PSY 3173 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Closed-Circuit Television, Recognition Memory, Cognitive Interview
6 Jun 2018
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Department
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Class 6-- Memory
● Hypnosis is used very rarely
● Survey done on 10 forensic experts, and all of them felt that hypnosis helped witnesses recall
more
● Research does show that people tend to remember more details about a crime when they're under
hypnosis compared to when they're not
● About 10% of the population can’t be hypnotised
● Everyone else can be to some degree
● About 5-10% that's highly suggestible -- way too easily hypnotised
● Ability to be hypnotised tends to peak in late childhood (10-12)
● After that, it drops a bit, but there's still 5-10% of population that stays super easy to hypnotised
● Your ability to be hypnotised is affected by how much you trust the person doing the hypnosis,
since you're basically under their control
● If you believe in hypnosis, it's easier to hypnotise you
● If you're the only witness or victim, you may have more motivation to want to be hypnotised, and
it means your recall of what happened is all the more important
● Not clear if the information is actually good
● In the state of hypnosis, it can help confound reality and fiction -- the person who
hypnotised you might use leading questions
● They don't do it on purpose under hypnosis
● They're very confident what they're saying is true
Hypnosis: they recall more but the information might be wrong, difficult to distinguish what information
is true or not; witnesses under hypnosis are as confident of the information
● The courts don’t allow information obtained only through hypnosis as evidence
Cognitive interview
● Hypnosis had a lot of limitation so needed to find a way to access memory that can be used in
court
● Based on how memories works
● Made to be used on voluntary participants (not suspects)
● Try to get them to recreate in their mind the situation (“picture the room in your mind, the
weather, if there are people around you, think about what you were feeling at the time and your
reaction at the time”)
● Ask to report anything they might remember (free recall) without being interrupted
● Ask them to try and reverse the order of the event or to begin with what impressed them the most
during the event and to go from this specific event forwards and backwards
● 4rth one criticised a bit cause of possible suggestion: recall event from a different perception (ex.
How the person 10 feet away may have seen)
○ Research shows it doesn’t actually affect the participants even though it's been criticised
Document Summary
Survey done on 10 forensic experts, and all of them felt that hypnosis helped witnesses recall more. Research does show that people tend to remember more details about a crime when they"re under hypnosis compared to when they"re not. About 10% of the population can"t be hypnotised. Everyone else can be to some degree. About 5-10% that"s highly suggestible -- way too easily hypnotised. Ability to be hypnotised tends to peak in late childhood (10-12) After that, it drops a bit, but there"s still 5-10% of population that stays super easy to hypnotised. Your ability to be hypnotised is affected by how much you trust the person doing the hypnosis, since you"re basically under their control. If you believe in hypnosis, it"s easier to hypnotise you. If you"re the only witness or victim, you may have more motivation to want to be hypnotised, and it means your recall of what happened is all the more important.
