Sven Å. Christianson

Eye fixations and memory for emotional events

Subjects watched either an emotional, neutral, or unusual sequence of slides containing 1 critical slide in the middle. Experiments 1 and 2 allowed only a single eye fixation on the critical slide by presenting it for 180 ms (Experiment 1) or 150 ms (Experiment 2). Despite this constraint, memory for a central detail was better for the emotional condition. In Experiment 3, subjects were allowed 2.70 s to view the critical slide while their eye movements were monitored. When subjects who had devoted the same number of fixations were compared, memory for the central detail of the emotional slide was again better. The results suggest that enhanced memory for detail information of an emotional event does not occur solely because more attention is devoted to the emotional information.

Life satisfaction and sexuality in patients operated for epilepsy.

Changes in sexual behavior are often observed in patients with epilepsy. In order to investigate postoperative changes in sexuality and life satisfaction, operated and non‐operated patients with epilepsy, as well as normal controls, were contacted for a survey. The questionnaire included 67 items concerning social background, life satisfaction, physical and psychological health, and sexuality (sexual desire, sexual contacts, sexual activity, etc). The results showed that patients with epilepsy do not rate overall life satisfaction much differently from neurologically normal control subjects. Specific questions regarding sexuality, revealed a lower sexual drive among the epilepsy patients compared with the controls. In most cases, there were no differences between the operated and the non‐operated patients. Among the operated patients, the seizure‐free group rated a higher level of life satisfaction and sexuality than the non‐seizure free group.

A sexual abuse case study: Children's memories and reports

The present study examines how children, who had been exposed to a single act of sexual abuse carried out by an unfamiliar perpetrator (the same perpetrator in all cases), remembered and reported on the abuse in subsequent police interviews. Interviews with eight children were analysed with regard to the amount and type of information reported, and the number of times the children denied the sexual abuse. Documentation of the abuse (photographs and medical examinations) was analysed to verify that abuse had actually occurred. The majority of the children reported no, or very few, sexual details. Of all the event details reported, 7.6% referred to sexual acts and, in specific descriptions of the course of the sexual abuse, only 21% of the details were of a sexual nature. In addition, the youngest children expressed to the interviewer on almost 100 occasions that they did not wish to talk about the abuse. The present data indicate that children display difficulties when reporting on sexual abuse, even when the perpetrator is a stranger (i.e., when factors such as loyalty conflicts, dependence on the abuser, fear of negative consequences for the family may be excluded).

Justice Needs a Blindfold: Effects of Gender and Attractiveness on Prison Sentences and Attributions of Personal Characteristics in a Judicial Process

This study examined the effect of gender and facial characteristics of criminal offenders on attributions of crime-relevant traits. The stimulus pictures portrayed women and men of varying attractiveness. Participants were presented with pictures of these female or male faces along with accompanying crime accounts. The crime account described the individual in the picture as a person who had committed one of the following crimes: theft, fraud, drug crime, child molestation, child abuse, or homicide. After reading one case account the participants were asked to evaluate the credibility and other crime-relevant personality traits of the offender. Results showed that female defendants were rated more favourably than were male defendants. Gender worked to the advantage of the female perpetrator. There were also slight tendencies towards more lenient appraisal of the more attractive women.

From Crime Scene Actions in Stranger Rape to Prediction of Rapist Type: Single-Victim or Serial Rapist?†

The differences in crime scene actions in cases of stranger rape committed by convicted offenders were examined between 31 single-victim rapists and 35 serial rapists. Data were collected from police files, court verdicts, psychiatric evaluations, and criminal records. Findings indicate that the serial rapists were more criminally sophisticated than the single-victim rapists, during their first and second rapes. The single-victim rapists were significantly more likely to engage in the interpersonal involvement behavior of kissing the victim, and to engage in pre-assault alcohol use, than the serial rapists. There was, however, no significant difference in physically violent or sexual behaviors. To investigate the possibility of predicting rapist type, logistic regression analyses were performed. Results indicate that three behaviors in conjunction, kissed victim, controlled victim, and offender drank alcohol before the offense, predicted whether an unknown offender is a single-victim or serial rapist with a classification accuracy of 80.4%. The findings have implications for the classification of stranger rapists in offender profiling.

