Deck 5: Crime Investigation: Witnesses

Question 1

The presence of a weapon during the witnessing of a crime often affects

A)attention and recall.
B)auditory processing.
C)language comprehension.
D)all of the above

Answer 1

all of the above

Question 2

Which of the following would be considered an estimator variable in the dichotomy of eyewitness identification variables provided by Gary Wells?

A)line-up instructions
B)photo spread composition
C)lighting conditions at the time of the crime
D)none of the above

Answer 2

lighting conditions at the time of the crime

Question 3

Meta-analyses of 53 studies showed that the longer the retention interval,

A)the less memory loss for previously-seen faces.
B)the more memory loss for previously-seen faces.
C)there is no change in memory for previously-seen faces.
D)none of the above

Answer 3

the more memory loss for previously-seen faces.

Question 4

In one study of soldiers' ability to make eyewitness identifications after being exposed to varying levels of stress in an interrogation, only ______ percent of soldiers who experienced high stress were able to make correct identifications.

A)17%
B)25%
C)34%
D)52%

Question 5

Which of the following would be considered a postdiction variable?

A)the line-up instructions
B)the photo spread composition
C)the lighting conditions at the time of the crime
D)the confidence that a witness feels

Question 6

A researcher had one group of study participants witness a staged crime in which an older perpetrator stole items from a desk.A second group of study participants witness a staged crime in which a younger perpetrator stole the same items from the desk.After witnessing the crime, the witnesses are asked to report what they saw.The value of doing an experiment and controlling what is presented is that the researcher knows exactly what the witnesses saw.This is called

A)hit rate.
B)ground truth.
C)ecological.
D)system variables.

Question 7

In one of Loftus' studies, a first group of subjects was asked how fast the car was going "when it ran the stop sign" while a second group was asked how fast the car was going "when it turned right." When later asked if they had seen a stop sign

A)75% of the first group said yes; 53% of the second group said yes.
B)53% of the first group said yes; 35% of the second group said yes.
C)37% of the first group said yes; 35% of the second group said yes.
D)14% of the first group said yes; 34% of the second group said yes.

Question 8

System variables are

A)systematic.
B)uncontrollable.
C)controllable.
D)unsystematic.

Question 9

A robbery occurs at a liquor store.The clerk identifies the defendant in a police lineup.The defendant claims he had been in the store earlier to get change, but had not robbed the store.If the defendant is telling the truth, the clerk's identification would reflect

A)unconscious dreaming.
B)a confabulation.
C)extreme suggestibility.
D)unconscious transference.

Question 10

Bob was attacked by a drunken man with a knife.According to information presented in Chapter 5, it is possible that the presence of this weapon affected Bob's memory of

A)the perpetrator's face.
B)what the perpetrator said.
C)the knife.
D)both A and B

Question 11

Mistakes in the identification process typically occur

A)during the investigation of a crime.
B)at the moment a crime is committed.
C)Both A and B
D)only when certain environmental factors are present.

Question 12

According to the National Registry on Exonerations, between the years of 1989 and 2012, _______percent of documented exonerations for rapes and robberies involved mistaken eyewitness identifications.

A)80%
B)50%
C)30%
D)20%

Question 13

______________are the leading cause of wrongful convictions, particularly in cases of robbery and sexual assaults.

A)False confessions
B)Lost and/or lack of evidence
C)Eyewitness errors
D)None of the above

Question 14

Only ____ states have laws that compensate individuals who were wrongly imprisoned.

A)10
B)12
C)27
D)37

Question 15

Diane was the sole witness to a crime.After witnessing the crime, she talked with her husband and her co-workers about what she saw.According to Chapter 5, these discussions potentially can taint her memory of the crime event for it can

A)introduce her to those who saw the crime from a different vantage point.
B)depress her.
C)decrease the chance of her talking to the police about what she saw.
D)introduce post-event information that may alter her memory for the original event.

Question 16

During an extremely stressful situation, how is encoding affected?

A)It becomes more accurate.
B)It is often incomplete.
C)It gets more thorough and detailed.
D)It is not affected, but storage and retrieval are.

