John C. Yuille

The Language of Deceit: An Investigation of the Verbal Clues to Deception in the Interrogation Context

We examined the hypothesis that reliable verbal indicators of deception exist in the interrogation context. Participants were recruited for a study addressing “security effectiveness” and either committed a theft “to test the effectiveness of a new security guard” or carried out a similar but innocuous task. They then provided either (1) a truthful alibi, (2) a partially deceptive account, (3) a completely false alibi, or (4) a truthful confession regarding the theft to “an interrogator hired for the purpose of investigating thefts” with a monetary incentive for convincing the interrogator of their truthfulness. Results indicated that only 3 out of the 18 (16.7%) clues tested significantly differentiated the truthful and deceptive accounts. All 3 clues were derived from the Statement Validity Analysis (SVA) technique (amount of detail reported, coherence, and admissions of lack of memory). Implications for credibility assessment in forensic interrogations are discussed.

Nonholistic processing in mental rotation: some suggestive evidence.

A series of experiments, using a modification of the Shepard and Metzler mental rotation task, was performed to investigate Shepard’s “holistic rotation” hypothesis. Effective figural complexity was manipulated in the experiments in two distinct ways. In one manipulation, blocks were added to the standard 10-blockfigures. In the other manipulation, the figures used and the direction of angular rotation were restricted so that some featural information in the figures was redundant, that is, unnecessary for the discrimination task at hand. There were two major conclusions. First, when figural complexity is effectively manipulated, it has a powerful effect on the “speed of mental rotation,” as measured by the slope of the curve relating reaction time to angular disparity. Second, it is possible, by ignoring featural redundancy, to construct experimental paradigms in which “complexity” of figures is apparently manipulated but has no effect on speed of mental rotation. This fact provides a possible explanation of why some previous experiments have failed to find a complexity effect in mental rotation.

INFERRING SEXUALLY DEVIANT BEHAVIOR FROM CORRESPONDING FANTASIES The Role of Personality and Pornography Consumption

There is widespread concern that deviant sexual fantasies promote corresponding behaviors. The authors investigated whether that concern is valid in nonoffender samples. Self-reports of nine deviant sexual fantasies and behaviors were compared in two samples of male undergraduates. In Study 1, 95% of respondents reported experiencing at least one sexually deviant fantasy, and 74% reported engaging in at least one sexually deviant behavior. The correlations were all positive and averaged .44. However, only 38% of the high-fantasy group reported acting out fantasies. The effect of pornography use on deviant behaviors was partially mediated by increases in deviant fantasies. Study 2 investigated possible moderators, including eight personality variables. The fantasy-behavior association held only for those high in self-reported psychopathy. In addition, the association between pornography use and deviant sexual behavior held only for participants high in psychopathy. Overall, theoretically relevant individual difference variables moderated the relation between sexually deviant fantasies and behaviors and between pornography use and deviant behaviors.

Adult Eyewitness Testimony: Actual victims and witnesses to robbery and fraud: An archival analysis

Although there are some exceptions (for example, Cutshall & Yuille, 1989; Fisher, Geiselman, & Amador, 1989; Read, Tollestrup, Hammersley, McFadzen, & Christensen, 1990; Sporer, 1992; Yuille & Cutshall, 1986) most of the research in the field of eyewitness memory has been laboratory based. This overreliance on laboratory research has left the field open to challenges of the external validity of the research (for example, McCloskey & Egeth, 1983; McKenna, Treadway, & McCloskey, 1992; Yuille & Wells, 1991) and has led to the recognition of a need for more diverse methods of learning about eyewitness memory (for example, Davies, 1990; Yuille & Wells, 1991). In response to this deficit of diversity, this chapter reports the results of an inquiry into actual police case files. We realize that file research lacks the experimental control of laboratory studies. Our data from police case files, however, represent a degree of realism and a range of variables impossible to simulate in a laboratory setting. We are able to provide information on a number of important topics such as the characteristics of actual eyewitnesses, the amount of detail in eyewitnesses’ descriptions of suspects, the accuracy of these descriptions, types of identification tasks employed, the prevalence and accuracy of eyewitness identification, and the weapon focus effect. We believe that the discrepancies and similarities between our results and laboratory research will be informative and serve to point out instances when research conducted in one context can apply in another. The laboratory context has customarily cast eyewitnesses into a uniform role (Yuille & Tollestrup, in press).

