Biopsychosocial Perspectives on Memory Variability in Eyewitnesses

Investigating gender differences in the factor structure of the Gudjonsson Compliance Scale

“…The figure reported by the Royal Commission though does not take into account detainees within the general population who are without intellectual disability or clinical disorder but could nonetheless still find it difficult to cope with the pressure of questioning due to inherent psychological characteristics, such as high levels of trait anxiety and stress sensitivity (Belsky & Pluess, 2009;Drake, 2014;Drake, Gudjonsson, Sigfusdottir & Sigurdsson, 2015). Witnesses also reside within the general population (Herv e, Cooper & Yuille, 2013). Data from a general population sample are therefore still useful for informing forensic thinking and might ultimately help to inform strategies implementable by police to manage vulnerable interviewees and obtain more accurate information.…”

An investigation into the relationship between the reported experience of negative life events, trait stress-sensitivity and false confessions among further education students in Iceland

“…This latent construct may thus reflect: (i) a physiological component, governing levels of nerves, fear and tension experienced within individuals, and (ii) a correlated, cognitive-interpretative component, responsible for the extent to which situations/events are negatively/harmfully perceived (Critchley, 2005;Hervé et al, 2013). SEM1 also shows that latent stress-sensitivity significantly and directly predicts the likelihood of false confessions being reported.…”

“…Despite these potential issues though, the large sample size allows a degree of confidence that reported false confessions, made for a range of reasons, appear to be a direct consequence of both the suspect's physiological response to events and situations (that is, to what extent participants report fear, tension and nervousness in response to police questioning, including the interviewer behaviour towards the interviewee, and/or the wider environment within which they reside), and the extent to which environmental influences are negatively interpreted (Critchley, 2005;Hervé et al, 2013). The motivation behind the false confession may simply depend upon which environmental influence has affected the suspect/detainee the most at the time the confession is made (Flouri et al, 2010;Gudjonsson et al, 2014) (see Fig.…”

“…Negative life event scores, to an extent, may reflect this cognitive-interpretative aspect of the processing of situations. In order to rate an event as negative, there first has to be a negative interpretation of that event (see Hervé, Cooper, & Yuille, 2013 for a review of the literature). It could instead be the case that the reporting of negative life events and scores on the levels of nerves, fearfulness and tension reportedly experienced indicate a common latent (stress-sensitivity) factor, which exerts a direct effect on the likelihood of false confessions emerging (see Gudjonsson et al, 2012Gudjonsson et al, , 2014.…”

Doing Fieldwork on Sensitive Topics: Navigating Memories of Intergroup Violence Committed by Ingroups in Contemporary Poland

“…This is because eyewitnesses may experience negative emotional states and severe stress due to the mere act of referring to traumatic images which are inscribed in the autobiographic memory related to such events as murder, rape or genocide (e.g. an image of harm being done to the "Others" or of mutilated bodies of the victims) (see Hervé et al 2013). Sometimes, as in the case of some respondents from Pawłokoma, the question about intergroup violence committed by ingroups evoked other sensitive topics from the past, such as harm done to the respondent's family by members of another ethnic group.…”