Deck 15: Social Psychology and the Law

Question 1

The leading cause of wrongful convictions of defendants in a trial is

A) racial prejudice
B) eyewitness error
C) incompetent legal aid
D) coerced confessions

Answer 1

eyewitness error

Question 2

In a study of eyewitness identification, researchers asked a store clerk to identify a confederate who had posed as a customer out of a lineup. The clerks correctly identified the confederate ________ of the time.

A) 5%
B) 34%
C) 60%
D) 92%

Answer 2

34%

Question 3

The distance from which a witness sees the event and the race of the witness are examples of ________ variables that influence eyewitness identification.

A) system
B) confounding
C) demand
D) estimator

Answer 3

estimator

Question 4

Biases in police lineups and suggestive questioning by police officers are examples of ________ variables that influence eyewitness identification.

A) system
B) confounding
C) demand
D) estimator

Question 5

Imagine that you are walking down the street and witness a man grab the purse off a woman's arm and run away. If your memory is influenced primarily by system variables, which of the following is likely to play a role in your ability to recall the event accurately?

A) how afraid you were at the time
B) how dark it was
C) the kinds of questions you are asked during the police interview
D) how similar the criminal looked to a person you know

Question 6

Which is NOT one of the three psychological processes identified in the text as being involved in eyewitness identification?

A) retrieval of information
B) manipulation of information
C) acquisition of information
D) storage of information

Question 7

When compared to witnesses who view an event under optimal viewing conditions, witnesses who experience an event under poor viewing conditions

A) are just as accurate in their identifications
B) are less confident about their ability to make an identification
C) are less concerned about making an accurate identification
D) are just as likely to make an identification

Question 8

Sarah is mugged at gunpoint. She is least likely to remember

A) which way her assailant ran after the attack
B) what noises she heard right before the attack
C) what color gloves the assailant was wearing
D) a and b

Question 9

Which of the following is associated with more accurate identifications of perpetrators by eyewitnesses?

A) the witness is not terribly frightened or stressed by the event
B) the witness is the same race as the perpetrator
C) the witness makes the identification after a long period of time has passed since The event
D) the witness experienced the weapon focus effect

Question 10

Which statement about the "own-race bias" is true?

A) Cross-racial contact diminishes the bias.
B) People are more accurate identifying people of another race than of their own Race.
C) Black people are more susceptible to own-race bias than white people.
D) It only applies to witnesses of violent, not non-violent, crimes.

Question 11

The retention interval refers to

A) the amount of time between perceiving an event and processing the information we acquire
B) the length of time it takes people to recall accurate information when being questioned about an event they have witnessed
C) the amount of time between witnessing an event and making a statement about what happened during the event
D) the amount of time it takes people to process information while witnessing an event

Question 12

The amount of information that people are able to recall about an event they have witnessed declines dramatically after

A) 60 minutes
B) 24 hours
C) 7 days
D) 2 months

Question 13

In a classic study, Loftus and Palmer found that when asked to estimate the speed of a car involved in an accident, participants' estimates were affected by

A) the conditions under which they viewed the accident
B) their similarity to the driver of the car
C) their own driving history
D) the words used to describe the accident

Question 14

Which of the following is NOT a theory about how postevent information affects memory?

A) the story model
B) source-monitoring theory
C) forgetting
D) the overwriting hypothesis

Question 15

Source-monitoring theory argues that a person's difficulties recalling events can be a result of

A) not processing the information accurately
B) concluding that postevent information came from the original event
C) not noticing the most important features of an event
D) personality characteristics of the witness

Question 16

Which of the following provides the best explanation for eyewitness suggestibility effects?

A) forgetting
B) the overwriting hypothesis
C) retention intervals
D) source-monitoring theory

Question 17

Scientific research on recovered memories suggests that

A) all recovered memories are false
B) recovered memories are real
C) people can "recover" memories for events that never happened
D) most people are able to retrieve lost memories if they try hard enough

Question 18

Many adults who have recovered memories of childhood abuse have done so during therapy sessions relying on

A) suggestive questioning
B) guided imagery
C) age regression
D) all of the above

Question 19

George was attacked by a mugger. The police bring him to the precinct, show him an individual and ask him whether this person was the one who mugged him. This is an example of a

A) simultaneous lineup
B) sequential lineup
C) show-up
D) coerced lineup

Question 20

Simultaneous lineups are problematic for witness identification of perpetrators because

A) they are deceptive
B) the instructions are highly suggestive
C) they encourage relative judgments
D) all of the above

Question 21

Guidelines released by the Department of Justice and based on social psychological research encourage police officers to

A) tell eyewitnesses that the perpetrator is present in the lineup
B) tell eyewitnesses that the perpetrator is a frequent offender
C) use lineup foils who represent a range of physical appearances
D) use open-ended questions when talking with witnesses

Question 22

If a father false confesses to a crime in order to keep his child from going to jail, this is referred to as a

