PSYC 335

What are direct prompts? are they good? and example?

- Focus on incident-related information (detail) mentioned by the child earlier in the interview, and request additional information using a category, mostly wh- questions (who, what, when, where, how). - Directive utterances may be more or less open-ended Useful if children are missing bring forward information, problem once used tend to continue to use these questions. These are moderately ok.

What does research say about open and closed questions?

- Many interviewers believe specific ("wh-" or closed questions) are necessary to elicit ingredients of the case • Important elements of a "story" are more likely to be elicited with open invitations ○ (Snow, Powell, & Murfett, 2008; Feltis, Powell, Snow, & Hughes-Scholes, 2010 ) • Direct questions may disorder child's account and decrease credibility

How does age influence the way that children give information during interviews?

- Young children report less information than older children, especially in response to invitation prompts - Responses to narrative prompts are as accurate as older children - Younger children typically receive more specific prompts respond less accurately to these than older children

What is at stake for children (court proceedings)

- family relationships - Traumatise the children further - childrens voices might not get heard

What would lead to children being in court?

- witness of a crime - victim of a crime - divorce proceedings - committed a crime - Child protection cases

What are the outcomes of maltreatment?

1) Medical/health problems. 2)Intellectual/academic problems 3)Cognitive processing problems 4) Emotional processing problems 5) Self related problems 6) Social and behavioural functions 7) Mental health problems

Problems with anatomically detailed dolls

1. Dolls may be inherently suggestive (presence of dolls creates the idea that they jhave to be used (in 50% of the cases). 2. Children's developing cognitive capacities • May indicate expected to use them • May invite exploratory play • Play with AD dolls does not reliably diagnose abuse (Murrie, Martindale & Epstein, 2009) • IT also requires dual representation, and working memory • Doll and Me (is the same), couldn't separate playing with dolls like they usually would.

Child testifying distress Plotnikoff & Woolfson (2009)?

182 children, 70% worried before going to court, 50% had stress symptoms, 20% were intimidated during pretrial period, 15% afraid to go. Most children same behavioural adjustment as those that didn't take the stand. SOME children experienced a negative outcome after taking the stand (internalised and externalised their behaviour)

What was the first criminal profile?

1888 - Dr Thomas Bond, police surgeon, linked crimes to Jack the Ripper. - came up with a profile of offender don't know if it matched as he was never found

What are the problems with body diagrams?

Again suggestive and children are often giving false accounts.

Why is stress and recall so inconsistent?

Age of recaller, Nature of experience (more intense= higher recall), personal perception of stress, coping resources, aspects of experiment (e.g coding), delay, questions asked and also what has happened in the mean time (visual reminder of e.g damage each day will make it more prominent).

What are child factors in the suggestibility and capabilities of children as eye witnesses?

Age, language and communication skills, knowledge, intellectual ability, attachment, source monitoring ability.

What is Sexual Abuse?

An act involving circumstances of indecency with, or sexual violation of a child or using of a child for sexual imagery

What cognitive skills are required for responding?

Answering whether something is true/not true requires conceptual knowledge and inhibitory control. Correcting someone requires theory of mind, inhibitory control and working memory. Answering that you don't know something requires metacognition, inhibitory control, and working memory. (Cognitive skills develop with age)

What are option posing prompts? are they good? and example?

BAD - Tap 'recognition memory' and require confirmation, negation, or selection of interviewer-given options. - Yes/No Questions - Prompting yes/no responses and introduce contents not yet mentioned by the child. ○ "Did he touch your skin?" (The child had mentioned earlier that he touched her). ○ "Did it hurt?" ○ "Were your clothes on when this happened?" - Forced Choice Questions - request the selection of undisclosed forced-choice options. "Did he touch you over your clothes or under your clothes?

What are suggestive prompts? are they good? and example?

BAD, - Assume incident-related information (details, aspects) that have not been disclosed by the child earlier in the interview, e.g what did he say rather then, did he say something - Imply that a particular response is expected, (he took your clothes off didn't he) - Quote the child incorrectly - Present the same question multiple times Interviewer source monitoring use stuff from other interviews in the current interview.