Question 17

Sometimes police just look for evidence that implicates a suspect that has been identified by an eyewitness and stop investigating any other leads.This situation is an illustration of

A)illusory correlation.
B)confirmation bias.
C)police attention outlook.
D)none of the above

Question 18

The Innocence Project has found that mistaken identification accounts for more wrongful convictions than

A)false confessions.
B)defective science.
C)problems with snitches.
D)all of the above

Question 19

Last night Laura was robbed at gunpoint.When asked to describe the perpetrator, she found that all she could remember was the gun and not the way the perpetrator looked.Which of the best following describes this circumstance?

A)forced weapon encoding
B)weapon present effect
C)weapon attention effect
D)weapon focus effect

Question 20

_________________________ is when someone unconsciously selects the information he or she will focus on and process most likely because of having a limited attentional capacity and an inability to process a lot of information at one time.

A)Confirmation bias
B)Selective attention
C)Repressed memories
D)None of the above

Question 21

Which of the following represents social psychologists' explanation for the other race effect?

A)the social diversity theory
B)in-group/out-group differences
C)physiognomic variability
D)the ethnicity fallacy

Question 22

A line-up procedure in which the police officers administrating the line-up and the eyewitness making the identification are both unaware of the potential suspect would reflect

A)experimenter bias.
B)a double-blind procedure.
C)an unreliable identification procedure.
D)none of the above

Question 23

The other race effect refers to the idea that

A)eyewitnesses are usually better at recognizing and identifying members of their own race or ethnic group than members of another race or ethnic group.
B)those selecting a jury should strive to have jurors who are the same race or ethnicity as the defendant.
C)those creating a line-up should make sure that all the distractors (i.e., non-suspects) are not of another race from the stated race of the suspect.
D)eyewitnesses are usually worse at recognizing and identifying members of their own race or ethnic group than members of another race or ethnic group.

Question 24

Which of the following is true?

A)Current evidence suggests that women as opposed to men are much more likely to make accurate eyewitness identifications.
B)Current evidence suggests that men as opposed to women are much more likely to make accurate eyewitness identifications.
C)Current evidence suggests that neither gender is superior to the other with regard to making accurate eyewitness identifications.
D)None of the above is true as surprisingly, researchers have not yet investigated this topic.

Question 25

__________________________________ refers to the differences between faces of one race and faces of another race in terms of the variability in facial features.

A)Physiognomic variability
B)Dermatological variability
C)Facial recognition variability
D)Racial feature variability

Question 26

Which of the following is a true statement regarding how the age of an eyewitness tends to impact lineup identifications?

A)Older adults and young children are more likely to make a mistaken identification in a lineup in which the perpetrator is absent than young and middle-aged adults.
B)Older adults and young children are less likely to make a mistaken identification in a lineup in which the perpetrator is absent than young and middle-aged adults.
C)Older adults and young children do not perform as well as younger adults when the perpetrator is present in the lineup.
D)Young adults routinely outperform older adults and young children on eyewitness tasks involving lineup identification.

Question 27

According to the in-group/out-group differences hypothesis, when we encounter someone from the same race or ethnic group as ourselves, we immediately devote our attention to distinguishing that person from other members of the in-group.This is an explanation of why we tend to be

A)incapable of seeing the differences between our ethnic group or race and others.
B)better at identifying those within our own ethnic group or race than those from other races or ethnic groups.
C)likely to have an easier time identifying those from another ethnic group or race than those of our own.
D)extremely confident when identifying members of our own ethnic group or race.

Question 28

In a simultaneous presentation lineup _________________ is used, while in a sequential presentation lineup ___________________ is used.

A)relative judgment; absolute judgment
B)absolute judgment; relative judgment
C)precision judgment; discrepancy judgment
D)discrepancy judgment; precision judgment

Question 29

Thomas is the victim of a crime, and he has been called down to the police station to view a lineup.After some thought, he chooses the fourth person from the left.The detective administering the lineup says, "Good, we thought that was the one." According to research presented in Chapter 5, what is the likely result of this confirming feedback?

