possible effects on recall remain underexplored. The present study investigated two possible mechanisms for rapport’s impact: (1) improved working memory capacity and (2) increased benevolence. Participants (N = 105) viewed a mock theft video, followed by one of two possible pre-interview interactions: rapport-building or a control interaction. Next, participants completed measures of working memory, altruism, and benevolence (pre-interview and post-interview), before recalling details of the theft. Analyses revealed that, when controlling for the effects of the interaction duration and participants’ pre- and post-interview benevolence, rapport did not affect eyewitness recall directly. However, rapport building did increase benevolence measured after and associated with the substantive eyewitness interview, which in turn predicted more accurate and new details reported, and fewer subjective/other details reported. These findings support benevolence toward the interviewer as a mechanism behind rapport’s effect on eyewitness recall. Implications for investigative interviews in relation to benevolence and motivating reciprocation are discussed.     

Categorization in infancy: labeling induces a persisting focus on commonalities

Recent studies with infants and adults demonstrate a facilitative role of labels in object categorization. A common interpretation is that labels highlight commonalities between objects. However, direct evidence for such a mechanism is lacking. Using a novel object category with spatially separate features that are either of low or high variability across the stimulus set, we tracked 12‐month‐olds’ attention to object features during learning and at test. Learning occurred in both conditions, but what was learned depended on whether or not labels were heard. A detailed analysis of eye movements revealed that infants in the two conditions employed different object processing strategies. In the silent condition, looking patterns were governed exclusively by the variability of object parts. In the label condition, infants’ categorization performance was linked to their relative attention to commonalities. Moreover, the commonality focus persisted after learning even in the absence of labels. These findings constitute the first experimental evidence that labels induce a persistent focus on commonalities.     

The impact of alcohol intoxication on witness suggestibility immediately and after a delay

Intoxicated witnesses are common, making it important to understand alcohol's impact on witness accuracy and suggestibility. Participants assigned to an immediate retrieval condition encoded and recalled in one of the three intoxication conditions: sober control, placebo, or intoxicated. Participants in the delayed retrieval condition were assigned to encode in one of the three intoxication conditions, returned a week later, and were assigned to retrieve in one of the three intoxication conditions. Intoxication condition at encoding was fully crossed with intoxication condition at retrieval in the delayed condition. Participants encoded a mock crime video and retrieved via a forced‐choice test, with answers already circled (purportedly by a prior participant); half of the precircled responses were incorrect. When recalling after a delay only, intoxication at encoding increased agreement with incorrect suggested answers and decreased accuracy. Results suggest intoxicated witnesses may benefit from being interviewed immediately rather than after a sobering delay.     

Self‐Reported Current Practices in Child Forensic Interviewing: Training,Tools, and Pre‐Interview Preparation

In child sexual abuse investigations, forensic interviewers within the Child Advocacy Center (CAC) model serve as neutral fact‐finders for a team of professionals tasked with investigating and intervening in cases of alleged child sexual abuse. Although empirical evidence has led to the development of best‐practice techniques and protocols, there is currently no universally adopted protocol in the field. The present research gathered detailed information from a national sample of real‐world child forensic interviewers about their training and current practices, with a specific focus on assessing the information interviewers typically review prior to conducting child forensic interviews. Most notably, the survey revealed a lack of uniformity in interviewing protocols adopted and pre‐interview preparation practices. Although rare, some interviewers reported using an allegation‐blind interviewing approach, highlighting the need for future research on this and other under‐studied techniques. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Effect of Maternal Depressed Mood on Infant Emotional Reaction in a Surprise‐Eliciting Situation

The purpose of this study is to examine the claim that an infant's ability to respond appropriately to an emotional situation varies according to the emotional state of the mother. Surprise expressions in mother and child were examined both in terms of paralinguistic aspects of surprise vocalizations as well as facial expressions. Seventy‐two infants and their mothers (mean age=8 months, range=5–11 months) were video‐ and audiotaped in their homes. Half of the infants, matched for age and gender, had mothers who reported depressed mood. Infants of mothers with depressed mood showed significantly fewer components of facial expressions of surprise compared with infants of nondepressed mothers. Mothers with depressed mood exclaimed surprise with a significantly lower pitch (mean F₀=386.13 Hz ) compared to nondepressed mothers (mean F₀=438.10 Hz ). Furthermore, mothers with depressed mood showed fewer associations between elements of emotional expression than the nondepressed group. Infants' expressions of surprise are influenced by maternal mood, resulting in reduced expression of the emotion in infants of mothers with depressed mood. These results are discussed in terms of coordination of vocal parameters in mother–infant dyadic interaction.     

