Deck 11: Memory and the Law

Question 1

In 1932, Yale law professor Edwin Borcand wrote write Convicting the Innocent. Borcand claimed, based on his analysis of 65 cases, that ________ was the single leading cause of wrongful convictions.

A) eyewitness corruption
B) false memories
C) eyewitness misidentification
D) cultural stereotypes

Answer 1

C

Question 2

For a long time, a positive identification in a police lineup was regarded as proof that a person was the perpetrator, and ________ were generally believed to represent what really occurred.

A) supporting pieces of evidence presented in the courtroom
B) recounts by eyewitnesses in courtroom testimony
C) the social position and reputation of eyewitnesses in courtroom testimony
D) the lack of alternative theories and consensus of public opinion

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Beginning in the 1970s, research began to reveal that people are ________.

A) very good eyewitnesses but only if they are brought back to the same physical context where the witnessed event took place
B) not very good eyewitnesses at all: before-the-fact information can change our memories, thus recollection can actually make us forget we have a memory for something
C) mediocre eyewitnesses, since for example after-the-fact information can create flashbulb memories
D) not very good eyewitnesses at all: after-the-fact information can change our memories, and recollection can actually make us believe we have a memory for something that didn't occur

Answer 3

D

Question 4

The nature of human memory affects various aspects of the legal system, but does not immediately affect ________.

A) reliability of confessions
B) identification of individuals from police lineups
C) jury deliberation
D) paternity attribution

Question 5

Loftus and Palmer (1974) were interested in whether ________.

A) the age of the interrogator could influence recall by the witness
B) peoples' memories for traffic accidents lasted longer than equivalent non-emotional memories
C) existing stereotypes could influence recall
D) peoples' memories for traffic accidents actually operated like a camera, creating a permanent and immutable trace

Question 6

A leading question is ________.

A) a question that by its form or content suggests the desired answer to the witness, or leads the witness to the desired answer
B) a question asked by the person in charge of the interrogation
C) the first question asked in a long series
D) the question most likely to be remembered by the witness when he or she appears in court

Question 7

In their 1974 study, Loftus and Palmer showed participants films of traffic accidents and then asked the participants to answer a series of questions about the________ of the vehicle, and the only difference between the questions asked of participants was ________.

A) speed; the verb used in the question
B) model; the medium used to convey the question
C) colour; the age of the person asking the question
D) size; the medium used to convey the question

Question 8

Loftus and Palmer (1974) concluded that ________ has the potential to taint eyewitness testimony.

A) the facts of the event
B) the honesty of the witness
C) post-event information, such as leading questions
D) the level of trauma in the event

Question 9

Loftus et al. (1978) in a large-scale study exploring the influence of post-event information on memory used a ________ in order to reduce possible confounds introduced by ________.

A) word stem completion task; utilizing different modalities during different phases of the experiment
B) recognition procedure; different levels of understanding of the English language among participants
C) computerized procedure; personal biases
D) recognition procedure; utilizing different modalities during different phases of the experiment

Question 10

In Loftus et al. (1978), participants correctly identified the slide they had seen earlier ________ of the time when question 17 contained consistent information. ________ of participants chose the slide they had actually seen earlier when the questionnaire contained misleading information.

A) 41 per cent; 75 per cent
B) 50 per cent; 50 per cent
C) 99 per cent; 11 per cent
D) 75 per cent; 41 per cent

Question 11

The results from Loftus et al. (1979) show that blatantly inaccurate information ________ inoculate participants from encoding more subtle misinformation, ________.

A) cannot; even if the blatantly false information is presented at the same time as the other misinformation
B) can help; but only if the blatantly false information is presented at the same time as the other misinformation
C) can help; no matter when the blatantly false information is presented
D) cannot; even if the blatantly false information is presented at a different time

Question 12

According to Loftus (1979), a person ________.

