International Journal for Academic Development, 2018
Characteristics of excellence in undergraduate research (COEUR), edited by Nancy Hensel, Washingt... more Characteristics of excellence in undergraduate research (COEUR), edited by Nancy Hensel, Washington, DC, The Council on Undergraduate Research, 2012, 66 pp., http://www.cur.org/ assets/1/23/COEUR_final.pdf Developing research-based curricula in college-based higher education, by Mick Healey, Alan Jenkins, and John Lea, Heslington, UK, The Higher Education Academy, 2014, 87 pp., https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/system/files/resources/developing_research-based_curricula_ in_cbhe_14.pdf Undergraduate research in Australia, initiated by Angela Brew, n.d., http://www.mq.edu.au/ lih/altc/ug_research/index.htm
Although English-as-a-Second Language (ESL) eyewitnesses interact regularly with police officers ... more Although English-as-a-Second Language (ESL) eyewitnesses interact regularly with police officers in the US and Canada, little research has examined their testimonies. This study sought to assess the testimony accuracy of 17 ESL witnesses, and the contemporaneous notes the officers made during free and cued recall questioning. We assessed accuracy using two methods: A checklist approach (CL) that has been used in past studies (e.g., List, 1986) and an inductive microanalysis of face-to-face dialogue (MFD) approach that was developed for this study. We found that witnesses gave more accurate information in free recall and made more errors in cued recall when both the CL and MFD methods of analysis were used. The same pattern of results held for the officer note data. When we directly compared the MFD and CL data, however, we found that the MFD method captured more information (both accurate and inaccurate witness details), suggesting that it provides richer accuracy data for eyewitnes...
ABSTRACT Offender stereotypes of Canadians and Americans were compared via an inductive, open-end... more ABSTRACT Offender stereotypes of Canadians and Americans were compared via an inductive, open-ended method. Participants (N = 621) were asked to write down the race, gender, and age for eleven types of offenders. There was agreement between the two countries in terms of race (White for eight offender types), gender (male for eight offenders), and age (similar estimation of age for six offenders). However, Americans were more likely to state that the Armed Robber was Black. Participants in both countries indicated that the Drug Trafficker was Black, although a third of Americans also indicated this offender type was Hispanic. The findings are discussed in relation to the demographic makeup of the general and offender populations of each country. When asked to think about the characteristics of criminal offenders, what comes to mind? A stereotype is an inflated belief associated with a particular category used to " justify (rationalize) our conduct in relation to that category " (Allport, 1979, p. 191). Research on offender stereotypes has suggested that people do hold stereotypes of offenders (MacLin & MacLin, 2004) and that these stereotypes can affect one's perceptions of defendants (Yarmey, 1993). Thus, it is important to examine stereotypes because such beliefs can affect legal decision-making (Landy & Aronson, 1969). Some researchers have studied which demographic characteristics are associated with the general offender stereotype. For example, participants in Reed and Reed (1973) perceived the typical criminal as an uneducated male who had psychological issues. Madriz (1997) found that the typical criminal was male and Black and/or Hispanic. Some of her participants also described criminals as immigrants. MacLin and Herrera (2006) asked participants to list the first ten things that came to mind when they heard the word " criminal. " Here, the typical criminal was seen as male. In terms of race, Blacks had the highest ranking (40%), followed by Hispanic (30%), White (20%), and Asian (10%). MacLin and Herrera's (2006) study suggested that the typical criminal was seen as a male, a visible minority, and on average, 25 years old.
Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal, 2012
We examined how alibi strength and a suspect's claim of engaging in salacious alibi activitie... more We examined how alibi strength and a suspect's claim of engaging in salacious alibi activities impact alibi believability. Specifically, we investigated whether an alibi of watching an X-rated movie versus watching a regular movie caused differences in alibi believability, perceived likelihood of guilt, and ratings of various character traits. Undergraduates read a crime description and a mock transcript before completing a questionnaire (adapted from Olson & Wells, 2004). Alibis were rated as more believable when the suspect provided a salacious alibi. Suspects with salacious alibis were rated as more honest, open, and less likely to be guilty.
ABSTRACT Undergraduate mock jurors (N = 360) received a mock police report and trial in which a s... more ABSTRACT Undergraduate mock jurors (N = 360) received a mock police report and trial in which a suspect was accused of rape. The suspect offered one of three alibis: a sexually salacious and illegal alibi, a non-sexually salacious and illegal alibi, and a control condition. The corroborator either helped or observed him in his illegal alibi activities and was either 100 or 80% sure she was with him that night. Alibi salaciousness did not significantly affect alibi believability although it had a significant impact on views of the defendant's and corroborator's characters, corroborator believability, and verdict certainty. The non-sexually salacious alibi generally led to higher ratings on these measures in comparison with the control condition. Corroborator certainty had significant effects on perceptions of the corroborator.