A)Thomas is more willing to testify at the trial.
B)Thomas now sees this person's face more clearly in his memories of the crime.
C)Thomas feels more confident about his identification.
D)all of the above

Question 30

Results of a meta-analysis of 65 experiments examining the effectiveness of the cognitive interview suggest the cognitive interview

A)diminishes the likelihood of correct recall.
B)increases correct recall.
C)increases correct recall, but also increases the recall of incorrect details.
D)decreases recall of incorrect details and increases correct recall overall.

Question 31

The cognitive interview that emphasizes context reinstatement would not involve

A)follow-up questions.
B)hypnotizing the victim.
C)having the victim recall the events in backward order.
D)telling the victim to remember the emotion he or she was feeling.

Question 32

In a meta-analysis comparing simultaneous and sequential presentations in line-up procedures, mistaken identifications were reduced by about ________ when presentations were _______________________ and correct identifications were reduced by ________ when presentations were __________________________.

A)22%, sequential; 8%, sequential
B)8%, simultaneous; 22%, simultaneous
C)22%, sequential; 8%, simultaneous
D)8%, simultaneous; 22%, sequential

Question 33

According to information presented in Chapter 5, researchers have found that one of the following is preferable for lineups in most situations.Which one?

A)sequential presentation
B)simultaneous presentation
C)elimination lineup
D)showup

Question 34

According to Chapter 5, what is the recommendation regarding the selection of fillers for a lineup?

A)Do not put more than 6 people (5 fillers and the suspect) in a lineup.
B)Have all members (fillers and the suspect) of the lineup match the witness's description.
C)All fillers should sound similar to the suspect.
D)Fillers should be those who are well versed in lineup procedures.

Question 35

Greg is viewing a lineup with simultaneous presentation.He had told police that the person he saw commit the crime is white with light color hair.When presented with six white people in his lineup, he chooses the person who has the lightest color hair in the group.How would we best characterize this judgment?

A)It is an absolute judgment.
B)It is a precision judgment.
C)It is a relative judgment.
D)It is a discrepancy judgment.

Question 36

For a white eyewitness to correctly identify a black culprit, those who provide a cognitive interpretation of the other race effect, a physiognomic variability approach, might suggest that the eyewitness

A)focus on encoding the culprit's hair color.
B)focus on encoding the culprit's skin tone.
C)focus on encoding the culprit's eye color.
D)all of the above

Question 37

Researchers recommend that a person conducting a lineup should tell the witness that the culprit may or may not be present in the lineup.Without this instruction, what tends to happen?

A)False identifications tend to increase.
B)The eyewitness may feel that they must choose someone.
C)The eyewitness tends to choose the person who most resembles the person they witnessed.
D)all of the above

Question 38

State v.Henderson (2011) relied on social science research when

A)identifying the factors judges should consider when evaluating an eyewitness identification.
B)concluding hypnosis is appropriate during eyewitness interviews.
C)outlining the required criteria for line-up procedures.
D)ruling hypnotized identifications are inherently unreliable.

Question 39

Research tends to show that the relationship between the accuracy of an eyewitness' testimony and the eyewitness' confidence or certainty is

A)relatively strong.
B)relatively weak.
C)strong when the eyewitness is a female and weak when the eyewitness is a male.
D)strong only when the eyewitness was under stress while observing the crime.

Question 40

Recent research suggests that women are ____________ at recognizing male faces than female faces.

A)better
B)worse
C)equally poor
D)just as good

Question 41

Which of the following was found by Brewer and Burke (2002) to have a strong impact on jurors' verdict decisions?

A)the witness' level of anxiety
B)the witness' level of confidence
C)whether the witness was a victim or an observer (observer is better)
D)whether the witness was hypnotized

Question 42

Which of the following has been shown to play a role in the suggestive questioning of child witnesses?

A)interviewer bias
B)social influence
C)selective reinforcement of answers
D)all of the above

Question 43

The Telfaire instruction has been found to ______________ mock jurors' sensitivity to eyewitness evidence.

A)increase
B)decrease
C)not affect
D)The Telfaire instruction does not address eyewitness evidence.

Question 44

Which of the following is an effective way to eliminate false confidence in eyewitness identifications?