A) maintains any number of representations, each created by a misinformation event
B) maintains at least three representations, one original and two new, each of which can be used as a point of reference
C) maintains at least two representations, one original and one new, each of which can be used as a point of reference
D) does not maintain two representations, one original and one new, but rather a single integrated point of reference

Question 13

The more a person imagines a fictitious event, the more likely the person in to develop ________.

A) a false memory that the event actually occurred
B) skepticism about the possibility that the event could occur
C) motivation to make the fictitious event a reality
D) confusion about the details of the fictitious event

Question 14

Imagination inflation is ________.

A) when a person comes to believe multiple versions of an imagined event
B) when a person comes to believe that her or his memory of an imagined event represents a memory for an event that occurred
C) when a person comes to believe that a real event did not occur at all
D) when police provide a suspect of a crime information that only the culprit would know

Question 15

Today, the majority of practicing clinicians ________ the possibility of repressed and recovered memories and ________ in therapeutic activities that may lead to the development of false memories.

A) support; engage
B) refute; avoid engaging
C) support; avoid engaging
D) refute; engage

Question 16

Unconscious transference is ________.

A) when neither the police officer administering the lineup nor the witness knows who is the suspect in the lineup
B) when stereotypes and false memories bias the witness to select a particular suspect
C) when the witness avoids to point to a suspect for some personal reason and instead selects some innocent individual
D) when previous exposure to a suspect leads to a feeling of familiarity that provides the sole basis for the identification of the suspect

Question 17

Cross-race effect (CRE) is ________.

A) the finding that racial stereotypes are equally common among all racial groups
B) the discovery that eyewitnesses are less accurate at making identifications when the suspects are of a different race
C) the discovery that eyewitnesses are more accurate at making identifications when the suspects are of a different race
D) when racial stereotypes increase the probability of claiming that somebody is a suspect if he/she belongs to a race different from that of the witness

Question 18

Research suggests that the cross-race effect (CRE) is about ________.

A) remembering the faces of people of a different race
B) remembering the faces of people from our in-groups
C) remembering the faces of all people, regardless of race
D) forgetting all faces once they have been recognized

Question 19

According to Brewer and Wells (2011), with the use of confidence ratings, an investigator ________.

A) could take a high confidence discrepancy between a suspect and similar-looking fillers as an indicator that the eyewitness recognized the culprit
B) could not take a low discrepancy between confidence ratings to indicate that the eyewitness did not recognize any of the faces as being that of the culprit
C) could not take a high confidence discrepancy between a suspect and similar-looking fillers as an indicator that the eyewitness recognized the culprit
D) does not have a more reliable tool compared to the classic yes/no procedure

Question 20

Negative PTP is ________ that depicts the defendant in a way that suggests ________.

A) pre-trial publicity; the defendant committed the crime or was capable of committing the crime she or he is accused of committing
B) post-trial publicity; the defendant committed the crime and that could affect the outcome of any subsequent appeal
C) pre-trial publicity; the defendant did not commit the crime or was incapable of committing the crime she or he is accused of committing
D) post-trial publicity; the defendant committed the crime and that could affect the outcome of any subsequent civil proceeding

Question 21

Ruva and McEvoy (2008) found that jurors who saw negative PTP ________.

A) were more likely to attribute information presented in the trial to the trial
B) perceived the defendant as more credible
C) made fewer source memory errors
D) were more likely to find the defendant guilty

Question 22

Ruva and Guenther (2015) found that jurors exposed to _________.

A) positive PTP perceived the defendant as less credible and made more source memory errors than no-PTP jurors
B) negative PTP perceived the defendant as less credible and made more source memory errors than no-PTP jurors
C) negative PTP perceived the defendant as more credible and made less source memory errors than no-PTP jurors
D) negative PTP perceived the defendant equally credible and made the same number of source memory errors as the no- PTP jurors

Question 23

Pennington and Hastie (1992) suggest jurors, to remember all the information, cope by developing a story that combines three types of information together into a narrative. These types of information do not include ________.

