Eyewitness testimony by adults with autism spectrum disorder

目击者证词是刑事司法系统(CJS)的核心，这通常包括自闭症谱系障碍(ASD)患者的证词。许多风险因素表明，患有自闭症的人成为受害者的危险更大，这意味着他们在普通人群中的1%患病率在CJS中可能被过度夸大。除此之外，他们的记忆有很好的记录，但几乎没有任何研究考察他们作为目击者的情况。我的博士研究探讨了这个问题。我考察了被广泛接受的警察面谈技术之一--认知面谈(CI)的有效性，该技术用于成人自闭症患者。CI的主要组成部分之一，情景恢复，鼓励证人通过关注情景细节，如场景、声音、气味等，在精神上重温事件。我发现CI未能帮助回忆患有自闭症的证人，实际上降低了他们的准确性。我随后的工作表明，自闭症患者感到困难的是情境恢复所需的心理时间旅行：当他们身体回到目睹事件发生的同一个房间时，他们的记忆力有所提高。这些发现对自闭症患者证人的调查性面谈程序具有重要影响。在研究金年，我打算从不同的角度重新审查这些调查结果。我博士工作中使用的编码系统对细节进行了正确或不正确的编码，但没有明确检查这些细节是否以正确的顺序报告。如果警方调查人员想要了解事件发生时的一连串情况，这是至关重要的，这可能意味着主要嫌疑人是在袭击发生之前还是之后离开现场。因此，这项拟议工作的第一个目标是检查自闭症患者回忆事件细节的时间顺序的情况；以前的研究表明，他们在这方面存在困难。然而，如果是这样的话，可能会有适当的支持性面试策略，这可能会有所帮助--这是在奖学金期间制定的后续研究建议将涉及的领域。其次，在我的博士工作中，没有一个值得记住的事件是证人积极参与的。先前的研究表明，自闭症患者比起被动观察的人，更难回忆他们积极参与的事件。同样，如果是这样的话，它将具有直接的法医意义，并将为更多的大量资金申请提供重点，以制定适当的支持性采访策略。这项工作将构成两篇论文。在今年的研究年中，我打算发表第三篇论文，回顾对自闭症目击者证词的研究。这是一项非常新颖的工作，一篇综述论文将进一步传播研究结果，并产生新的兴趣。研究金年还将使我能够发展新的研究技能和建议，从而在该领域建立更实质性的工作方案，包括制定有效的采访战略，在恢复背景的情况下，这可能涉及更多得到支持的程序，如重访事件现场或使用照片作为背景辅助。我还想将我目前的工作扩展到更广泛的自闭症谱系，从功能正常的成年人到儿童和有智力障碍的人。这项工作应该引起广大受众的兴趣，包括患有自闭症的个人、警察和其他法律官员、政策制定者和学者。研究结果还可能对教育部门在学校有效的学习策略方面产生影响。这笔奖学金将使我有机会改善我的出版记录，并申请长期资金，我希望这将使我在这个重要但研究不足的领域发展学术生涯。

Eyewitness testimony is central to the Criminal Justice System (CJS), and this often includes the testimony of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). A number of risk factors suggest that people with ASD are at greater danger of victimisation, meaning that their 1% prevalence in the general population is likely to be over-inflated in the CJS. In addition to this, they have well-documented memory difficulties, yet scarcely any research has examined how they fare as eyewitnesses. My PhD research explored this issue. I examined the effectiveness of one of the most widely accepted police interviewing techniques, the Cognitive Interview (CI), for use with adults with ASD. One of the main components of the CI, context reinstatement, encourages the witness to relive the event mentally by focusing on contextual details such as the sights, sounds, smells etc. I found that the CI failed to aid the recall of witnesses with ASD, and actually reduced their accuracy. My subsequent work suggests that it is the mental time travel required by context reinstatement that individuals with ASD find difficult: when they were physically back in the same room in which the event was witnessed, their recall improved. These findings have important implications for investigative interviewing procedures with witnesses with ASD. In the fellowship year I intend to re-examine these findings from a different perspective. The coding system used in my PhD work coded details as correct or incorrect, but did not explicitly examine whether these details were reported in the correct order. This is essential if police investigators are to understand the chain of events as they unfolded, and could mean the difference between whether the chief suspect left the scene before or after the attack was carried out. Therefore the first aim of the proposed work is to examine how well individuals with ASD recall the chronological order of events details; previous research suggests that they have difficulty with this. However if this is the case, there may be appropriate supportive interview strategies which can help - an area which subsequent research proposals developed during the fellowship would address. Secondly, in my PhD work, none of the to-be-remembered events were ones in which the witness was an active participant. Previous work suggests that individuals with ASD find it harder to recall events in which they were actively engaged then events which they passively observed. Again if this is the case it has immediate forensic implications, and would provide a focus for more substantial funding applications to develop appropriate supportive interviewing strategies.This work will constitute two papers. During this fellowship year I intend to publish a third paper reviewing research on eyewitness testimony in ASD. This is very novel work and a review paper would disseminate findings further and generate new interest. The fellowship year would also enable me to develop both new research skills and proposals which would establish a more substantial program of work in the area, including the development of effective interview strategies, which in the case of context reinstatement might involve more supported procedures such as revisiting the scene where the event was witnessed or using photographs as a context aid. I would also like to extend my current work to the wider autism spectrum from high-functioning adults to children and those with intellectual impairment. This work should be of interest to a wide audience, from individuals with ASD themselves, the police and other legal officials, policy makers, and academics. Findings may also have implications for the educational sector in terms of effective learning strategies in school. The fellowship will allow me the opportunity I need to improve my publication track record and apply for longer-term funding which I hope will allow me to develop an academic career in this important but under-researched area.