A) voluntary false confession
B) coerced externalized false confession
C) voluntary qualified confession
D) coerced internalized false confession

Question 23

Research on false confessions suggests that

A) it is extremely rare for people to confess to a crime they did not commit
B) people are more likely to make a false confession when the behavior they are Accused of engaging in seems plausible
C) false confessions are more likely when there are no witnesses to a crime
D) false confessions are more common now than in the past

Question 24

Studies of people's ability to detect lies suggest that

A) people are usually unable to detect lies at much above the level of chance
B) confidence in detecting lies is not associated with actual ability to detect lies
C) trained professionals usually do not perform better than average people at
Detecting lies
D) all of the above

Question 25

If you were interrogating a person accused of a crime and you wanted help detecting whether the person was lying about his whereabouts on the night of the crime, who should you get to help you?

A) a lie detection specialist from the CIA or FBI
B) your brother, Joe
C) a person similar to the accused criminal
D) it doesn't matter, since none of these people is likely to be better than chance at Detecting lies

Question 26

The control question test is

A) a method of interviewing witnesses to a crime
B) a test of an eyewitness' bias in recalling details of a crime
C) a method of conducting a polygraph test
D) a personality test shown to predict certain kinds of criminal behavior

Question 27

Polygraph tests work by measuring

A) eye movements
B) physiological arousal
C) muscle movement
D) feelings of guilt

Question 28

Research on the accuracy of polygraph tests shows that

A) the level of accuracy is better than chance
B) advocates of the tests claim that accuracy is approximately 90%
C) people can be taught to "beat" the test by increasing their arousal to control
Questions
D) all of the above

Question 29

According to research, defendants from which group are least likely to be found guilty?

A) black defendants
B) unattractive defendants
C) defendants with high socioeconomic status
D) defendants with court-appointed lawyers

Question 30

Voir dire refers to

A) the process of removing jurors from a jury who do not support the death penalty
B) the decision rules that juries use in deliberating a verdict
C) the set of instructions that judges must give jurors before they begin Deliberations
D) the process of questioning potential jurors about their attitudes and potential Biases

Question 31

Peremptory challenges can be used to eliminate a potential juror on the basis of

A) his or her occupation
B) his or her race
C) his or her gender
D) all of the above

Question 32

Which of the following factors does NOT predict jurors' verdicts?

A) a juror's race
B) a juror's gender
C) a juror's degree of authoritarianism
D) a juror's self-esteem

Question 33

Imagine that you are defending a man accused of raping a woman and her young daughter. Based on research, which person would you most want on your jury?

A) a person who supports the death penalty
B) a woman
C) a person low in authoritarianism
D) a person who is highly educated

Question 34

Critics of the death qualification process claim that it has the effect of

A) making jurors feel less invested in the trial's outcome
B) biasing the jury toward conviction
C) making race more salient for jurors
D) decreasing jurors ability to process information quickly

Question 35

Hastie and Pennington proposed the story model to explain

A) failures in eyewitness memory
B) people's perceptions of defendants
C) lawyers' beliefs about the legal system
D) juror decision making

Question 36

As a juror in an assault trial, Mimi not only listens to the account of the attorneys and witnesses, but also makes inferences about the assailant's motives and the details of the crime scene. This is consistent with

A) the story model
B) social exchange theory
C) source-monitoring theory
D) the overwriting hypothesis

Question 37

The story model asserts that jurors reach verdicts by

A) ignoring evidence inconsistent with their own theory of the crime
B) actively interpreting and evaluating the evidence they are given
C) noticing the most salient details of the crime and ignoring less interesting, but Relevant, data
D) conforming to the version of events that powerful others on the jury present

Question 38

The process of jury deliberation may make jurors aware that they are being influenced by inadmissible evidence, leading them to

A) find the defendant guilty
B) correct their initial judgments
C) rely more on character evidence
D) rely more on eyewitness testimony

Question 39

Research shows that positive character evidence

A) has little effect on jurors' judgments
B) makes the jury consider eyewitness confidence more thoroughly
C) is highly influential in capital cases
D) reduces own-race bias in juries

Question 40

Researchers have proposed that inconsistencies in findings regarding the influence of a defendant's race on judgments of guilt can be explained by

A) source-monitoring theory
B) social exchange theory
C) aversive racism theory
D) realistic group conflict theory

Question 41

Regarding the effect of race on judgments of a defendant's guilt, aversive racism theory predicts that people will be most affected by race when

A) the race of the defendant is not made salient
B) there is an eyewitness to the crime
C) the jury is all the same race
D) the judge encourages people not to be influenced by race

Question 42

Sommers and Ellsworth (2000) had participants read a story of an assault trial in which the defendant was black. Participants were more likely to think the defendant was guilty when they read that he had slapped his girlfriend and told her:

A) "You know better than to talk that way about a black man in front of his friends."
B) "You know better than to talk that way about a man in front of his friends."
C) "A white woman shouldn't treat a man like that."
D) "A black woman shouldn't treat a man like that."