A) case-specific information acquired during the trial
B) jurors' own knowledge about similar crimes, such as crimes they have read about in the past, or even previous criminal cases they have been involved with
C) jurors knowingly considering PTP, when the guilt or innocence of the suspect is not obvious
D) jurors' generic expectations about what makes a complete story, such as the knowledge that human behaviour is usually motivated by goals

Question 24

Pennington and Hastie (1992) demonstrated that jurors also tend to ________.

A) accept the last story they heard, the so-called "recency effect"
B) rely on the story that is easiest to construe, not necessarily the story that is most just
C) prefer the story that is closer to their own stereotypes
D) rely on the story that is most difficult to construe, as long as it confirms PTP

Question 25

In their research on jury note taking, Rosenhan et al. (1994) found ________.

A) note-taking jurors remembered about the same amount of information as those who did not take notes
B) juror notes can help recall of trial related information
C) a negative correlation between the amount of words written and recall scores
D) note takers who wrote more did not recall any more information than those who did not take notes

Question 26

Dozens of studies have shown that jurors ________.

A) better remember testimony associated with negative emotions than testimony associated with positive emotions or no emotions at all
B) better remember testimony associated with positive emotions than testimony associated with negative emotions or no emotions at all
C) remember testimony associated with negative emotions to the same extent as testimony associated with positive emotions
D) better remember testimony associated with positive emotions than testimony associated with negative emotions or no emotions at all, but only if this conforms to their own bias

Question 27

Two aspects of the jury deliberation process (see, e.g., Rosenhan et al., 1994) are assumed to improve memory of jurors: _________.

A) memory pooling and play back of videos recording the court proceedings
B) memory pooling and error correction
C) error correction and play back of videos recording the court proceedings
D) error correction and brainstorming all possible narratives of the events under examination
E) e.g., Rosenhan et al., 1994) are assumed to improve memory of jurors: _________.

Question 28

In their study of juror memory mistakes, Pritchard and Keenan (2002) found ________.

A) a strong correlation between juror memory accuracy and juror memory confidence
B) more confident jurors tend to lead jury deliberations
C) jurors who are more confident are more likely to change their verdicts to match the verdict of those leading the deliberation
D) jurors with more accurate memories tend to be most influential during deliberation

Question 29

Farwell's brain fingerprinting technique ________.

A) has been extensively peer reviewed
B) is very effective for cases where facts about the crime are unknown
C) has been shown to me more reliable than a standard polygraph
D) relies heavily on the assumption that a guilty suspect will have a perfect, undistorted memory of the crime

Question 30

Compared to standard interviews, cognitive interviews typically result in ________.

A) more information being recalled
B) more accurate information being recalled
C) less information being recalled
D) less accurate information being recalled

Question 31

In what ways does the legal system depends on memory? How can the legal system be made more just by acknowledging known patterns in human remembering?

Question 32

What were the pivotal experiments by Loftus and Palmer (1974) on the eyewitness memory?

Question 33

Why, according to Loftus (1979), does being presented with blatantly false information seem to inoculate participants from more subtle types of misinformation?

Question 34

Why might a person take responsibility for a crime that she or he did not commit?

Question 35

What is the cross-race effect (CRE) and how does it impact eyewitness identifications?

Question 36

How can pre-trial publicity affect the verdict of a jury?

Question 37

How can emotional testimony with personal relevance affect the decisions of jurors?

Question 38

What is brain fingerprinting and what criticisms have been levelled against the method?

Question 39

The more a person imagines a fictitious event, the more likely the person is to develop a false memory that the event actually occurred. What evidence has been presented by researchers to support this statement? What are the practical implications of this statement?

Question 40

What are the two main approaches for suspect identification? What is problematic about each approach?

Question 41

What are the impacts of deliberation on juror's memories for trial evidence? Describe in detail and include relevant data from controlled studies.