PSYC330 – 23S1 (Forensic Psychology) Notes

W3 (Eye-Witness Testimony, False Confessions, and Police Interviewing) Jacinta Cording

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Eyewitness Testimony and False Confessions

Central Eight & Ideomotor
1.) Procriminal/ Anti-social attitudes
2.) Anti-social peers/ associates
3.) Anti-social personality pattern
4.) Criminal History
5.) Family/ marital status
6.) School/ work (Lack of achievement in education/ employment)
7.) Lack of pro-social leisure activities
8.) Substance abuse
*The immediate situation also plays a role
The action of ideomotor theory explains one or more of the 8 central factors that contribute to crime
b/c it becomes more habitual. Childhood plays a role b/c if you see something you are likely to lead
to that behavior more. (an ingrained response based on your environment)
- Not saying all people from a tough environment will offend but it makes it much harder for
them to go down the right pathways which may be more viable to those raised in a prosocial
environment (esp. will anti-social behavior traits)

Intention-behavior gap
- Intentions account for 20-25% of variance in behavior (doesn’t explain all of it but is a key
part)
More like to translate into behavior where:
- Motivation is internal
- Intentions are stronger
- Intentions/ goals are more specific
- Environment is controlled and supportive of intentions
- Implementation intentions (‘when situation X arises, I will do Y’)
- MODE Model: When under cognitive strain or when motivation is love, we tend to rely on
more automatic attitudes/ learned behaviors
^This is why relapse prevention plans are a key part to rehabilitation

Best Approach to Rehabilitation?

Looking at the ideomotor theory and research on intention-behavior gap
- Don’t put external intentions on people as for the actions and behavior to change, there
needs to be internal motivations behind it (they generate their motivations intrinsically)
- Make them aware of how to take care of their resources, it benefits them
- Reworking their skills and their pro-criminal attitudes; if you are really good at stealing cars
so you always do it, maybe you could be a really good mechanic
- Environment is important; group therapy is important as you can see guidance but should be
managed so you don’t reinforce others pro-criminal attitudes
- Making sure the plans for rehabilitation are achievable in the environment the offenders are
placed in. For some people maintaining a level of honor-code is vital in survival, and that
includes continuing participating in some pro-criminal behavior.
- The way we expect people to behave in a treatment program, is that behavior expected to
remain the same in their normal environment once they leave ?
--- Data above not needed for study sheet---
Expectancy effects
PSYC330 – 23S1 (Forensic Psychology) Notes
W3 (Eye-Witness Testimony, False Confessions, and Police Interviewing) Jacinta Cording
- Stereotype Threat
- Being a patient effect
- Pygmalion effect

Eyewitness Testimony
Role of eyewitness testimony in the Criminal Justice System (CJS)
- Court testimony
- Line-up identification (people can be mistaken though, not permissible solely on this)
- Focusing investigations around particular suspects
- Mistaken eyewitness information has more of an impact on crimes committed by strangers
- Not permissible as sole evidence
The door study (Simons & Levin, 1998)
- Man asks for directions and halfway through the person which is looking for help changes
- Shows our memory can be fallible (may not be as relatable to those who experienced
traumatic experience)
Selective attention test
- The level of stress you are under affects your attention as well to certain details, especially in
a high-stress crime environment (trauma event)
- Two groups are passing a b-ball and you are to count how many passes are made while a
gorilla passes by. Many people don’t see the gorilla
Movie perception test (Simons & Levin, 1998)
- Person gets up and answers a phone. They were two different people, and most people don’t
notice that or that the outfits have changed
Telling people they had been in a hot air balloon and showing them a photo of it when they hadn’t

Rate of mistaken eyewitness testimonies

- The rate of this differs based on the crime (Blue line in graphs)
o Much likely in child abuse cases, much more likely in adult sexual assault cases, less
in homicide and drug possessions, etc.

Anna Lindh Murder

- Anna Lindh, a Swedish foreign minister, was stabbed by a lone attacker in a department
store
- There were 29 witnesses, each interviewed up to 5 times
- Reports of witnesses were able to be compared against CCTV footage and photographs
PSYC330 – 23S1 (Forensic Psychology) Notes
W3 (Eye-Witness Testimony, False Confessions, and Police Interviewing) Jacinta Cording
- Only 35% of details were correct, 24% are partially correct
Flashbulb Memories (Talarico & Rubin, 2003): a vivid, enduring memory associated with a personally
significant and emotional event, often including such details as where the individual was or what he
or she was doing at the time of the event.
- 911 happening, Kenney’s assassinations, the chch 2011 earthquakes
- Study shows that the flashbulb memories vs. everyday have equivalent details and
memories despite people thinking they may know more from a flashbulb memory. The main
difference was the belief in what they were saying to be true or not (they thought they were
more accurate with the flashbulb memory)

