the imported final psyc 126

Memory is ...

-reconstructive
-While tapping our memories, we filter or fill in missing pieces of information to make our recall more coherent

Misinformation effect:

incorporating misleading information into one's memory of an event

Hit versus smashed what asked about speed

-Then asked about broken glass at the scene
-Smashed versus hit -- smashed reported glass more
-Elizabeth Loftus experiment?
-Change of word changes speed estimate -- and what they remembered could potentially be used in court

Recovered Memory Epidemic

-Unfolded in 1990's
-In therapy, adult victims recover memories of having been abused during childhood
-Charges brought against incredulous parents
-Guilty verdict

The Courage to Heal

-Published in 1988
-Guide for women of survivors of sexual abuse
-Made assersitions as if they were scientifically true -- influential with therapists

Theory behind psychotherapy for repressed memories

-Certain memories are too painful to bear
-As a defense mechanism, those memories are repressed
-Repressed memories create psychology disorders

Therapeutic Methods

-Assigned reading of self-help books
-Dream analysis
-Hypnosis
-Guided imagery

Wade, Garry and Lindsay experiment:

-Using false photographs to create false childhood memories
-Digitized photos of 3 true events childhood -- took photos of family members and pasted them into false photo of hot air balloon
-Interviewed family member three separate times about those 4 events (tell every detail)
-Everyone remembered the true events -- 30% remembered false balloon ride
-After 3 interviews almost 50% remembered false memory

Linda Williams Study

-1994 -- recall of childhood trauma
-Participants: 129 adult women who had been evaluated in early 1970's for possible sexual abuse
-Method: participants were interviewed about possible traumatic experiences during childhood
-40/129 did not describe an episode of sexaul abuse
-long periods with no memory of abuse should not be regarded as evidence that the abuse did not occur

Critique of Williams study

-Unwillingness to report childhood sexual trauma to an unfamiliar interviewers does not mean that the trauma was forgotten
-Some of the abuse took place when the women were as young as 10 months (infantile amnesia)
-Some of the abuse was such that the child might not have recognized it as such

What the False Memory debate taught us about memory

-False memories are surprisingly easy to implant
-What makes them so east to implant is that memories are reconstructive

Proponents (recovered memories are real)

-15% of adult women who report memory for childhood abuse also report having forgotten about that at some point
-None of these women recovered their memories in therapy

Opponents (recovered memories are false)

-False memories are extremely easy to implant, so it does not make sense to convict anyone without corroborating evidence

Since the 1990s, DNA testing has overturned more than

350 wrongful convictions of the innocent

Of the 350 wrongful convictions, how many were due to eyewitness misidentifications?

72%

The Case of Ronald Cotton

-In 1984, a college student named Jennifer Thompson was raped
-Shortly thereafter she picked Ronald Cotton out of a photo lineup (said she was certain)
- Cotton was sentenced to life in prison plus 54 years, and he served almost 11 years in jail before being exonerated by DNA testing

The National Registry of Exonerations

-20 or so per year (DNA exonerations)
-But there are a lot of other ways to be exonerated
-DNA isn't the only way to get them out
-Purgeory and false accusations and Official Misconduct

Research has shown that sequential lineups

reduce misidentifications and increase accuracy compared to traditional simultaneous lineups

Lineup Construction and Lineup Fairness

-A lineup should contain only 1 suspect
-The suspect should match the physical description provided by the eyewitness
-The police should have some additional reason for believing that the suspect may have committed the crime
-All of the fillers (aka "foils") should also match the physical description provided by the eyewitness (i.e., the suspect should not stand out)

If a non-witness can identify the suspect from the description alone then

the lineup is unfair

Simultaneous lineup

show pictures simultaneously, all at once

Sequential Lineup

one picture at a time

Mock-Crime Laboratory Studies

-Each participant (n = 200) watches a simulated crime (e.g., a video of a young man stealing a laptop)
-Followed by a lineup memory test:
-Half (n = 100) are then tested using a target-present lineup
-The other half (n = 100) are tested using a target-absent lineup

Lindsay & Wells (1985)

- Simultaneous versus Sequential lineups
- Huge drop in False ID rate with sequential lineup

2013 Survey of US Police Departments

-30% adopted sequential procedure
-Huge impact of psychological research

Absolute vs. Relative Judgments

1. Simultaneous lineup
-Eyewitnesses feel "pressure to choose" and therefore rely on a relative judgment (choose the most familiar lineup member)
-Alternative way of thinking: eyewitness use a lower standard for making an ID

