Practice questions Flashcards
(13 cards)
Which of the following statements about Freud’s concept of repression is most accurate?
The traumatic memory can only be recovered when it is ‘safe’ for the person to do
so.
In Garry et al.’s (1996) ‘imagination inflation’ experiment:
a) participants rated on a yes/no scale whether a number of childhood events had
happened to them
b) straight after completing the inventory, participants were asked to imagine some
of the events occurring
c) both a) and b)
d) neither a) nor b)
d
Proactive interaction refers to:
when we seek out environments that support our own style
According to the data presented in class, the poorest polygraph accuracy statistic is obtained
for:
The GTK’s detection of lying
Outline Hyman and Kleinknect’s (1999) recipe for a
false memory discussed in class. Explain each of the ‘ingredients’ and how they are related.
Don’t just draw a picture! (10 marks)
First, people are given a suggestion about something that
never happened.
THEN, they need to:
* Consider the event to be personally plausible (e.g.,
“things like that can happen to people like me”)
* Form a belief that the event occurred (e.g., “I think
this really did happen to me”)
* Construct a memory – this might be an image(s) or a
narrative (“I can kind of see my mum there with us”)
These three factors interact – each can influence the other
THEN people make a source monitoring error = mistaking the
memory for a genuine experience
This leads to a false memory
Research suggests that people are little more accurate
than chance when detecting deception from body language. Outline the four likely reasons
that this technique is so ineffective.
- People are mistaken about non-verbal cues to deception
When asked about non-verbal cues to deception, people
cite behaviours that are not empirically supported –
e.g., fidgeting (Vrij, 2000)
People misinterpret their OWN behaviour when they lie;
they give stereotypes (Vrij, Semin, & Bull, 1996) - People can be taught the wrong cues to deception
People trained on Inbau’s non-verbal cues to deception
do worse at detecting deception than untrained people
(Kassin & Fong, 1999) - Research gives us mixed messages
e.g., some behaviours increase/decrease with emotion
but do the opposite with cognitive load (e.g., blinking),
making it difficult to work out what ‘should’ happen
when someone is lying. - Inadequate comparisons
What constitutes ‘more’ or ‘less’ of a behaviour? It’s
obvious that we need to compare within the same
person, but when do we take the baseline
measurement?
Inspector Morse lies to his suspect by saying “Your
fingerprint is on the murder weapon.” He later comes out of the interrogation room and brags
to you that the suspect confessed. You tell the Inspector that people will quite often confess to
things they didn’t do, especially when false evidence is presented. Describe a laboratory
experiment discussed in class to support your assertion. (10 marks)
Kassin & Keichel (1996)
During a supposed reaction time task (typing letters that
were read out by a confederate), participants were falsely
accused of hitting the alt key and causing the computer to
crash.
The researchers manipulated:
1. The participants’ perceived vulnerability (by making
the task either fast-paced or slow-paced)
2. The presentation of false eyewitness evidence from
the confederate
The researchers measured:
1. Compliance (signing the confession document)
2. Internalisation (confessing to a third party)
3. Confabulation (adding further details about how the
‘crime’ might have happened)
Many of the participants confessed to hitting the Alt key
Higher perceived vulnerability increased the likelihood of
confession.
Compliance, internalisation, and confabulation rates increased
markedly when false evidence was presented.
Stimulation-Seeking Theory (of crime)
This theory says that offenders’ thrill-seeking and
disruptive behaviour serves to increase sensory input
and arousal to a level that they find more tolerable.
Source Monitoring Error
When we confuse the source of a memory (e.g., “It
happened to me” versus “I just heard about it”)
Evocative Interaction
When someone’s behaviour evokes distinct responses
from others. For example, when a child is aggressive,
the teacher might not spend much one-on-one time with
him and the other children are likely to avoid him.
Heterotypic Continuity
Continuity of an inferred trait or attribute that is
presumed to underlie diverse behaviours. This underlying
disposition changes its manifestation when age and
social circumstances alter opportunities.
Coerced Compliant Confession
False confessions due to coercive (or high pressure)
questioning. The person does not believe that they
committed the crime.