What is the FBI approach?

Based primarily on qualitative data and experience. • Fbi approach is created by Robert Ressler, John Douglas and Roy Hazelwood To evaluate the psychological impressions left at a crime scene • 1979-83 interviews with incarcerated serial killers and rapists (n=36) • Background, crime(s), crime scene(s), victims • Offenders classified into different types Organised vs Disorganised Murderer typology. FBI APPROACH PROBLEMS • Lack of empirical support for typology • Combination of organised traits but if they had been a serial killer they were probably organised anyway if they were able to get away with more then one murder. • Methodological issues (asked around who wanted to be interviewed, only a certain type of person would be willing to share, some would of lied). Relies on profiler's skills rather than product of systematic social science

What are some parental risk factors?

Being parent under 21, mental illness, living with violent adult, history of strict discipline and abuse. Risk of poor parenting + Child risk factors = increase on risk of maltreatment

How does frequency influence memory?

Brain makes schema (like a script) for event that occurs often. Use tense less words, were if it is a true memory it is specific, e.g explain the last trip to bus stop. Compared to explain a trip on the bus. More common events become part of a schema.

What is a good way to begin the interview?

Building rapport through establishing a supportive interaction (this establishes support leading to decreased suggestibility, increases accuracy, incrases the amount disclosed). Also creating a pratice narrative of an event e.g soccer match improves recall and children become better at answering for the specific event.

What causes more distress on children during testifying?

Case lacks corroborative evidence (e.g only witness), Child does not have maternal support during the case, Child experienced particularly severe sexual abuse, Child was required to testify repeatedly

How does salience influence memory?

Central details are the main details, e.g car crashed into another Peripheral details e.g colour of the car • What is salient to a child? • Central features : • May be better recalled over long delays • May decay more slowly • However, still subject to normal memory and forgetting process Peripheral details are worse remembered but can influence how a case goes what colour boat does this man have

What is Peter Alice case?

Child abuse is a significant problem in NZ Ecological transactional model - interplay of protective and risk factors between individual, micro, meso, and macrosystem Children who have been maltreated have a greater risk of negative outcomes and psychopathology There is a complex relationship between sequalae Negative family functioning increases risk of abuse and likelihood of adverse outcomes from abuse Testifying is at times associated with increased distressand adverse outcomes when combined with several risk factors However, not testifying may be detrimental as well especially when the outcome is a not-guilty verdict. It shows the importance in how these investigation needs to take place.

How does repeated interviewing influence children?

Children may be questioned multiple times during the course of an investigation. Repeated questioning Children may report new information in subsequent interviews (reminiscence). Amount of information may increase (Hypermnesia). New details tend to be less accurate than consistently reported details. Young children repeatedly asked the same (closed or direct) question within an interview may change their answer. Repeated suggestive interviews compromise accuracy.

What is an example of the severity influencing recall?

Children of Chowchilla, 25 kids kidnapped buried in ground, they managed to dig their way out. They claim that they still have good memory of that event.

How does conversation style influence ability to recall?

Children who's parent used elaborative conversation style with the kid had richer memory. where as child who's parent s used interrogative conversation style had weaker recall.

What does recognition prompt?

Closed-ended questions, Interviewer provides " clues" as to what he/she wants person to tell about, Person provides response to interviewer's " clue", Less accuracy, More specific details, Brief (one word or phrase) responses, More errors of commission, Process controlled by interview, Less coherent

How does saliency influence memory?

DO show and tell.pirate studythree groups did, saw, heard it. Better memory if did it, followed by saw it then last was those that heard it.

How does forensic interviews differ from the classroom?

Different to classroom, class encouraged to guess. Different to home where such things as eating cookies it is encouraged to lie. Encouraged to respect authority, subservant to adults but in forensic context this is not helpful. As they are the expert, not the interviewer.