2. Sequential lineup
-Eyewitnesses feel less pressure to choose, so they rely on an absolute judgment (choose a lineup member only if the match to memory is good enough)
-Alternative way of thinking: eyewitness use a higher standard for making an ID

Reduce "pressure to choose" by inducing a more

conservative standard

Conservative approach means

fewer ID's (both false and correct)

A higher ROC curve indicates

greater discriminability

The Concept of Response Bias

-Do not make an ID if you are just guessing
-Do not make an ID unless you are reasonably sure
-Do not make an ID unless you are very sure
-Do not make an ID unless you are absolutely certain

More than One Way to Perform ROC Analysis

-Manipulate response bias across conditions, using instructions to vary the degree of confidence the witness should have before making an ID from the lineup
-Collect confidence ratings from eyewitnesses who make an ID and vary the requisite level of confidence after the fact

To compute the most "liberal" ROC point,

count all suspect IDs (including guesses)

To compute the most "conservative" ROC point,

count only suspect IDs made with the highest level of confidence

Simultaneous has ______ ROC than sequential

higher

Why are Simultaneous Lineups Diagnostically Superior (Wixted & Mickes (2014, Psychological Review)

- proposed a diagnostic feature-detection model
-Basic idea: simultaneous lineups make it easier to appreciate the existence of shared (and therefore non-diagnostic) features
-The enhanced awareness of non-diagnostic feature makes it easier for eyewitnesses to tell the difference between innocent and guilty suspects

Diagnostic feature-detection hypothesis (Wixted & Mickes, 2014)

-Innocent and guilty suspects share facial features - namely, features that correspond to the suspect description
-The common features are largely non-diagnostic and should therefore be discounted (i.e., ignored)
-Simultaneous lineups immediately teach the eyewitness which facial features should be discounted, but sequential lineups do not

Relationship between eyewitness confidence and accuracy

-MISCONCEPTION: Research shows that even under perfect conditions, usually confidence doesn't tell you shit
-This misconception is based on the use of the wrong statistic to measure the relationship between confidence and accuracy

Correlation vs. Confidence-Accuracy Characteristic (CAC Analysis)

-Correlation turns out to be the wrong measure to use
-A better approach is to simply plot accuracy as a function of confidence
-Take low confidence and calculate % correct and high confidence and % correct and plot it
-When witnesses say they have high confidence, they are usually correct

Behrman and Davey (2001)

-Analyzed confidence ratings made by real eyewitnesses to IDs made from real lineups in Sacramento
-Witnessed had 3 response options: I'm sure, I'm not sure, I don't recognize
-"I am sure": 92% correct (11 of 12)
-"I think": 47% correct (7 of 13)

Houston Police Department Field Study (Wixted, Mickes, Dunn, Clark & Wells (2015))

showed that false filler identifications had a relationship with low confidence

The diagnosticity ratio wrongly suggested that

sequential lineups are superior to simultaneous lineups (but ROC analysis shows that the opposite is true)

point-biserial correlation coefficient wrongly suggested that

the relationship between eyewitness confidence and accuracy is weak (but calibration analyses show that the opposite is true)

Convicting the Innocent book

-Obtained court and police records for 161 DNA exoneration cases
-In 57% of those cases, the eyewitness was initially uncertain about his or her identification
-A witness who expresses low confidence is effectively saying "there is a good chance I am making an error"

North Park Sexual Assault Series

Summer of 2014 -- north park community was terrorized by unknown assailant targeting lone females walking at night
Violently attacked and sometimes sexually assaulted

SDPD Sex Crimes Unit

-Investigates felony sexaul assults invovling victims 14 yrs or older
-12 detectives and 2 sergeants
-24/7 on-call responsibility to respond to incidents
-2014 unit handled over 750 investigations

What started the case for North Park?

Case 1 and Case 3 had same DNA

What was special about case 5?

-video images are captured of the suspect
-Images were enhanced and disseminated to media and law enforcement
-Wife of an SDPD officer recognized symbol on shirt

How did they catch the North Park attacker?