Children as Witnesses to Homicidal Violence: What They Remember and Report

The present study investigated how 96 children who have witnessed homicidal violence remember and report their experiences. The aims of the study were to describe the childrens reporting pattern and to investigate background factors that could affect the childrens reporting. Police interviews with the children were analysed regarding the amount and type of information reported, as well as frequency of denial, withholding and claims of memory loss. Results showed that the majority of children provided detailed reports about the homicidal violence they had witnessed, including critical details about the abuse. Results also revealed that the childs relationship to the perpetrator or the victim did not affect the childrens reporting pattern, indicating that the childrens willingness to report exceeds strong impact factors such as loyalty conflicts. These findings are applicable in different legal contexts dealing with child witnesses and can be used as guidance when interviewing children and evaluating their testimony.

Visual half‐field testing of memory functions in patients considered for surgical treatment of intractable complex partial epilepsy

The present research employed the visual half‐field (VHF) technique to assess memory functions in normal subjects and in patients with unilateral temporal lobe epilepsy prior to surgery. Two studies were conducted. In Study 1, concrete and abstract words were presented to the left (LVF) or the right visual half field (RVF), and measures were made of response latencies, naming, free recall, and recognition. In Study 2, pictures depicting random shapes with low verbal association values were presented, and measures were made of latencies for identification and recognition of the shapes. Overall, the results showed a RVF advantage for words, but no lateralization for shapes. A selective hemisphere memory deficit was obtained for abstract words in patients with left temporal lobe lesions. Otherwise, no obvious lesion‐related differences were found in the preoperative analyses. It is concluded that VHF testing of verbal information, but not abstract visuo‐spatial information, is discriminative in assessing hemispheric functions in normal subjects and patients with temporal‐lobe epileptic lesions.

Recognition of previous eyewitness testimony from an altered interrogation protocol : Potential effects of distortions

Abstract The effect of protocol presentation on witnesses’ tendency to point out errors in a transcribed version of their verbal testimony was examined in two experiments. Participants were shown a film depicting a robbery and were subsequently questioned. In the process of typing out the testimony, there were six distortions entered into the protocol. When participants were asked to check the content for approval, they either listened to the experimenter reading the protocol out aloud, or read it on their own. The results showed that witnesses who had listened to the content being read to them pointed out significantly fewer distortions, and suggest that protocol presentation may have important implications for the justice system.

Police officers involved in a manhunt of a mass murder: Memories and psychological responses

Purpose: The focus of the present study was on police officers reactions to and memories of a manhunt after a shooting incident. Emotional impact and memories of these events are discussed in relation to time elapsed, support from co-workers, supervisors and professional debriefing. Design/methodology/approach: Eleven police officers responding to a mass shooting carried out by a young offender resulting in seven dead civilians were asked to describe the event 10 months after the event, five years after the event, and again nine years after the event. Findings: All police officers reported having vivid memories of the mass shooting incident, and visual and auditory memories of the event were best retained, although a decline was observed nine years after the incident. Regarding working through the traumatic experience, the police officers had not been offered professional help in connection with the mass shooting incident. Research limitations/implications: Due to the fact that police officers in the present study answered the survey anonymously, it was not possible to work out repeated measures statistics for these memories over time. Practical implications: Knowing that the psychological distress due to exposure to a traumatic event may be long lasting, it is crucial that police organizations consider time as an important factor in working through these experiences. Originality/value: Research on emotion and memory is highly relevant to the work of police officers and to the legal system.

Comments on neuropsychological evaluation of epilepsy surgery: are the tests sensitive enough?

Epileptic lesions often affect two of the most important functions in human behavior, memory and emotion. While cognitive functions, e.g, speech and memory, are normally carefully studied, emotional and psychosocial aspects of behavior are often overlooked in the pre‐ and postoperative evaluation of epilepsy patients. In my comment, I will address the need for methodological and theoretical refinement, especially regarding measurements of emotional and psychosocial aspects. In evaluating memory functions, a functionalistic approach is suggested; that is, in contrast to the entity view, studies should focus on the interaction between task demands and the available cognitive capabilities of the rememberer. We should develop a broad set of tests and demonstrate dissociations between different tasks that tap different capabilities and different memory systems: we should look for patterns of results rather than single scores.