Gestures and their concurrent words are often said to be meaningfully related and co-expressive. ... more Gestures and their concurrent words are often said to be meaningfully related and co-expressive. Research has shown that gestures and words are each particularly suited to conveying different kinds of information. In this paper, we describe and compare three methods for investigating the relationship between gestures and words: (1) an analysis of deictic expressions referring to gestures, (2) an analysis of the redundancy between information presented in words vs. in gestures, and (3) an analysis of the semantic features represented in words and gestures. We also apply each of these three methods to one set of data, in which 22 pairs of participants used words and gestures to design the layout of an apartment. Each of the three analyses revealed a different picture of the complementary relationship between gesture and speech. According to the deictic analysis, participant speakers marked only a quarter of their gestures as providing essential information that was missing from the sp...
One measure of the communicative function of gestures is to test how speakers’ gestures are influ... more One measure of the communicative function of gestures is to test how speakers’ gestures are influenced by whether an addressee can see them or not, that is, by manipulating visibility between participants. We question traditional dependent variables (i.e., rate measures), suggesting that they may have been insufficient for capturing essential differences in the gestures speakers use in each condition. We propose that investigating the qualitative features of gestures is a more nuanced, and ultimately more informative approach. We examined how speakers distributed information between their gestures and words, testing whether this distribution was affected by the visibility of their addressee. Twenty pairs of undergraduates took part in conversations that were either face to face (n = 10) or on the telephone (n = 10). Each speaker described a drawing of an elaborate dress to the addressee. We used a semantic feature analysis to analyze descriptions of the dress’ skirt and assessed whe...
BACKGROUND/STUDY CONTEXT: This study investigated age-related differences in memory for crime inf... more BACKGROUND/STUDY CONTEXT: This study investigated age-related differences in memory for crime information. Older adults have been found to rely more than young adults on schema- and stereotype-based processing in memory, and such age differences may have implications in the criminal justice system. Some prior research has examined schema-based processing among older adults in legal settings, but no studies have tested for schema effects on older adults' memory for specific details of a crime. Older adults (N = 56, ages 65-93) and young adults (N = 52, ages 18-22) read a passage about a criminal suspect's "bad" or "good" childhood, and then read a crime report containing incriminating, exonerating, and neutral details with regard to the suspect. Participants were subsequently tested on recognition of accurate versus altered details from the crime report. Participants also rated the suspect"s guilt, and completed a battery of neuropsychological tests. Correct and false recognition rates were analyzed with ANOVA to compare means across age group, evidence type, and background type, and guilt ratings were analyzed with linear regression using neuropsychological scores as predictors. Among older adults, an interaction was found between evidence type (incriminating/exonerating) and suspect's background (good/bad childhood) in false recognition of altered details from the crime report, supporting the hypothesis that schema-based processing influenced older adult memory from crime information. Additionally, although guilt ratings were not related to the suspect's background for either age group, they were predicted by older adults' short-delay recall (β = -.37), suggesting that cognitive decline may play a role in older adults' interpretations of evidence. The findings suggest reduced cognitive capacity in older adults increases schema-based processing in memory for crime information, and are consistent with research in other domains that has demonstrated greater schema effects in memory with aging. The results may have implications for criminal justice, and open up possibilities for further research on how young and older adults may differ in memory for specific types of crime information.
Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 2014
Knowledge about criminal law is expected in our society. There are many important reasons why acc... more Knowledge about criminal law is expected in our society. There are many important reasons why accurate knowledge should be expected, such as deterring citizens from engaging in illegal conduct and ensuring that people are making sound decisions about supporting or not supporting changes in the criminal justice system. This study surveyed 301 undergraduate students about their knowledge of criminal laws and the associated sentences. Our results indicate that participants were accurate in defining theft and the ages for legal use of substances and in identifying whether specific scenarios describe acts considered sexual offences, but less able to define the blood alcohol level for impaired driving, dangerous driving, sexual interference, or aggravated sexual assault. With regards to sentencing dispositions, participants were not consistently accurate. They also tended to inflate the likelihood of reoffending in general, particularly violent and sexual offending. Prior exposure to the ...
