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DeFranco Thesis.pdf (542.83 KB)

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Determinants of Juror Belief in Witness Testimony: The Role of Witness Uncertainty and Certainty

DeFranco, Rachel M
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1460552577

Abstract Details

2016, MA, Kent State University, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Psychological Sciences.
Much research has been devoted to understanding how the confidence of an eyewitness influences jurors’ global assessments of the witness’s credibility. However, even credible witnesses are likely to report well-remembered aspects of an event with certainty, and less well-remembered aspects of the same event with uncertainty. The current study assessed whether participants would believe all testimony provided by a given witness to the same extent, or whether they would instead selectively disbelieve those aspects of a witness’s testimony that were delivered with uncertainty, while accepting as valid those pieces of testimony that were delivered with certainty. When belief in witness testimony was assessed at short retention intervals, participant-jurors selectively disbelieved uncertain pieces of witness testimony, and their belief ratings were well calibrated with the amount of uncertainty expressed (Experiment 1). However, after a delay of one week, participant-jurors evidenced inflated belief in uncertain testimony, and no sensitivity to the amount of uncertainty expressed (Experiment 2). Finally, delaying participant-jurors’ belief ratings affected ratings of uncertain and certain testimony differently: Whereas belief in uncertain testimony increased over a one-week retention interval, belief in certain testimony remained nearly identical over the same interval (Experiment 3), thus showing that participant-jurors’ memory for witness uncertainty was short-lived.
Maria Zaragoza (Advisor)
William Merriman (Committee Member)
Katherine Rawson (Committee Member)
Beth Wildman (Committee Member)
Cognitive Psychology; Psychology
mock-juror belief in witness testimony; witness uncertainty; eyewitness testimony; confidence; credibility

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • DeFranco, R. M. (2016). Determinants of Juror Belief in Witness Testimony: The Role of Witness Uncertainty and Certainty [Master's thesis, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1460552577

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • DeFranco, Rachel. Determinants of Juror Belief in Witness Testimony: The Role of Witness Uncertainty and Certainty. 2016. Kent State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1460552577.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • DeFranco, Rachel. "Determinants of Juror Belief in Witness Testimony: The Role of Witness Uncertainty and Certainty." Master's thesis, Kent State University, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1460552577

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

kent1460552577
465
© 2016, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Kent State University and OhioLINK.