What is the process of testifying

Direct examination - done by prosecutor Cross examination - done by defense

What are the two criminal profiling processes?

FBI Approach and Statistical Approach

What is organised typology personality and crime scene like, what method is it from?

FBI, Crime scene= neat controlled, little evidence, body moved, stranger victim. Personal= Neat, skilled, above average IQ, usually lives with partner, Precipitating stressor- anger/ depression

What is disorganised typology personality and crime scene like, what method is it from?

FBI, Crime scene= spontaneous, lots of evidence, minimum use of constraints, returns to scene. Personal = Disorganised, low intelligence, socially inadequate, frightened/confused at the time. mental illness

What are the four event factors?

Frequency, Salience, Delay and Severity of incident

Do children understand the court process?

Generally not very well evidence such as children viewing allegation as something that lives in a swamp. Jury something that is worn "jewellery"

What are the positive and negatives of interview ground rules?

Helps promote detailed and accurate responding. However if the children don't abided by the rules then it can be detrimental for childs contribution in court (as court sees the child as not following the rules as the testimony is played back in court)

How does severity influence memory?

Higher forgetting of none salient events e.g to mother also higher forgetting for severe aggression over low aggression. Indicating severity influences memory

How well can a child give accurate testimony about their experiences?

It depends on a number of factors such as the kinds of questions asked, (GO OVER CHILD FACTORS< INTERVIEWING FACTORS>>>>)

What is the relationship of memory and stress?

It is some what conflicting, with every outcome being reported, low stress= better recall, high stress = better recall. also low stress and high stress = bad recall and instead medium stress creates better remembering. e.g hurricane research Medium (better recall): some damage had to shelter High stress (low recall): damage and injury Lower stress (low recall) in state of disaster but no damage or injury .

How is the investigation under taken, wand what are the requirements to be able to be an investigator?

It is undertaken by social workers and police. They must undertaken a course in child interviewing. In addition 2 assessments of their choosing must be submitted for moderation to ensure they are maintain a suitable standard. (Many are sent back indicating that the interviewers self perception of how the interview went is incorrect).

What open end questions and what are the outcomes from using them?

Less interviewer input, recall process, better type of information.

What happened in principe et al (2008) in terms of source monitoring?

Magic trick, involving pulling a rabbit out of a hat. rabbit didn't appear. Children were shown eaten carrots in the hallway. Those that saw the carrots or had classmates who saw the carrots in the hallway said that the rabbit didn't appear out of the hat because it was off eatting carrots, whereas the group that didn't see carrots didn't.

How does knowledge influences suggestibility?

Majority of kids (54%) did not recall suggested events (events that didn't happen). False memories are more likely for typical events rather then atypical. More accurate at identifying atypical events that didn't happen.

What is the difference between natural disasters and child maltreatment in terms of recall?

Maltreatment is often chronic, premorbid differences, "hidden" not talked about, high likelihood of negative sequelae. Natural disasters are one off, often talked about post event, and have physical reminders.

What is source monitoring ability?

Memory errors from incorrect attribution of source. Young children who are more vulnerable to suggestion also has decreased ability to identify the sources from which the information was obtained.

What closed end questions and what are the outcomes from using them?

More interviewer input, recognition process, and worse type of information

Sketch plans are the helpful or hinderance?

No studys indicating usefullness however requires spatial representation, scale changes, perspective taking, symbolic representations, and visual rotation. Kids such at drawing NZ so likelihood is the drawing won't be accurate.

Children not testifying in court?

No testify When a case involves less severe abuse (e.g. short duration, unknown perpetrator): • Poorer functioning in the long term • More negative feelings about their case • Feeling worse about not testifying when the case outcome was not guilty Years later, feel that the legal system was less fair than those who had testified

Do teenagers understand the court process?

Not very well. mixed the defendant and defence lawyer, mixed cross examination to forensic examination. Possible cause of stress

What are the factors that increase the probability of sexual abuse?

Older girls, 2-3x higher for girls with intellectual and physical disability, higher risk for girls in residential care.

