The Accuracy, Credibility, and Impact of Children's Eyewitness Testimony

儿童目击者证词的准确性、可信度和影响力

• 批准号: 8711659
• 负责人: Michael Leippe
• 金额: $ 14.35万
• 依托单位: Adelphi University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 1987
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1987-09-01 至 1991-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=8711659&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Accuracy; Credibility; Impact; Children; Eyewitness

More and more children come forth as eyewitnesses in legal proceedings. To date research findings are suggestive but inconclusive that children may be unreliable memory sources and be perceived as such by jurors. Previous studies, however, have seldom focused on children's memory for legally realistic events or examined adults' reactions to the actual eyewitness reports of children. Dr. Leippe plans to accomplish both of those tasks through a carefully planned program of research, including simulation experiments. In a first set of studies, first graders, fifth graders, and college students watch a theft on videotape and then attempt to identify the perpetrator and provide verbal reports of the crime while also being taped. The "subject-witnesses'" reports are shown to adult "subject-jurors" who judge their accuracy and "delivery style" (e.g., confidence, consistency). Based on jurors' assessments, trained observers' ratings, and performance indices of witness accuracy, analyses address what accounts for actual and perceived age differences in testimony. In a second set of studies, subject- jurors, drawn from college and jury eligible populations, are presented with trials that include testimony from the first studies. These experiments aim to isolate the effects of such factors as age of witness, strength of testimony, and reasonable doubt instructions on jury behavior. This program of research should contribute substantially to a scientific understanding of the accuracy of children's testimony and its impact in court. By viewing the child witness as a source of information and the jury as a receiver of such information, Dr. Leippe brings together theoretical work on information processing and persuasion to explain a basic legal phenomena--the causes of juror belief and disbelief in testimony.

越来越多的儿童在法律诉讼中出庭作证。到目前为止，研究结果是暗示性的，但没有定论，儿童可能是不可靠的记忆来源，并被陪审员视为如此。然而，以前的研究很少关注儿童对法律上真实事件的记忆，也很少研究成年人对儿童真实目击报告的反应。莱佩博士计划通过精心策划的研究项目（包括模拟实验）来完成这两项任务。在第一组研究中，一年级学生、五年级学生和大学生观看了一段盗窃录像，然后试图识别肇事者，并在录像的同时提供犯罪的口头报告。“被试证人”的报告被展示给成年“被试陪审员”，由他们判断报告的准确性和“陈述风格”（例如，信心、一致性）。根据陪审员的评估，训练有素的观察员的评级和证人准确性的表现指数，分析解决了证词中实际和感知的年龄差异的原因。在第二组研究中，从大学和符合陪审团资格的人群中选出的受试者陪审员，向他们展示了包括第一组研究证词在内的试验。这些实验旨在分离证人年龄、证词强度和合理怀疑指示等因素对陪审团行为的影响。这一研究项目将大大有助于科学地理解儿童证词的准确性及其在法庭上的影响。通过将儿童证人视为信息的来源，将陪审团视为信息的接受者，莱佩博士将信息处理和说服的理论工作结合起来，解释了一个基本的法律现象——陪审员相信和不相信证词的原因。