Is there a future for investigative hypnosis?

Since its heyday in the 1970s and 1980s, hypnosis as an investigative procedure has declined in popularity such that many experts now consider it to be more a liability than a useful forensic tool. Indeed, in the US, a majority of the states follow a per se exclusion rule, prohibiting any memories retrieved during or after hypnosis from being introduced into evidence. In this paper, factors contributing to the demise of investigative hypnosis are re-examined. It is concluded that a per se exclusion rule is overly inclusive, but it is advisable for investigators to avoid using hypnosis when other, less contentious alternatives, such as the cognitive interview, are available. Nevertheless, it often goes unrecognised that a more positive legacy of investigative hypnosis is very present in modern investigative interviewing best practice; moreover, there may still be procedures employed in hypnotic interviewing that have yet to be exploited. For example, recent research indicates that, when divorced from the context of hypnosis, brief techniques such as focused breathing, and eye closure, can enhance memory. As memory enhancement with these techniques is achieved without the increase in false positive errors familiar to more traditional hypnosis techniques, evidence from such procedures should be acceptable to the courts. The potential role of hypnosis as a tool to reverse the effects of misinformation is also considered. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Study of the Opinions of College Students

ABSTRACT

When judging whether a relationship partner can be counted on to “be there” when needed, people may draw upon knowledge structures to process relevant information. We examined one such knowledge structure using the prototype methodology: indicators of a partner who is likely to be there when needed. In the first study (N = 91), the structure, content, and reliability of the prototype of indicators were examined. Then, using a false recognition study (N = 77), we demonstrated that once activated, the prototype of indicators of a partner who is likely to be there when needed affects information processing. Thus, the prototype of indicators may shape how people process support-relevant information in everyday life, affecting relationship outcomes. Using this knowledge structure may help a person process relevant information quickly and with cognitive economy. However, it may also lead to biases in judgments in certain situations.     

基于概化理论的作假识别量表编制及其作用

基于概化理论,探讨在《大学生心理资本量表》中加入作假识别量表的具体编制过程及其在提升量表信度、效度等方面的作用。通过因素分析验证《作假识别量表》的单维性;通过概化研究,研究其信效度,并嵌入《大学生心理资本量表》进行验证。结果表明：因素分析解释率为55.858%,概化研究结果显示G系数和Φ系数分别为0.825,0.809。因此,《作假识别量表》有很好的信效度,嵌入《大学生心理资本量表》后能有效地识别作假行为和筛选被试。     

Children's Understanding of Second‐Order False Belief: Comparisons of Content and Method of Assessment

This research examined children's performance on second‐order false belief tasks as a function of the content area for the belief and the method of assessing understanding. A total of 70 kindergarten and first‐grade children responded to four second‐order stories. On two stories, the task was to judge a belief about a belief, and on two, the task was to judge a belief about an emotion. On one trial within each group, the task was to predict the target's belief, and on one trial, the task was to explain the belief. Older children outperformed younger children on the prediction measure. Differences as a function of content area and method of assessment were limited; when they did occur, performance was generally better with belief than with emotion as the target, and better with prediction than with explanation as the response criterion. Finally, there was no relation between number of siblings and performance.     

Secret-Keeping Behaviors in Black and White Children as a Function of Interviewer Race,Racial Identity,and Risk for Abuse

Summary

The tendency for children to keep the secret of child abuse is an important practical impediment to adequate research, prevention, assessment, and treatment. While some studies have established that children will readily keep adult secrets, few have investigated the predictors of ease of disclosure. In this research, race of the interviewer requesting the secret strongly affected disclosure, with Black children particularly showing an unwillingness to disclose a negative secret to a different race interviewer. Children at high risk for sexual abuse (as assessed by the Finkelhor checklist) also were more likely to keep the secret.     

Studies in Binocular Interdependence: III. an Active Principle

Explanations of the nature of thought and the methods of study underlying such explanations were explored from the viewpoints of introspective psychology, methodological behaviorism, and radical behaviorism. Empirical support for the radical behaviorists' interpretation of thought as covert operant behavior was examined. An experimental method was developed which attempted to analyze the functional properties of responsereinforcement connections in the environment inside our skins. Verbal reports of the thought behaviors of a group of graduate students in educational psychology were examined and coded in terms of B. F. Skinner's verbal operant categories. The reported thought units were coded in relation to the environmental contexts in which they were reported, and in relation to the environmental contexts in which the thoughts had actually occurred. Major differences in the verbal operant codings, and in the interrater reliabilities of such codings were discovered depending upon the particular environmental context utilized. Results obtained by scoring the reported thought units in relation to the environments in which the thoughts actually occurred were congruent with the paradigm of operant behavior.     

Test of Competing Explanations of the Bizarre Response Bias in Recognition Memory

Recent research has demonstrated that a more liberal response criterion is used when people make judgments about bizarre items than about common items in old-new tests of recognition. The present study was designed to test 2 possible explanations of the bizarre response bias. The bizarre-relations explanation suggests that the bizarre response bias is triggered by the bizarre relations depicted in test items. The target-constituent explanation suggests that the bizarre response bias is the result of a sense of familiarity with constituents of bizarre test items. These explanations were tested by examining the influence of lure manipulations on memory discrimination and response bias for common and bizarre hand-drawn pictures. The results indicated support for the target-constituent explanation by reversing the response bias (obtaining a common response bias) in a recognition test that used common lures containing constituents from bizarre target items and bizarre lures containing constituents from common target items. The results also indicated that increased verbal elaboration enhanced memory discrimination and reduced response bias for both common and bizarre stimuli. The implications of these results are discussed with regard to the false memory controversy.     

The Effects of Type and Amount of Pretraining on Transfer in Concept Formation

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of 2 types of directed attention pretraining, a form of stimulus predifferentiation, on immediate- and delayed-transfer tasks in concept identification. In both experiments, the participants received either the “seeing-and-discriminating” or “seeing” technique of pretraining, except for those assigned to the control group. The participants received different amounts of pretraining. In the first experiment, participants were required to learn new concepts from the same category for the delayed-transfer task, whereas in the second experiment, the delayed-transfer task involved concepts from a different category. Among the major findings in both experiments are that the pretraining methods resulted in positive transfer on all transfer tasks. In general, the seeing-and-discriminating method yielded a more positive transfer than the seeing technique. Maximal positive transfer effects were found with a small number of trials. The implications of the findings for understanding the effectiveness of various training methods used for problem solving are discussed.     

提取抑制对错误记忆的影响

该研究探讨提取抑制能否减少错误记忆的发生.以自编的DRM词表为实验材料,实验1采用有意遗忘范式（有意抑制）,实验2采用部分线索效应范式（无意抑制）.实验1结果发现：关键诱饵在“记住”条件下的错误回忆成绩显著高于“遗忘”条件下的错误回忆成绩;学过项目在“记住”条件下的正确回忆成绩显著高于“遗忘”条件下的正确回忆成绩.实验2结果发现：关键诱饵在“无部分线索”条件下的错误回忆成绩显著高于“部分线索”条件下的错误回忆成绩;学过项目在“无部分线索”条件下的正确回忆成绩显著高于“部分线索”条件下的正确回忆成绩.研究结果提示：有意和无意两种提取抑制都可以降低错误记忆,结果支持基于激活与监测的双加工理论的观点.