Line-ups
Problems with Line-ups
- Foils/ fillers do not match eyewitness descriptions (can cause bias)
o Suspect stands out compared with foils/ fillers (either in person, or physical
characteristics of the photo)
- No double-blind procedure
- Unconscious transference (you may know a suspect but not from the crime)
- Witnesses feel pressured to select someone (even when the offender is not present)

- ~50% of the time the culprit is in the line-up they are selected, ¼ of the time the wrong
person is selected, ~20% of the time there is no identification of suspect despite them in the
line-up
- If the offender is NOT present, ~70% of the time the wrong ‘culprit’ (due to extreme
pressure)
- People can make their decision (whether right or wrong) and become attached to it
Effect of feedback on credibility

Line-up In-class Example

PSYC330 – 23S1 (Forensic Psychology) Notes
W3 (Eye-Witness Testimony, False Confessions, and Police Interviewing) Jacinta Cording
The person we were looking for wasn’t in the line-up and people still assumed he was

Ronald Cotton & Jennifer Thompson Case

- Sexual assault and the female victim came in to identify the suspect
- People tend to make the right decision quickly; she studied the photos for 5 mins. (the
longer they take to identify the person, usually the less accurate they are)
- Showed photos of different people and then had line-up and she chose the guy she picked
from the photos (seeing the photos first would have influenced her decision)
- The man selected also had a history of a sexual assault crime in his teens and worked in the
area which was why he was selected (investigator showing potential bias by this)
Improving Line-ups
- Instructing the person may not be present and to not look to the officer for clues
- Only interview witnesses prior to line-ups (can otherwise alter their memory of who the
person was)
- Blinded line-ups (the person running the line-ups doesn’t know who it is)
- Both live and photo line-ups are similarly effective (no data shows major difference)
- Present the photos/ people one at a time (sequential line-up)
- Match-to-description rather than trying to match-to-suspect (go based off what the victim
describes not off the data of who you think the offender is/ looks like)
- Record line-ups for auditing
- Use first line-up filled with foils (‘blind’ line-up)

False Confessions
Rate of false confessions
- Innocence Project exonerations (n=375), 29% involved in a false confession
o 49% 21+ yrs., 31% 18- yrs., 9% with known mental health issues
o Study prisoners with mental illnesses found approx. 50% reported falsely confessing
to their crime
Shown in orange in the data below

- Most common in homicides

Who Falsely Confesses?
- Study of inmates in Iceland (n=556) shows about 56 state to falsely confessing
False confessors were:
- More likely to have previously served a prison sentence (65% vs. 38%)
- Younger at the time of first conviction or first imprisonment
PSYC330 – 23S1 (Forensic Psychology) Notes
W3 (Eye-Witness Testimony, False Confessions, and Police Interviewing) Jacinta Cording
- More likely to have a previous criminal record
- Most likely to have committed property crime (59%), followed by serious traffic violations
- More likely to have adverse childhood experiences (i.e. substance abuse, sexual abuse,
violence, etc.). Pointing out a level of vulnerability

What causes false confessions?

Confessions are usually the result of rational-decision-making process in the moment, in which
people optimize any situation for themselves in the light of available alternatives (Ofshe & Leo,
1997)
- If you’re being interrogated for hours, you have a lot of convictions anyways, you’re in a
gang and told to take the blow for this one and take the charge for someone else, in a
situation where you’ve been led to believe that maybe you have committed the crime
3 Types of False Confessions: Voluntary, Compliant, and Internalized

Voluntary False Confessions:

- Knows they didn’t commit the crime and offer themselves has a suspect (they approach
police)
- Could be to protect family members or for notoriety, or guilt
Compliant False Confessions:
- They were approached and they know they didn’t do it but they just confess
- Could be due to the interrogation approach, could be due to a reward, to escape an exterior
aversive situation, or confess b/c you’re told otherwise you’ll get a huge sentence which
could be reduced if you confess, easier to live in prison compared to outside
PSYC330 – 23S1 (Forensic Psychology) Notes
W3 (Eye-Witness Testimony, False Confessions, and Police Interviewing) Jacinta Cording
- Innocence Effect: I hate the situation I’m in and the interrogation process etc. so I will just
confess b/c there is no evidence to prove my wrongdoing; a false confession is enough to get
convicted of a crime. Just confess to get out of the situation
Internalized False Confession
- Someone comes to believe they committed the crime when they truly didn’t
- Usually due to the interrogation approach and mental illness

Interviewing Style (Role)

- In NZ you can’t lie to the suspects or use lie-detector examinations