International Journal for Academic Development, 2018
Characteristics of excellence in undergraduate research (COEUR), edited by Nancy Hensel, Washingt... more Characteristics of excellence in undergraduate research (COEUR), edited by Nancy Hensel, Washington, DC, The Council on Undergraduate Research, 2012, 66 pp., http://www.cur.org/ assets/1/23/COEUR_final.pdf Developing research-based curricula in college-based higher education, by Mick Healey, Alan Jenkins, and John Lea, Heslington, UK, The Higher Education Academy, 2014, 87 pp., https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/system/files/resources/developing_research-based_curricula_ in_cbhe_14.pdf Undergraduate research in Australia, initiated by Angela Brew, n.d., http://www.mq.edu.au/ lih/altc/ug_research/index.htm
Although English-as-a-Second Language (ESL) eyewitnesses interact regularly with police officers ... more Although English-as-a-Second Language (ESL) eyewitnesses interact regularly with police officers in the US and Canada, little research has examined their testimonies. This study sought to assess the testimony accuracy of 17 ESL witnesses, and the contemporaneous notes the officers made during free and cued recall questioning. We assessed accuracy using two methods: A checklist approach (CL) that has been used in past studies (e.g., List, 1986) and an inductive microanalysis of face-to-face dialogue (MFD) approach that was developed for this study. We found that witnesses gave more accurate information in free recall and made more errors in cued recall when both the CL and MFD methods of analysis were used. The same pattern of results held for the officer note data. When we directly compared the MFD and CL data, however, we found that the MFD method captured more information (both accurate and inaccurate witness details), suggesting that it provides richer accuracy data for eyewitnes...
ABSTRACT Offender stereotypes of Canadians and Americans were compared via an inductive, open-end... more ABSTRACT Offender stereotypes of Canadians and Americans were compared via an inductive, open-ended method. Participants (N = 621) were asked to write down the race, gender, and age for eleven types of offenders. There was agreement between the two countries in terms of race (White for eight offender types), gender (male for eight offenders), and age (similar estimation of age for six offenders). However, Americans were more likely to state that the Armed Robber was Black. Participants in both countries indicated that the Drug Trafficker was Black, although a third of Americans also indicated this offender type was Hispanic. The findings are discussed in relation to the demographic makeup of the general and offender populations of each country. When asked to think about the characteristics of criminal offenders, what comes to mind? A stereotype is an inflated belief associated with a particular category used to " justify (rationalize) our conduct in relation to that category " (Allport, 1979, p. 191). Research on offender stereotypes has suggested that people do hold stereotypes of offenders (MacLin & MacLin, 2004) and that these stereotypes can affect one's perceptions of defendants (Yarmey, 1993). Thus, it is important to examine stereotypes because such beliefs can affect legal decision-making (Landy & Aronson, 1969). Some researchers have studied which demographic characteristics are associated with the general offender stereotype. For example, participants in Reed and Reed (1973) perceived the typical criminal as an uneducated male who had psychological issues. Madriz (1997) found that the typical criminal was male and Black and/or Hispanic. Some of her participants also described criminals as immigrants. MacLin and Herrera (2006) asked participants to list the first ten things that came to mind when they heard the word " criminal. " Here, the typical criminal was seen as male. In terms of race, Blacks had the highest ranking (40%), followed by Hispanic (30%), White (20%), and Asian (10%). MacLin and Herrera's (2006) study suggested that the typical criminal was seen as a male, a visible minority, and on average, 25 years old.
Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal, 2012
We examined how alibi strength and a suspect's claim of engaging in salacious alibi activitie... more We examined how alibi strength and a suspect's claim of engaging in salacious alibi activities impact alibi believability. Specifically, we investigated whether an alibi of watching an X-rated movie versus watching a regular movie caused differences in alibi believability, perceived likelihood of guilt, and ratings of various character traits. Undergraduates read a crime description and a mock transcript before completing a questionnaire (adapted from Olson & Wells, 2004). Alibis were rated as more believable when the suspect provided a salacious alibi. Suspects with salacious alibis were rated as more honest, open, and less likely to be guilty.
ABSTRACT Undergraduate mock jurors (N = 360) received a mock police report and trial in which a s... more ABSTRACT Undergraduate mock jurors (N = 360) received a mock police report and trial in which a suspect was accused of rape. The suspect offered one of three alibis: a sexually salacious and illegal alibi, a non-sexually salacious and illegal alibi, and a control condition. The corroborator either helped or observed him in his illegal alibi activities and was either 100 or 80% sure she was with him that night. Alibi salaciousness did not significantly affect alibi believability although it had a significant impact on views of the defendant's and corroborator's characters, corroborator believability, and verdict certainty. The non-sexually salacious alibi generally led to higher ratings on these measures in comparison with the control condition. Corroborator certainty had significant effects on perceptions of the corroborator.