Question 43

Research on juror comprehension of a judge's instructions suggests that

A) jurors have little difficulty understanding judicial instructions
B) jurors understand judicial instructions but do not recall them accurately later
C) asking jurors to rewrite judicial instructions results in substantially greater
Comprehension
D) many jurors do not comprehend the instructions they are given

Question 44

Jaime is on a jury. When the jury leaves the courtroom to deliberate, a foreperson is chosen and the foreperson immediately takes a vote to see how people think they should vote at the start of deliberations. Jaime is most likely on what type of jury?

A) evidence-driven
B) assessment-driven
C) verdict-driven
D) quick-verdict

Question 45

Studies of the effect of jury size on decision making show that

A) larger juries engage in more extensive deliberations
B) smaller juries reach fairer decisions
C) larger juries are more likely to be dominated by one or two individuals
D) jury size makes little difference in the decisions reached by jurors

Question 46

Juries told to use a majority decision rule rather than a unanimous decision rule

A) take longer to arrive at a decision
B) discuss trial evidence less thoroughly
C) leave jurors feeling more satisfied with the judicial process
D) all of the above

Question 47

Expert testimony regarding scientific issues must meet all BUT which one of the following standards?

A) Has the research been subjected to peer review?
B) Is the research generally accepted by the scientific community?
C) Does the research conform to basic societal values?
D) Is the theory underlying the research falsifiable?

Question 48

One problem with the standards used to evaluate the scientific reliability of expert testimony is that

A) the standards are poorly defined
B) the standards are very difficult to meet and may exclude relevant testimony
C) is discourages the introduction of scientific evidence in court
D) it relies on judges to be the evaluators of scientific evidence

Question 49

The leading cause of wrongful convictions is suggestive questioning by law enforcement officials.

Question 50

The three psychological processes involved in eyewitness identifications are the acquisition, storage, and retrieval of information.

Question 51

The degree to which an individual can easily view an event is an example of an estimator variable.

Question 52

Individuals who witness a negative emotional event tend to have relatively inaccurate memories of the event itself.

Question 53

The weapon focus effect is more likely to occur at a firing range than at a convenience store.

Question 54

The own-race bias effect is stronger in white individuals than in black individuals.

Question 55

The amount of information that witnesses are able to recall about an event begins to decline rapidly after one week has passed since the event.

Question 56

Source-monitoring theory posits that postevent information actually replaces the information witnesses initially encode about an event.

Question 57

Source-monitoring theory currently provides the best explanation for eyewitness suggestibility effects.

Question 58

Research has shown that most people are able to retrieve lost memories if they try hard enough.

Question 59

Adults who have recovered memories of childhood abuse have often done so during therapy relying on suggestive questioning techniques.

Question 60

Sequential lineups result in more accurate recall by witnesses than simultaneous lineups.

Question 61

The Supreme Court has held that the confidence of an eyewitness should not influence the amount of weight given to his/her testimony.

Question 62

Trained law enforcement professionals are better able to detect lying than the average person.

Question 63

Looking away during an interview usually suggests that a person is lying.

Question 64

There is clear evidence that demographic variables such as gender and income level are predictive of juror's verdicts.

Question 65

Death qualification refers to the use of voir dire to eliminate potential jurors who do not support the death penalty.

Question 66

Individuals who support the death penalty are no more likely to convict defendants than those who oppose the death penalty.

Question 67

TV news and newspaper articles do not usually include prejudicial information about criminal suspects.

Question 68

Exposure to negative pretrial publicity about a criminal suspect does not increase the likelihood that jurors will convict that individual.

Question 69

Jurors' verdicts are frequently influenced by inadmissible evidence that they have been instructed to ignore.

Question 70

Physically attractive defendants are less likely than unattractive defendants to be found guilty.

Question 71

White defendants receive disproportionately harsh sentences compared to black defendants.

Question 72

Larger juries have been found to have less extensive deliberations because there are more people competing for attention and dominance in the discussions.

Question 73

Expert testimony that draws links between research and a particular case is more influential than expert testimony that simply presents research findings.

Question 74

________ is the leading cause of wrongful conviction.

Question 75

________ variables refer to characteristics of the eyewitness and/or the situation in which an event was witnessed.

Question 76

The three psychological processes involved in eyewitness identification are the acquisition, storage, and ________ of information.

Question 77

The ________ effect refers to a witness' tendency to pay attention to a criminal's gun, rather than characteristics of the criminal him or herself.

Question 78

________ bias is diminished when people have contact with people of other races.

Question 79

The amount of time that passes between witnessing an event and making an identification or providing testimony is known as __________.

Question 80

After ________, the amount of information you will be able to remember about an event drops off dramatically.