A)asking the witness to provide a statement of certainty before the lineup administrator provides any feedback
B)using unbiased lineup instructions
C)using similar looking fillers in a lineup
D)using sequential, not simultaneous presentation, in a lineup

Question 45

Loftus (1974) gave subjects a description of an armed robbery.Eighteen percent presented with only circumstantial evidence convicted the defendant.When an eyewitness' identification was provided in addition to the circumstantial evidence, what percentage convicted the defendant?

A)18% of the jurors convicted him
B)25% of the jurors convicted him
C)42% of the jurors convicted him
D)72% of the jurors convicted him

Question 46

In Coy v.Iowa (1988) the Supreme Court overturned Coy's conviction because

A)the one-way screen placed in front of him caused the jury to presume he was guilty.
B)the one-way screen placed in front of him deprived him of his opportunity to confront his accusers.
C)the one-way screen placed in front of him did not allow him his right of cross-examination.
D)all of the above

Question 47

Which of these is not a reason given by judges when they decide not to let psychologists testify as expert witnesses regarding the accuracy of eyewitness identification?

A)The testimony psychologists would give is just common sense.
B)The testimony would make jurors skeptical of all eyewitnesses.
C)It could lead to a "battle of experts."
D)For courtroom testimony, expert witnesses require a medical degree, and psychologists do not have this degree.

Question 48

In Maryland v.Craig (1990), the court upheld a Maryland law permitting

A)hearsay testimony from a child witness.
B)placement of a one-way screen in front of the accused.
C)use of a one-way closed-circuit television to present a child's testimony.
D)use of the cognitive interview when questioning children.

Question 49

According to Chapter 5, which of the following has been used in court in an attempt to lessen a child's trauma when testifying?

A)a one-way screen has been placed in front of the defendant
B)the child has testified on closed-circuit television
C)permit a support person to sit with the child during testimony
D)all of the above

Question 50

If one is questioning a child witness, what features would be incorporated in a good investigative interview?

A)A good interviewer would ask the child to describe the event in his or her own words before asking specific questions.
B)A good interview protocol would discourage the use of suggestive questions.
C)both A and B
D)neither A nor B

Question 51

Alexander et al.(2005) contacted adolescents and young adults who had been involved in a study years earlier that was conducted to assess the effects of criminal prosecutions on child abuse victims.These researchers asked respondents to indicate which events had previously happened to them and which event was the most traumatic.According to Chapter 5, what did these researchers find?

A)Respondents who designated child sexual abuse as their most traumatic experience were not very accurate in reporting the details of their experiences.
B)Respondents who designated child sexual abuse as their most traumatic experience were very accurate in reporting the details of their experiences.
C)Surprisingly, most respondents did not report that child sexual abuse happened to them.
D)Although some respondents did report that they had experienced child sexual abuse, they often downplayed the seriousness of the event.

Question 52

According to Chapter 5, children over the age of six can make reasonably reliable identifications from lineups as long as

A)the child has an above average IQ.
B)the perpetrator is in the lineup.
C)the child had extended contact with the perpetrator.
D)both B and C

Question 53

Some children have experienced multiple incidents of sexual abuse.What tends to happen to a child's recall of repeated events?

A)Although repetition enhances memory for aspects of the event that are held constant, it impairs the ability to recall details that vary with each recurrence.
B)Repetition enhances memory for both the aspects of the event that are held constant and the ones that vary with each recurrence.
C)Repetition impairs memory for both the aspects of the event that are held constant and those that vary.
D)Repetition impairs memory for aspects of the event that are held constant, although source memory tends to improve.

Question 54

Goodman and her colleagues (1998) found that the use of one-way closed-circuit television to present the testimony of a child had which of the following effects?

A)The children were viewed as less believable than children who testified in open court.
B)It generally resulted in more accurate testimony.
C)It generally resulted in less accurate testimony.
D)both A and B

Question 55

Multiple interviews using open-ended questions may be helpful when interviewing children because of

A)practice effects.
B)the reminiscence effect.
C)the suggestive effects.
D)none of the above

Question 56

Child witnesses are generally viewed as ______ credible than adult witnesses; child victims in a sexual abuse case are viewed as ______ credible than adults.