Gestures and their concurrent words are often said to be meaningfully related and co-expressive. ... more Gestures and their concurrent words are often said to be meaningfully related and co-expressive. Research has shown that gestures and words are each particularly suited to conveying different kinds of information. In this paper, we describe and compare three methods for investigating the relationship between gestures and words: (1) an analysis of deictic expressions referring to gestures, (2) an analysis of the redundancy between information presented in words vs. in gestures, and (3) an analysis of the semantic features represented in words and gestures. We also apply each of these three methods to one set of data, in which 22 pairs of participants used words and gestures to design the layout of an apartment. Each of the three analyses revealed a different picture of the complementary relationship between gesture and speech. According to the deictic analysis, participant speakers marked only a quarter of their gestures as providing essential information that was missing from the sp...
One measure of the communicative function of gestures is to test how speakers’ gestures are influ... more One measure of the communicative function of gestures is to test how speakers’ gestures are influenced by whether an addressee can see them or not, that is, by manipulating visibility between participants. We question traditional dependent variables (i.e., rate measures), suggesting that they may have been insufficient for capturing essential differences in the gestures speakers use in each condition. We propose that investigating the qualitative features of gestures is a more nuanced, and ultimately more informative approach. We examined how speakers distributed information between their gestures and words, testing whether this distribution was affected by the visibility of their addressee. Twenty pairs of undergraduates took part in conversations that were either face to face (n = 10) or on the telephone (n = 10). Each speaker described a drawing of an elaborate dress to the addressee. We used a semantic feature analysis to analyze descriptions of the dress’ skirt and assessed whe...
BACKGROUND/STUDY CONTEXT: This study investigated age-related differences in memory for crime inf... more BACKGROUND/STUDY CONTEXT: This study investigated age-related differences in memory for crime information. Older adults have been found to rely more than young adults on schema- and stereotype-based processing in memory, and such age differences may have implications in the criminal justice system. Some prior research has examined schema-based processing among older adults in legal settings, but no studies have tested for schema effects on older adults' memory for specific details of a crime. Older adults (N = 56, ages 65-93) and young adults (N = 52, ages 18-22) read a passage about a criminal suspect's "bad" or "good" childhood, and then read a crime report containing incriminating, exonerating, and neutral details with regard to the suspect. Participants were subsequently tested on recognition of accurate versus altered details from the crime report. Participants also rated the suspect"s guilt, and completed a battery of neuropsychological tests. Correct and false recognition rates were analyzed with ANOVA to compare means across age group, evidence type, and background type, and guilt ratings were analyzed with linear regression using neuropsychological scores as predictors. Among older adults, an interaction was found between evidence type (incriminating/exonerating) and suspect's background (good/bad childhood) in false recognition of altered details from the crime report, supporting the hypothesis that schema-based processing influenced older adult memory from crime information. Additionally, although guilt ratings were not related to the suspect's background for either age group, they were predicted by older adults' short-delay recall (β = -.37), suggesting that cognitive decline may play a role in older adults' interpretations of evidence. The findings suggest reduced cognitive capacity in older adults increases schema-based processing in memory for crime information, and are consistent with research in other domains that has demonstrated greater schema effects in memory with aging. The results may have implications for criminal justice, and open up possibilities for further research on how young and older adults may differ in memory for specific types of crime information.
Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 2014
Knowledge about criminal law is expected in our society. There are many important reasons why acc... more Knowledge about criminal law is expected in our society. There are many important reasons why accurate knowledge should be expected, such as deterring citizens from engaging in illegal conduct and ensuring that people are making sound decisions about supporting or not supporting changes in the criminal justice system. This study surveyed 301 undergraduate students about their knowledge of criminal laws and the associated sentences. Our results indicate that participants were accurate in defining theft and the ages for legal use of substances and in identifying whether specific scenarios describe acts considered sexual offences, but less able to define the blood alcohol level for impaired driving, dangerous driving, sexual interference, or aggravated sexual assault. With regards to sentencing dispositions, participants were not consistently accurate. They also tended to inflate the likelihood of reoffending in general, particularly violent and sexual offending. Prior exposure to the ...
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Papers by Meredith Allison