What are narrative prompts? are they good? and example?

Open-ended utterances using questions, statements, or imperatives to elicit free-recall responses. They are good. example "Tell me everything that happened from the beginning to the end."

What does recall prompt?

Open-ended, Interviewer invites person to tell everything they remember, Person provides what is significant to them, Greater accuracy, Skeletal sketch of event, Narrative-based response, More errors of omission, Process controlled by person being interviewed, More coherent.

What are the four interviewing factors when interviewing children?

Question type, suggestive techniques, repeated interviewing, preparing children for the interviews

What are the two types of remembering? and what are they?

Recall, attempt to provide as much relevant information as they remember, accounts may be brief and sketchy; But are more likely to be accurate. Recognition, children may have to confirm or reject information provided by interviewers, more likely to make an erroneous response.

NZ used to require children to demonstrate knowledge of truth and lies, what is the practice now and what did research say about the original process?

Research shows no relation between knowledge and truth-telling or lying. Children who did cheat is not related to the knowledge of truth telling. • Currently children (over 12) required to promise, younger children instructed about importance of truth telling Evidence that eliciting a promise promotes truth telling. (findings support current practise).

How do adults tend to talk to children?

Structure and guide the conversation heavily, Used closed questions, (won't be used, but children are used to answering closed questions instead of the open question that often are used for investigation). Teaching and testing, (creates a situation where we are the experts) Shape conventional responses (want a brief summary not a blow by blow account) This is different to what would be helpful in criminal proceedings.

What are the two factors that influence child witness accuracy?

Suggestibility and capability

What does the literature lean towards in terms of the two theories of child memory of abusive events?

Teens frequently failed to remember or report non-abusive events at Year 1 not just sever events, indicating general memory failure rather then a traumatic event memory failure. Children who experience severe aggression almost always targets of less sever acts more FREQUENT than more sever acts. Better remembering. Better recall of non-abusive events= better recall of abusive.

What is the definition of serious physical abuse?

The actions of a perpetrator that result in or could potentially result in physical harm or injury.

What is criminal profiling

The derivation of inferences about a criminal from aspects of the crime(s)* he or she has committed" profiler will profile what the offender will be like. e.g Social and Sexual Development Physical Description Psychiatric History Pre and Post Offence Behaviour Age Ethnicity Gender SES Residence description Education Marital status Employment background Criminal Record

What is the most important thing about the symptoms of maltreatment?

The factors and symptoms don't belong explicitely to maltreatment, some children maltreated don't have these problems. May incorrectly add up the symptoms, attribute it to maltreatment, or incorrectly attribute it to another thing not maltreatment.

What are the two opposing views of trauma and memory?

Trauma specific mechanism theory and General Memory Mechanisms for traumatic memory.

What is serious wilful neglect?

When a person willfully ill-trwats or neglects a child or willfully lets the child be ill-treated that is deterimental to the childs physical or mental health.

What is the consensus about the answers given in cross examination?

When subject to cross examination because of the nature of the questions there will be some inaccurate in answering.

What is the key point of ecological transaction model?

You can't consider individuals in isolation of the factors surrounding it.

What are the factors that increase the probability of physical abuse?

Young (up to 5 years) and both sexes, Prematurity -stress, Low birth weight -stress, Developmental delays - more dependent on parents, Frequent illness - stress, Difficult temperament, Oppositional and aggressive behaviours

What does waterman, blades & spencer (2000) say about silly questions?

children were more likely to answer a no sensible closed question when compared to sensible and nonsensible open questions. The children also were able to identify that this question was stupid, but felt like answering it anyway. Indicating that their answer was influeneced.

What does the DRM task prove?

drm task all of the things related to window but not window, adults automatically add window in there, child struggle to add this in there. Adults more suggestible in this task • Age does not inoculate against suggestion

What is the ecological transaction model?

influences Macrosystem (politcal, cultural, economic factors). Exosystem (Local community, legal services, mass media, social welfare). Mesosystem (The interaction of family, health services, peers and school). Microsystem (family, health services, peers and school).