Routes of Recruitment : Pimps' Techniques and Other Circumstances That Lead to Street Prostitution

ABSTRACT Much of the research on prostitution to date has focused on the risks of working on the streets. However, no research has described the recruitment process for street prostitution. This exploratory study describes some of the main techniques that pimps use to recruit children and women into the trade, including the pretense of love, threats of indebtedness, drug addiction, manipulation, and violence. In addition, social situations that leave women feeling that they have few alternatives to working on the streets are described.

Analysis of the Statements of Victims, Witnesses and Suspects

This chapter examines the appropriateness of statement analysis in the evaluation of adult eyewitness testimony. A distinction is made between the cognitive and the motivational aspects of statement analysis. The cognitive evaluation focuses on the detail and accuracy of the account. This has been the concern of the laboratory based studies of eyewitness testimony. The motivational evaluation is concerned with assessing the credibility of the account. The chapter presents a review of field studies which evaluated the cognitive aspects of eyewitness accounts of actual crimes. It is concluded that for some crimes witnesses can form remarkable memories. A remarkable memory is distinguished by its detail, its accuracy and the fact that it persists over time. Such memories stand in contrast to those usually studied in the laboratory. A quantitative procedure has proved useful in the analysis of real witness’ memory. The chapter concludes with an examination of a laboratory study and a criminal case in which the quantitative procedure was combined with qualitative analysis to evaluate statement credibility. The preliminary results indicate that this combination of approaches may be effective in assisting credibility assessment.

Negotiating False Memories: Interviewer and Rememberer Characteristics Relate to Memory Distortion

In a recent study, more than half of the participants were led to create a partial or complete false memory for an emotional childhood event (e.g., serious animal attack). Using a subsample from that study, we examined the hypothesis that memory distortion is related to characteristics of interviewers and rememberers. The relations between susceptibility to memory distortion and (a) dissociation (Dissociative Experiences Scale) and (b) personality traits (NEO-Five Factor Inventory) were investigated. Results indicated that participants who exhibited memory distortion scored significantly higher on the dissociative scale than their counterparts who did not exhibit memory distortion. Further, susceptibility to memory distortion was associated with higher extraversion scores in interviewers and lower extraversion scores in participants. This pattern of findings suggests that false memories may derive from a social negotiation between particular interviewers and rememberers.

Credibility assessment of criminal suspects through statement analysis

Abstract This paper discusses the research and theoretical underpinnings of statement analysis tehniques for credibility assessment purposes with criminal suspects. Although the principles of statement analysis have long been recognized, only recently have specific techniques been formalized. It is argued that, in seeking patterns of verbal deception in the interrogation context it is necessary to integrate theories considering emotional, motivational, cognitive, and linguistic factors. Approaches emphasizing memory suggest that there exist systematic differences between accurate and inaccurate memory accounts. Approaches emphasizing deception indicate that discernible differences may exist between truthful and dishonest language behaviors. Directions for future research are described focussing on the need for eclectic strategies with both experimental and field studies.

Memory for murder A psychological perspective on dissociative amnesia in legal contexts

There is currently a complex and inconsistent state in the law relating to dissociation and dissociative amnesia (McSherry, 1998). Although dissociative amnesia in defendants is relevant to both competency to stand trial and criminal responsibility in principle, courts have typically assumed a skeptical stance toward such claims in practice. However, there is considerable evidence from both nonoffender and offender populations to support the validity of dissociative amnesia in defendants. Further, there is information available to aid in the evaluation of amnesia, such as the quality of the report itself and characteristics of the person reporting the amnesia (e.g., psychopathy). When consideration is given to the legal response to reports of dissociative amnesia by complainants, the situation becomes even more complex. While some courts have rejected recovered memory evidence, others have convicted defendants of historical offenses based on such evidence. In some cases, judges have argued that jurors should be left to decide on the validity of recovered memories based on their common sense and experience. The uncritical acceptance of the validity of repressed memories in complainants by many courts stands in stark contrast to the response to claims of amnesia from defendants. It seems apparent that the courts need better guidelines around the issue of dissociative amnesia in both populations. We think that the increasing scientific understanding of memory in the past decade (see Schacter, 1999) can meaningfully contribute to the development of such guidelines. Responsible, nonpartisan expert testimony from mental health professionals would be one step in the direction of rectifying the current state of law in regards to dissociation.

The Role of State-Dependent Memory in “Red-Outs”☆

During 1994, one in six solved homicides was a spousal homicide, with women accounting for three-quarters of the victims. Spousal killings are likely to occur between legally married couples, at all stages of the relationship and across all social and economic boundaries. . . . While alcohol is often consumed at the time of spousal killings, research on domestic homicide suggests that fatal attacks on spouses occur irrespective of sobriety or level of intoxication. (p. 4)