-Undercover officers go to the restaurant and find the suspect working
-Placed under arrest based upon the video footage (DNA analysis no conducted)
-Suspect is 23 year old David Drake
-Interrogated by Detective Carmelin Rivera

Criminal profiler

A person who infers the personality, behavior, motivation and demographics of a suspect based on information gathered from a crime scene

modus operandi (MO)

method of operation, which is a recognized pattern of behavior in the commission of a crime

Signature

behaviors the offender has to do to fulfill an emotional need or a fantasy

Cesare Lobroso, The Criminal Man, 1876

-Studied 383 Italian prisoners and compared information on race, age, sex, physical characteristics, education and geographic region
-Suggested that criminals shared certain
physical characteristics

First Profile of a Serial Killer: Jack the Ripper

-n 1888, 5 women were attacked and killed on the streets of London
-First known case of killer profiling by Dr. -Thomas Bond, who performed autopsies on two of the victims
-Determined some personality traits of the killer from victim

Dr. Bond's Profile of 'Jack the Ripper'

-The killer had no knowledge of anatomy or medical training
-A 'harmless-looking and quiet man'
-Physically strong
-Composed and daring
-A loner with no real occupation
-Accuracy of this profile is unknown because the killer was never caught

"Father of profiling"

-John Douglas
-25 years with the FBI
-Interviewed many serial killers/rapists
-Developed profiling techniques now taught in the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit
-Consulted on Atlanta child murders, Green River killer, Unabomber
-Wrote a book called "Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit"

Typological offender profiling

-Developed by the FBI in the 1970s and 1980s
-There are different types of offender
-Behavioral evidence can indicate which type of offender committed a crime
-Knowing an offender's type allows us to predict future behavior

Definition of a serial killer

"Three or more separate events in three or more separate locations with an emotional cooling off period in between homicides."

"Serial killer" term coined by

-Robert Ressler in 1970's
-Used first in the Ted Bundy case

women accounted for ____ percent of the 1,398 known victims of serial killers during the 1985 to 2010 timeframe

70

Females represent how much percent of homicide victims?

22%

Serial killers are ____ men

80-85%

Female Serial Murderers (Farrell et al. (2013)

-Women thought to be more reactive, rather than predatory, in their decision to murder
-Predominantly white
-Average age of 32 (range from 16-65)
-Women tend to kill quietly
-Women tend to kill individuals close to or dependent on them

Weapon of choice for women

Poison, 74% of homicides

Visionary

hear voices or have visions that direct them to kill

Missionaries

believe that they are meant to eliminate a particular group

Hedonists

-Kills for pleasure, although what aspect they enjoy varies
-Sexual
-Thrill
-Gain (financial)
-Feeling of power

Herbert Mullin -- Visionary Example

-Mullin's best friend was killed in a car accident, which appears to be the breaking point in Mullin's life
-At age 17, he began to hear voices, a typical symptom of paranoid schizophrenia
-He murdered 13 people in 1972 and 1973
-Mullin was convinced that the voices in his head were the work of Satan and were directing him to "save the world"

James Vaughn -- Missionary Example

-He was a racist who joined both the Nazi party and the KKK
-Believing that becoming involved with people of another color was a sin, he felt responsible for murdering them
-He murdered numerous racially mixed couples from 1977-1980

Jeffrey Dahmer -- Hedonist Example

-He tortured and killed animals in his youth and was a loner and an outcast in high school
-As an adult, he enjoyed drugging and murdering young men and then having sex with them (necrophilia)
-He is known to have killed 17 young men between 1978 and 1991

Organized Crime Scene:

-Body is hidden
-Weapon is removed from scene
-Appears to be well-planned
-The victim is specifically targeted
-Restraints often used
-Aggression takes place before death

Disorganized Crime Scene

-Body not hidden
-Weapon is present
-Appears to be spontaneous
-Victim may be an acquaintance
-Aggression or sex post-mortem

Organized crime scene suggests an offender:

-Average or above average IQ
-Employed, usually quite skilled
-Socially competent
-Uses alcohol in commission of crime
-Uses car to drive to crime scene/hunt for victim
-Obsessed with media coverage of his crimes

Disorganized crime scene suggests an offender:

-Below average IQ
-Unstable employment record, unskilled
-Socially isolated
-Lives close to crime scene
-Strict discipline as a child
-Extremely anxious

Profiling a Serial Killer (and getting it right)

-Rochester, NY—1989, multiple murders
-Police ask for FBI profiler, Gregg McCrary
-McCrary studied the murder's MO
-Concluded that the murderer probably would return to scene of the crime
-Police delayed collecting the next victim
-Arthur Shawcross returned to the crime scene and was arrested for the murder of 11 women

Profiling a Bomber (and getting it wrong)

1996 Summer Olympics
-discovered a backpack filled with three pipe bombs on the park grounds
Richard Jewell alerted police and helped to evacuate the area before the bomb exploded
-The FBI instructed the police to search for a single, white, middle-class male with an intense interest in police work
-Jewell quickly became a suspect (because he fit the profile) and was essentially assumed guilty by sensational media coverage
-On April 13, 2005, Jewell was exonerated completely when Eric Rudolph pled guilty to carrying out the bombing attack