How does stereotype induction influence interviews?

is negative and influence how children answer questions. When combined with suggestive questioning, children are likely to answer incorrectly.

What is the investigative process for child cases?

report of concern -> safety assessment-> Investigation in consultation with police-> Child testifying in court

How do children respond to cross examination?

• 5- 13 year old sexual abuse complainants when cross examined: • Rarely requested clarification • Answered questions that were ambiguous or didn't make sense • High rates of compliance (baited into answering) • High rates of misunderstanding 75% of children changed at least 1 aspect of their testimony during cross-examination (3/4 of children became inconsistent). If they are changing their testimony to be more accurate then it is ok.

In Zajac and Haynes study how were childrens accuracy in cross examination?

• 5-6 year old children • Surprise police station trip • 6 weeks later, children were interviewed (direct-examination) • 8 months later, children watched their interview and were cross-examined • they were then given Direct-examination interviews • " Tell me everything you can remember about what happened at the police station" • Four yes- no questions 2 happened 2 didn't. A large number of changes took place (over 85% change one +aspect). Equal likely to incorrectly change their testimony as incorrectly.

What are some questions that challenge children's credibility?

• Accusation of poor eyewitness ability " And you're sure that this isn't just an accident; that maybe once when he's held your hand you've accidentally touched his penis?" • Accusation of dishonesty "He didn't really touch your private parts at the camp, did he?" • Leading / Suggestive questions " Have Mum and Dad been telling you how bad [accused] is?" • Complex grammar / jargon " And if you say you didn't say these things, would you be telling the truth?" • Ambiguity / Sense " That night after you told Mum about [accused] and before you made the videotape at the police station, do you remember whether you went to school the next day?" • Specificity/ Measurement " How long after [accused] waking you up did the police arrive, do you remember, can you estimate the time?" impossible to answer but children would try to answer it, then defence would be able to use this as doubt.

Is drawing helpful during interview?

• Allows children to generate their own retrieval cues • Drawing may put children at ease (don't have to focus on the interviewer) • May increase amount of information without compromising accuracy - May encourage children to report information about events that never occurred

How does intellectual ability affect recall?

• Children with mild ID similar to intellectual age matches, worse than same age peers (Brown et al) • No differences in errors between children with vs. without ID on open-ended misleading questions (Bruck & Melnyk) • IQ is an important factor for accounting suggestibility for children with low IQ but is not a reliable predictor of suggestibility for children with normal IQ Iq not very helpful in predicting good recall, but does predict what type of perfomrance that they will recieve

How does coping behaviours influence memory?

• Crying and distraction during VCUG predicted poorer recall of the procedure • Procedural talk predicted greater recall = children asking questions about the VCUG to their parents or staff and them telling the child what is happening Etc

What are the interview ground rules?

• Don't guess, its okay to say "I don't know" • Correct me if I say some thing wrong • Difference between the truth and a lie; tell the truth • Tell me if you don't understand Tell me everything, even the little things

What are the two main functions of cross examination?

• Elicit favourable evidence for the defendant by having the witness agree with the cross-examining lawyer • Weaken the opposing side's case by discrediting unfavourable evidence or the person who provided it • Lawyers and judges have said that they wouldn't want their own children cross examined Cross examination is generally how not to ask children questions, by confusing them, suggesting them.

How does the way of telling account influence the amount of detail influence?

• Episodic rather than script recall (e.g needs to be tell me about your last soccer match, NOT tell me about soccer games) Style of questions used (closed down questions don't create positive effect, if you ask how you would ask in interview, promotes better engagement in the interview).

How is the conversation style mediated by attachment style?

• Insecure mothers = high in fear of abandonment and high in discomfort with close relationships. Maternal romantic attachment style as proxy measure for mother-child attachment. Children with insecure mothers have poorer recall of stressful medical procedures. Children with insecure mothers were more likely to acquiesce to suggestive questions.

