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，患有自闭症谱系障碍的人受到伤害的危险更大，这意味着他们在普通人群中1%的患病率可能在CJS中被夸大了。除此之外，他们有很好的记忆障碍，但几乎没有任何研究调查过他们作为目击者的表现。我的博士研究探讨了这个问题。我研究了一种最被广泛接受的警察审讯技巧——认知审讯（Cognitive Interview，简称CI）的有效性，它被用于治疗患有自闭症的成年人。CI的主要组成部分之一，情境还原，鼓励证人通过关注情景细节，如景象、声音、气味等，在心理上重温事件。我发现CI不能帮助回忆有ASD的证人，实际上还降低了他们的准确性。我随后的研究表明，自闭症谱系障碍患者发现，情境还原所需要的精神时间旅行是困难的：当他们回到目睹事件的同一房间时，他们的记忆力得到了改善。这些发现对ASD证人的调查性访谈程序具有重要意义。在奖学金年，我打算从不同的角度重新审视这些发现。在我的博士工作中使用的编码系统将细节编码为正确或不正确，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连锁反应，这一点至关重要，也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的区别。因此，这项工作的第一个目的是研究自闭症谱系障碍患者回忆事件细节的时间顺序的能力；先前的研究表明，他们很难做到这一点。然而，如果是这种情况，可能有适当的支持性面试策略可以帮助-这是在奖学金期间制定的后续研究提案将解决的领域。其次，在我的博士工作中，没有一个被记住的事件是证人积极参与的。先前的研究表明，患有自闭症谱系障碍的人很难回忆起他们积极参与的事件，而不是他们被动观察的事件。同样，如果是这种情况，它将立即产生法医学影响，并将为更大量的资金申请提供重点，以制定适当的支持性访谈策略。这项工作将构成两篇论文。在这个奖学金年里，我打算发表第三篇论文，回顾ASD中目击者证词的研究。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。奖学金年也将使我能够发展新的研究技能和建议，这将在该领域建立一个更实质性的工作计划，包括制定有效的采访策略，在背景恢复的情况下，可能涉及更多的支持程序，如重新访问事件发生的现场或使用照片作为背景辅助。我还想把我目前的工作扩展到更广泛的自闭症范围，从高功能成人到儿童和那些有智力障碍的人。这项工作应该引起广泛受众的兴趣，包括自闭症患者本身、警察和其他法律官员、政策制定者和学者。研究结果还可能对学校有效学习策略方面的教育部门产生影响。该奖学金将使我有机会改善我的出版记录，并申请长期资助，我希望这将使我能够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.