Applied Cognitive Psychology最新文献

If eyewitnesses' general beliefs about their memory predicted whether they detect the culprit in a lineup, it could be useful in legal investigations to systematically assess general metamemory beliefs. Using a process-oriented approach, we tested this hypothesis in two experiments. In Experiment 1, 1627 participants responded to either several metamemory-belief questionnaires or, in the control condition, to a personality questionnaire, then watched a video of a staged crime and finally were presented with four lineups. In Experiment 2, 1467 participants first watched the staged-crime video, then responded to the questionnaires and finally were presented with the lineups. Using hierarchical multinomial modeling, we tested whether general metamemory beliefs were associated with culprit-presence detection. The results of both experiments provide evidence against the hypothesis that general metamemory beliefs predict culprit-presence detection. Accordingly, we caution against using general metamemory beliefs as indicators of how well a culprit can be detected.

Face masks and coverings are often encountered by facial examiners (‘examiners’) in forensic case work. Examiners are skilled at unconcealed face identifications, but their accuracy for masked face identifications is unknown, yet can be used as evidence in court. Here we test performance of an international sample of 61 examiners, 39 professional teams, and 6 face identification algorithms for 20 image pairs. Pairs consisted of one unconcealed face image and one mask wearing face image. Examiners and professional teams outperformed controls, but professional teams made the least errors of all groups. The algorithms achieved high accuracy on the task. The findings back the notion that examiners use feature-based comparison strategies, and these are successful for matching images where one face wears a mask. Our results support the use of examiners for the identification of masked faces and suggest a role for teams and human-machine working in applied practice.

Traditional methods used for presenting to-be-remembered events in eyewitness memory research are often criticized for lacking scientific rigor. Videos lack ecological validity, and though staged live events are realistic, they lack experimental control. Virtual reality (VR) has been proposed as a promising alternative, offering immersive realism in a controlled environment. In this study, 141 participants viewed an event either live, on video, or in VR. Presence, emotional experience, heart rate, and recall were compared across groups, and it was seen that the VR experience was highly similar to the live-event group. The video group reported significantly lower presence, ecological validity, and heart rate changes compared to the VR group. These findings suggest that VR can offer a highly realistic witness experience while maintaining experimental control, making it a valuable tool for eyewitness memory research.

This study explored how alcohol intoxication and dialect influence mock jurors' perceptions of a sexual assault victim's credibility, blameworthiness, consent, verdicts and sentence length. A 2 × 2 between-subjects design involved 198 participants (recruited from the community and university campus) who read a fictional trial vignette, with the victim portrayed as either intoxicated or sober. Thereafter, they listened to an emergency call recorded by a bidialectal speaker, with the victim speaking either Scottish Standard English or the non-standard Dundonian dialect. Although victims speaking Dundonian were perceived as less credible, dialect did not influence verdicts or sentencing decisions. Contrary to previous research, the victim's intoxication status did not affect mock jurors' decision-making. These findings highlight the importance of addressing linguistic biases to ensure fair trial outcomes.

Traditional methods of facial-composite construction rely on an eyewitness recalling features of an offender's face. We assess the value of the addition of a trait–recall mnemonic to a cognitive-type interview, and perceptually stretching presented composites, to aid image recognition. Participant-constructors intentionally or incidentally encoded a target face, were interviewed about its facial features 3–4 h or 2 days later, made a series of trait attributions (or not) about the face and constructed a feature-based composite. Regardless of encoding manipulation, faces constructed after 3–4 h were twice as likely to be correctly named (cf. after 2 days) both when the trait–recall mnemonic was applied and composites were viewed stretched. Thus, the research indicates that benefit should be afforded when trait–recall mnemonics are employed for feature composites constructed on the same day as the crime and when composites are presented to potential recognisers with instruction to view the face as a perceptual stretch.

A Contextual Hazard Perception Test for Skiing (CHPT-S) was developed to assess the hazard recognition ability of recreational skiers during skiing. A total of 92 video clips, filmed across 11 ski resorts, were presented to 100 young adult skiers with varying skill levels. This process led to the selection of 30 scenarios. Advanced skiers demonstrated significantly quicker response times in recognizing hazards compared to novice skiers, and there was also a significant difference in response accuracy between the two groups. The final multinomial logistic regression model demonstrated that the CHPT-S could differentiate skiers with different skill levels. The findings emphasize the significance of hazard perception skills in skiing, indicating that these tests can assist skiers in improving safety awareness and decreasing accidents.