Turning a blind eye to double blind line‐ups

Although psychologists have urged police officers to use double blind line‐up procedures during their investigations, police officers state that these would be difficult to administer and most have been reluctant to implement this change. Four studies examine whether lay people's judgements about the guilt of a suspect vary according to whether a brief written summary of a case described the identification procedure as double blind or non‐double blind. The effects were all small (and almost all non‐significant). Most people do not treat double blind line‐ups differently from non‐double blind line‐ups when assessing the guilt of a defendant. Either police investigators should stop using this biased method or police investigators and others in the judicial system (e.g. jurors, judges) should be informed of this bias when evaluating results from any line‐up. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

“Blind” interviewing: Is ignorance bliss?

Current investigative interviewing guidelines [e.g., Technical Working Group: Eyewitness evidence. (1999). Eyewitness evidence: A guide for law enforcement. U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, National Institute of Justice. Retrieved from https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/178240.pdf] suggest that interviewers review available case information prior to conducting a witness interview. The present study investigated the effect of interviewers’ pre-interview awareness of crime details on eyewitnesses’ memory and interviewer behaviour shortly after a mock crime or a week later. Results indicate that blind interviewers with no knowledge about the crime elicited more correct information than those who were correctly informed about the crime. Differences in interviewer behaviour emerged only in the very first question of the interview: Blind interviewers were more likely to begin the interview with a non-suggestive question than the informed interviewers. Blind interviewers also recalled more details than the informed interviewers when asked to generate a report after the witness interview documenting the witness’ account.     

Maternal verbal interaction in different situations with infants born prematurely or at term

The present study investigates whether maternal verbal behaviour, in terms of the use of declaratives, interrogatives and imperatives, can be accounted for by gestational age of the infant, or the situation in which mother–infant pairs were observed. Thirteen mothers and their premature and term babies were observed twice in three situations, namely playing with, feeding and changing their infants. The first observation took place at a mean gestational age of 40 weeks and the second observation took place approximately 7 weeks later. All mothers used more imperatives during play than during changing or feeding situations. Mothers used more interrogatives during play than during changing or feeding, and they used more declaratives during both changing and playing than during feeding. In contrast, gestational age influenced only the complexity of maternal interrogatives. It is concluded that situational factors are significant and hence that the mother's role has to be judged relative to the context in which mothers and infants are observed. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Alcohol Intoxication and Metamemory: Little Evidence that Moderate Intoxication Impairs Metacognitive Monitoring Processes

There is minimal research on metacognition in alcohol‐intoxicated participants. Study 1 examined metacognition across sober, intoxicated, and placebo groups, with the intoxicated group's breath alcohol concentration reaching 0.074 g/210 L on average immediately prior to the metacognition task. Participants answered cued recall general knowledge questions and provided confidence ratings and feeling‐of‐knowing judgments. They then completed a recognition (i.e., multiple choice) version of the same task, indicating an answer and a confidence rating for each question. Findings suggest that metacognitive accuracy generally did not vary across intoxication levels, although the control group's retrospective confidence judgments better discriminated between accurate and inaccurate responses than the alcohol groups in the recognition task. Study 2 surveyed academic psychologists about their expectations regarding the relation between alcohol and metacognition. Study 1's results were counter to their expectations, as respondents generally predicted a relation would be present. We discuss the implications for alcohol and memory.Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Influence of Body Mass Index on the Perceived Quality of Life during Pregnancy

Obesity contributes to various pregnancy complications and therefore, may compromise maternal quality of life. The study aim was to investigate the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) during pregnancy. Study involved every 6th woman who gave birth in the Clinic for Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinical Center of Serbia during the year 2010. Initial and end pregnancy BMIs were calculated for every woman. The parturients (604) completed the SF36 questionnaire (physical-PHC; mental-MHC; total quality of life-TQL), Beck’s Depression Inventory, Fatigue Severity Scale, Pregnancy Symptom Scale, Multidimensional Personal Support Scale, and Acceptance of Illness Scale. Before pregnancy most women had normal or decreased weight, while at the end of pregnancy the majority were overweight or obese (p?=?0.000). Initial and end pregnancy weights (p?<?0.05) and BMIs (p?<?0.05) were positively correlated with depression. Depression was significantly lower in overweight compared to mildly or morbidly obese women during pregnancy (p?<?0.05). Pregnancy weight change correlated negatively with PHC (p?=?0.029), and positively with fatigue (p?=?0.030), and symptoms (p?=?0.011). Of all BMI categories, morbidly obese women had the worst feeling of social support (p?<?0.05). Pregnancy symptoms were significantly less problematic in women with normal weight compared to overweight and obese women during pregnancy (p?<?0.05). Assessing the impact of all investigated parameters together, we established significant models for PHC (p?=?0.036), depression (p?=?0.030), and fatigue (p?=?0.038). Pregnant women should be advised to keep their gestational weight gain within the normal recommended range to have a good pregnancy outcome and HRQoL.