Krista D. Forrest

Overcoming Unintentional Barriers With Intentional Strategies: Educating Faculty About Student Disabilities

Krista Forrest is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, where she teaches general psychology and life span development as well as advanced courses in adolescent psychology, group dynamics, and psychology and law. A graduate of North Carolina State University with a MS in developmental psychology and a PhD in social psychology, she is currently examining the extent to which specific police interrogation strategies influence a suspects likelihood of falsely confessing. Her dedication to educating students with disabilities comes from 12 years of combined teaching experience at North Carolina State, Elon College, and University of Nebraska at Kearney as well as her role as a mother to a child who has both visual and hearing impairments. Catherine Fichten received her MA in experimental social psychology from Concordia University, her PhD in clinical psychology from McGill University, and is currently a Professor of Psychology at Dawson College, an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at McGill University, and a clinical psychologist at the SMBD–Jewish General Hospital. In addition to her research in the areas of sexual dysfunction and sleep disorders, she has published or has in press over 30 articles concerning postsecondary students and disabilities. Topics range from nondisabled student and faculty perceptions of students with disabilities to the availability of technology for students with disabilities. She has authored or coauthored grants worth over 2 million dollars to empirically investigate factors influencing the academic and social success of college students with disabilities. As a member of the advisory committee for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, she has informed multiple institutes within the agency of the needs and research opportunities related to mobility issues. Many of her articles are available on her Web page (www.fichten.org).

Faculty Views on the Appropriateness of Teaching Undergraduate Psychology Courses Online

This study examines faculty views concerning the appropriateness of teaching specific undergraduate psychology courses in an online format. Faculty express concern about teaching methodology and counseling/clinical content courses online, but endorse teaching introductory and nonclinical content courses in either format; faculty report diverse views on the extent to which capstone and integrative experiences in psychology can be facilitated in a virtual format. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to the growing demand for online psychology course offerings.

Challenging the Status Quo: The Influence of Proprietary Learning Institutions on the Shifting Landscape of Higher Education

Social, historical and economic forces are challenging the viability of traditional models of higher education; postsecondary institutions must examine alternative strategies and approaches in order to effectively adapt to the demands of a knowledge economy. Proprietary models provide insight to assist colleges and universities striving to address changes necessary to achieve (and sustain) success in meeting the growing needs of lifelong learners via: (1) opening access to a broader community of students; and (2) cutting costs through increased efficiency in structure and operation. Implementation of sound educational practices aligned with efficient processes and cost-effective structures is essential for colleges and universities striving to meet the needs of an increasing number of students.

Comparing the effects of explicit and implicit false-evidence ploys on Mock Jurors' verdicts, sentencing recommendations, and perceptions of police interrogation

In police interrogation, an explicit false claim to have evidence raises important legal and constitutional questions. Therefore, some interrogation manuals recommend implicit false-evidence ploys (FEP) that ask suspects about potential evidence without making a direct claim to possess the evidence. Similar to the hypotheses in a recent study of implicit FEP and confession rates, we hypothesized that individuals would perceive implicit FEP as less coercive and deceptive when compared to explicit FEP that involve direct claims of false evidence. Although mock jurors rated all FEP as highly deceptive and coercive and as more deceptive than controls, we found that participants did not view implicit and explicit FEP differently and that ploy specificity (implicit or explicit) failed to affect verdicts or recommended sentences. These findings suggest that although interrogation trainers and scholars in law and psychology discriminate between the methods, jurors do not.

Effects of false-evidence ploys and expert testimony on jurors, juries, and judges

Abstract Triers of fact evaluated trial materials involving disputed confessions, false-evidence ploys (FEPs) during interrogation, and expert testimony. In two experiments, we assessed pre-deliberation and post-deliberation trial decisions as well as individual jurors’ perceptions, deliberating juries’ verdicts, and sitting judges’ perceptions and trial decisions. Judges convicted more often than did juries. Although triers of fact recognized the deception inherent in FEPs, the use of FEPs in police interrogations did not affect these decision-makers’ trial outcomes. Expert testimony, however, affected perceptions and reduced jurors’, deliberating juries’, and sitting judges’ likelihood of conviction. We provide recommendations for courts, scholars, and police interrogators.