A)less; more
B)more; less
C)less; less
D)more; more

Question 57

Research suggests jurors overestimate eyewitness accuracy because

A)they assume eyewitnesses are accurate and have credible memories.
B)they believe eyewitness testimony reflects memory quality, not questioning or line up procedures.
C)they trust eyewitness's over-confidence in their identifications.
D)all of the above

Question 58

Specific questioning of children is problematic because

A)it requires children to provide precise details which may have been forgotten.
B)it is suggestive and often leading.
C)increases the risk of obtaining inaccurate information.
D)all of the above

Question 59

London and her colleagues identified adults with documented histories of childhood sexual abuse and learned that _________ had disclosed the abuse while they were children.

A)12%
B)24%
C)33%
D)50%

Question 60

Six-year-old Corey is a witness to a crime, and he has been asked to view a lineup.Unfortunately, the true perpetrator is not in the lineup.Researchers would predict that Corey, as compared to adults,

A)would be more likely to make a false positive error.
B)would be more likely to make a false negative error.
C)would be less likely to make a false positive error.
D)would be less likely to make a false negative error.

Question 61

Persons who mistake the familiarity of an imagined event with an actual childhood
memory may be experiencing source confusion.

Question 62

An unconscious process in which victims of abuse escape the full impact of an event by psychologically detaching themselves from it is called

A)repression.
B)natural forgetting.
C)dissociation.
D)confabulation.

Question 63

We tend to underestimate the height of criminals.

Question 64

Most people who suffer severe trauma forget the event.

Question 65

Simply imaging an event can affect the belief that the event actually occurred.

Question 66

The Working Group on Investigation of Memories of Childhood Abuse, appointed by the American Psychological Association,

A)had a report written by experimental research psychologists that indicated that suggestive information can degrade memory and false memories are relatively easy to create.
B)had a report written by clinical psychologists that suggested that abuse can lead a child to use dissociative coping strategies and may interfere with the retrieval of memories.
C)could not agree on a final conclusion.
D)all of the above

Question 67

Twenty-eight year old Stephanie was in a study in which she was asked questions about the abuse she suffered when she was a very young child (this abuse was well documented by medical reports that Stephanie has not seen).Stephanie insists that she did not experience abuse.Which of the following could explain why Stephanie is not reporting this well-documented abuse?

A)She repressed memories of the abuse.
B)Stephanie was so young when it happened; she wasn't fully aware of the abuse.
C)Stephanie does remember the abuse; she doesn't want to divulge this information to the researcher.
D)All of the above

Question 68

Those wrongly imprisoned are typically well compensated for the time they spent in prison.

Question 69

In Linda Williams' (1994) study, why did women not report sexual abuse experienced as a child?

A)They had repressed it.
B)They were so young when it happened; they were not fully aware of the abuse.
C)They were unwilling to share this information with the interviewer.
D)All of the above

Question 70

Gary Ramona successfully sued

A)Cardinal Bernardin for molesting him as a child.
B)the state of California for convicting him of murder based on his daughter's recovered memories.
C)two therapists for convincing him to confess to a crime he hadn't committed.
D)two therapists for implanting false memories of abuse in his daughter.

Question 71

According to research presented in Chapter 5, the appropriate way to conduct a lineup is to have the lineup administrator know which person in the lineup is the suspect.

Question 72

Emotionally-motivated forgetting that is hypothesized to result from traumatic experiences is called

A)repression.
B)natural forgetting.
C)dissociation.
D)confabulation.

Question 73

Which of the following has not been used by "memory focused" psychotherapists?

A)diary writing
B)sibling report
C)sodium amytal ("truth serum")
D)hypnosis

Question 74

In most states, the decision about whether an expert psychologist can testify is left up to the defense attorney.

Question 75

People with prejudicial attitudes are more likely to experience the other race effect than those without prejudices.

Question 76

Viewing photographs of suspects after witnessing a crime can impair an eyewitness's ability to recognize the perpetrator's face in a lineup.

Question 77

Children tend to be more accurate when answering specific questions rather than open-ended questions regarding a witnessed event.

Question 78

Loftus and Pickrell (1995) constructed a false story about being lost while shopping at the age of five.They had subjects read this story, and write about what they remembered about the event.What approximate percentage of subjects remembered this event that never happened?

A)10%
B)25%
C)50%
D)75%