Two Different Approaches to profiling

1. Criminal profiling tries to identify a broad array of characteristics that are unique to the unsub (the "art" of profiling):
Strong
-Has no medical training
-A loner
-White, average intelligence

2. Case linkage analysis is more statistically oriented (the "science" of profiling):
-Behavioral consistency
-Behavioral distinctiveness

Offender Consistency Hypothesis

-Offenders display a degree of consistency in the way they commit their crimes across a series (MO, basically)
-e.g., a sexual offender will show signs of the same underlying fantasy each time he commits a crime

Offender Distinctiveness Hypothesis

-Offenders show a degree of distinctiveness in the way they commit their offenses (allowing their offenses to be distinguished from those of other offenders)
-e.g., a sexual offender's apparent fantasy will differ from that of other offenders

A Test of Consistency (Knight et al. (1998)

Assessed the consistency of behavior across the 5 most recent crimes committed by serial sex offenders using a rating scale

High consistency

-having a firearm present
-cutting/slashing clothing
-excessive response to victim resistance
-Victim being bound

Moderate consistency

-Alcohol/drug consumption during crime
-Intentional infliction of pain
excessive profanity
-Offender showing interest in the victim's enjoyment

linked cases were ____ consistent and could be differentiated from unlinked cases

more

GEOGRAPHIC PROFILING

an investigative strategy that uses the locations of a series of crimes to determine the most probable area of the offenders residence

Psychological Autopsies

-Involves attempts to dissect and examine psychological state of individual prior to death (e.g., before an apparent suicide)
- Based on several sources of information (interviews with family, psych records)

Death classification

natural, accidental, suicide, homicide

National Academy of Sciences

-non-profit society of distinguished scholars that was established by an Act of Congress
-Charged with providing independent, objective advice to the nation on matters related to science and technology

Dr Henry Faulds

published the first paper on the subject of fingerprints in the journal Nature. Returning to the UK in 1886, he offered the concept to the Metropolitan Police in London but it was dismissed

Sir William James Herschel

a British civil servant based in India, wrote to Nature saying that he had been using fingerprints for identification purposes

Sir Francis Galton

published a detailed statistical model of fingerprint analysis and identification and encouraged its use in forensic science in his book Finger Prints

Juan Vucetich

-an Argentine police officer who had been studying Galton pattern types for a year, made the first criminal fingerprint identification.
-He successfully proved Francisca Rojas guilty of murder after showing that the bloody fingerprint found at the crime scene was hers, and could only be hers

The Case of Francisca Rojas

-In 1892, two boys were brutally murdered
-suspicion fell on a man named Velasquez, a suitor of the children's mother. but even after torture he wouldn't confess
-Investigators found a bloody fingerprint at the crime scene
-compared the fingerprints of Rojas and Velasquez with the bloody fingerprint.
-fingerprint matched one of mother

Crime Scene Technicians

-Locate Prints
-This technician is using powder to develop latent prints

Tangen, Thompson & McCarthy (2011)

-Presented 37 qualified fingerprint experts and 37 novices with pairs of prints displayed side by side on a computer screen
-Task was to say "match" or "no match" and confidence level
-Results: "We have shown that qualified, court-practicing fingerprint experts are exceedingly accurate compared with novices, but are not infallible"

Fingerprint Experts showed a conservative response bias

tending to err on the side of caution by making more errors of the sort that could allow a guilty person to escape detection than errors of the sort that could falsely incriminate an innocent person

The FBI's Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System

-Latent prints can be searched against a file of 70 million prints
-The system produces a list of possible matches (n = 10 or 20)
-Checked by a qualified fingerprint examiner

Brandon Mayfield and Madrid bombing

-ran the print collected in Madrid and reported a match against one of 20 fingerprint candidates
-Brandon Mayfield, an American lawyer, was identified as a participant in the Madrid bombing based on a fingerprint match
-The FBI initially called the match "100 percent positive" and an "absolutely incontrovertible match"
-The Spanish National Police examiners concluded the prints did not match Mayfield, and after two weeks identified another man who matched

The crucial difference between:

-comparing latent fingerprints (lifted from a crime scene) to the fingerprints of a suspect
-comparing latent fingerprints to the fingerprints contained in a large database

The probability of a false alarm is

-LOW when the comparison involves a suspect
-HIGH when the comparison is made through a database search (because someone, somewhere, has fingerprints a lot like yours)

Why is the Probability of a False Alarm Higher in a Database Search?

-The "base rate" problem

Searching Face Databases

-In eyewitness identification, the police first find a suspect and then place that person in a lineup.
-Sometimes, a suspect is found by searching through many faces, which means many innocent faces are examined to find a suspect.