Question 1

The presence of a weapon during the witnessing of a crime often affects

Accepted Answer

The presence of a weapon can affect attention and recall because it is a salient stimulus that draws attention away from other details of the crime. It can also affect auditory processing because hearing the sounds associated with a weapon can be emotionally arousing and lead to memory distortions. Additionally, the presence of a weapon can interfere with language comprehension because it can increase feelings of fear and anxiety, which can make it difficult to process and remember verbal information. Therefore, all of the above options are valid answers.

Question 2

Which of the following would be considered an estimator variable in the dichotomy of eyewitness identification variables provided by Gary Wells?

Accepted Answer

Estimator variables are those that cannot be controlled by the criminal justice system and include factors like lighting conditions at the time of the crime.

Question 3

Meta-analyses of 53 studies showed that the longer the retention interval,

Accepted Answer

The meta-analyses of 53 studies showed that the longer the retention interval, the more memory loss for previously-seen faces.

Question 4

In one study of soldiers' ability to make eyewitness identifications after being exposed to varying levels of stress in an interrogation, only ______ percent of soldiers who experienced high stress were able to make correct identifications.

Accepted Answer

The answer of In one study of soldiers' ability to...

Question 5

Which of the following would be considered a postdiction variable?

Accepted Answer

Postdiction variables are those that are measured after the event has occurred and do not influence the event itself. The confidence a witness feels is assessed after the identification process, making it a postdiction variable.

Question 6

A researcher had one group of study participants witness a staged crime in which an older perpetrator stole items from a desk.A second group of study participants witness a staged crime in which a younger perpetrator stole the same items from the desk.After witnessing the crime, the witnesses are asked to report what they saw.The value of doing an experiment and controlling what is presented is that the researcher knows exactly what the witnesses saw.This is called

Accepted Answer

The value of presenting a staged crime in an experiment is that the researcher can control what is presented, which leads to ground truth or a clear and definitive understanding of what occurred. Ground truth is important because it minimizes ambiguity and uncertainty in the results.

Question 7

In one of Loftus' studies, a first group of subjects was asked how fast the car was going "when it ran the stop sign" while a second group was asked how fast the car was going "when it turned right." When later asked if they had seen a stop sign

Accepted Answer

The study by Loftus demonstrated the misinformation effect, where the phrasing of a question can influence memory recall. The first group, exposed to the misleading information about a stop sign, had a higher percentage of affirmative responses compared to the second group.

Question 8

System variables are

Accepted Answer

The answer of System variables are
...

Question 9

A robbery occurs at a liquor store.The clerk identifies the defendant in a police lineup.The defendant claims he had been in the store earlier to get change, but had not robbed the store.If the defendant is telling the truth, the clerk's identification would reflect

Accepted Answer

Unconscious transference occurs when a witness mistakenly identifies a familiar individual in a new context, leading to a misidentification. In this scenario, if the defendant is telling the truth about being in the store earlier, the clerk may have unconsciously transferred their memory of seeing the defendant earlier onto the memory of the robbery, leading to a false identification.

Question 10

Bob was attacked by a drunken man with a knife.According to information presented in Chapter 5, it is possible that the presence of this weapon affected Bob's memory of

Accepted Answer

According to Chapter 5, the presence of a weapon, such as a knife, can create a focus of attention on the weapon itself rather than on the perpetrator's face or what they are saying. Therefore, Bob's memory of both the perpetrator's face and what they said could have been affected by the presence of the knife.

Question 11

Mistakes in the identification process typically occur

Accepted Answer

Mistakes in the identification process can occur during the investigation of a crime when witnesses are questioned or when physical evidence is collected, as well as at the moment a crime is committed when witnesses may have a brief glimpse of the perpetrator. Both scenarios present opportunities for errors to occur in the identification process. Mistakes are not limited to certain environmental factors.

Question 12

According to the National Registry on Exonerations, between the years of 1989 and 2012, _______percent of documented exonerations for rapes and robberies involved mistaken eyewitness identifications.

Accepted Answer

Between 1989 and 2012, 80% of documented exonerations for rapes and robberies involved mistaken eyewitness identifications, highlighting the significant role that eyewitness errors play in wrongful convictions.

Question 13

______________are the leading cause of wrongful convictions, particularly in cases of robbery and sexual assaults.

Accepted Answer

Eyewitness errors are the leading cause of wrongful convictions, especially in cases of robbery and sexual assaults, due to the unreliability of human memory and perception.

Question 14

Only ____ states have laws that compensate individuals who were wrongly imprisoned.

Accepted Answer

According to recent research and data, 27 states in the US have laws that provide compensation to individuals who were wrongly imprisoned.

Question 15

Diane was the sole witness to a crime.After witnessing the crime, she talked with her husband and her co-workers about what she saw.According to Chapter 5, these discussions potentially can taint her memory of the crime event for it can

Accepted Answer

Discussing the crime event with others can introduce post-event information that may alter one's memory for the original event. This is known as the misinformation effect, where new information (e.g. from discussions with others) can become incorporated into one's memory, leading to distortions or inaccuracies in recall.

Question 16

During an extremely stressful situation, how is encoding affected?

Accepted Answer

During an extremely stressful situation, encoding is often incomplete because the individual's focus is primarily on survival and not on the details of the event.

Question 17

Sometimes police just look for evidence that implicates a suspect that has been identified by an eyewitness and stop investigating any other leads.This situation is an illustration of

Accepted Answer

This situation is an example of confirmation bias, which is the tendency to search for, interpret, and prioritize information in a way that confirms one's preexisting beliefs or hypotheses. In this case, the police have already identified a suspect based on one eyewitness account and are only looking for evidence that supports that identification, without considering other potential suspects or leads.

Question 18

The Innocence Project has found that mistaken identification accounts for more wrongful convictions than

Accepted Answer

Mistaken identification is the leading cause of wrongful convictions, surpassing false confessions, defective science, and issues with informants.

Question 19

Last night Laura was robbed at gunpoint.When asked to describe the perpetrator, she found that all she could remember was the gun and not the way the perpetrator looked.Which of the best following describes this circumstance?

Accepted Answer

The circumstance described is known as the weapon focus effect, where the presence of a weapon can decrease the ability to remember details about the perpetrator's appearance due to increased focus on the weapon itself.

Question 20

_________________________ is when someone unconsciously selects the information he or she will focus on and process most likely because of having a limited attentional capacity and an inability to process a lot of information at one time.

Accepted Answer

Selective attention is the process of unconsciously selecting information to focus on based on limited attentional capacity. Confirmation bias refers to the tendency to seek out information that confirms one's preexisting beliefs, and repressed memories refer to memories that have been pushed into one's unconscious mind. Neither of these fully capture the concept described in the question.

Quiz 5: Crime Investigation: Witnesses