What is the statistical approach?

• Key player: David Canter, British psychologist • 13 of 17 predictions were correct "What are required scientifically are explanatory frameworks that can lead to hypotheses about the sorts of offender characteristics that are likely to relate to particular offence behaviour"

What is the importance of evidence based investigation?

• Minimise false negatives (say abuse didn't happen when it did) • Children's testimony may be critical • Optimise amount and accuracy of testimony • Poor interviewing may damage children's credibility, judges may be able to detect that suggestive techniques, therefore damage the childs credibility. • Minimise false positive (say abuse happened when it didn't happen), accused life destroyed • Minimise vulnerability to suggestion

What are the different modes of testifying?

• More positive perceptions • Significantly less likely to have been making up a story • Before deliberations jurors were significantly more likely to convict the defendant Post-deliberation, verdicts not affected by mode of testimony

What are some common fears of children about taking the stand?

• Not knowing what's going on • Not being able to answer the questions • Getting "yelled at" • Facing the accused Misunderstand as to what court is for, (think maybe its because they have done something wrong). Only 1/3rd of children later can recall the result, therefore points out that they struggled to understand what was going on

What is General Memory Mechanisms for traumatic memory?

• Ordinary memory processes still apply to memory for traumatic events Influenced by Frequency, Salience, Delay and Severity of incident.

Are the use of props bad or good?

• Overcome vocabulary limitations or iidiosyncracies • Allow for nonverbal communication • Provide external retrieval cue (encoding specificity) Interviewers use different kinds of props, e.g dolls, children drawing, asking them to highlight where on their body, and asking them to draw a sketch map. However can be negative as children may begin to fantasise (that what you do with dolls) an dgive false accounts.

Should props be used?

• Probably not, increases inaccuracy • Changes interviewer behaviour • Increased direct and option posing questions when using props (initial prop use may contaminate interview afterwards). • May increase information • Typically by increasing errors • No substitute for a good verbal interview

How does delay influence recall?

• Range of adverse effects: • Completeness of recall (amount) • Spontaneous incorrect recall • Degree of misleading information recalled • Degree of emotionality ascribed to the event • Type of event details that are forgotten Peter alice, how many interviews, saw news reports, parents talk. Because of the delay argument these reports to there memory to reinforce it. Changing the original memory.More retrieval results in better memory but is influenced as above.

Who is a criminal profiler?

• Rarely a full-time occupation (consultants) • Academic or Clinical Psychologists • Psychiatrists, Police Officers, Police Civilian Staff • No regulatory body that provides professional profiling designation • NZ Criminal Profiling Unit • Full-time employees based in Auckland but deal with cases all around New Zealand • Range of backgrounds • Mostly serious stranger sexual assault cases • ~90% actively operational, rest research and other things • Largely confidential c.f. Report on the Crewe Murders in 2013

Why use a criminal profile?

• Traditional enquiry not fruitful • Narrow down and prioritise range of suspects • Develop advice on the running of certain aspects of the enquiry • Can be used after been caught to build case, ask what kind of questions should be asked.

What is Trauma specific mechanism theory?

• Traumatic memories are repressed through trauma-specific psychological defence mechanisms • These memories may resurface years later in the "proper" retrieval context. The memory are just hidden/repressed. Proper retrieval context Therapy • Hypnosis • Age regression • Guided imagery • Suggestive techniques

why are language and communication skills a child factor?

• Unclear articulation • Limited vocab • Over-estimate children's ability (children use language before they understand it, and don't understand conversation yet (might think frowning is I hate what you are saying rather then they are struggling to understand them). • Still learning how to participate in conversations e.g call all animals doggies. Don't call apartment houses, tickling isn't touching... Being able to structure their story so lawyers and judges can understand.

What is the impact of not testifying?

• When a case involves less severe abuse (e.g. short duration, unknown perpetrator) • Poorer long term functioning • More negative feelings about their case • Feeling worse about not testifying if the case outcome was not guilty Long term more negative perceptions of justice system