(Un)ethical consequences: How psychology's cold war defense of military personnel led to enhanced interrogation techniques in the war on terror.

Cold War interrogation scholarship generated a research literature that included many prominent 20th century psychologists. The return of Korean War prisoners, many of whom had confessed falsely or otherwise collaborated with the enemy during confinement, amplified the intense anti-Communist fears of the Cold War. These events prompted substantial military and other government responses.

The prevalence of false confessions in experimental laboratory simulations: A meta-analysis.

We assessed experimental false confession studies using a meta-analysis to evaluate the prevalence of false confessions across methodologies and several moderator variables. False confessions were more likely in typing task studies than in collaborative or individual cheating studies. In typing studies, speed of typing did not affect false confession rates, but placement of the forbidden key in locations that rendered errors less plausible lowered the false confession rates.

Jurors' use of standards of proof in decisions about punitive damages.

Standards of proof define the degree to which jurors must be satisfied that a fact is true, and plaintiffs in civil lawsuits assume the burden of proving their claims to the requisite standard of proof. Three standards-preponderance of evidence, clear and convincing evidence, and beyond a reasonable doubt-are used by different jurisdictions in trials involving liability for punitive damages. We investigated whether individual mock jurors apply these standards appropriately by instructing them to read two personal injury trial summaries and to use one of three standards in either qualitative or quantitative format when deciding punitive liability.

False-evidence ploys and interrogations: mock jurors' perceptions of false-evidence ploy type, deception, coercion, and justification.

We studied mock jurors' evaluations of police false-evidence ploys across two false-evidence ploy information conditions (true or false confession). Study 1 participants evaluated lists of demeanor, testimonial, and scientific ploys and rated testimonial false-evidence ploys as more coercive than demeanor false-evidence ploys. Participants in the false-confession condition rated false-evidence ploys as more deceptive than did participants in the true-confession condition.

Juveniles tried as adults: the age of the juvenile matters.

Serious juvenile crimes require evaluation of a child as a criminal defendant in adult court. In such cases, it is crucial to understand jurors' attitudes, biases, and ability to follow legal instructions and maintain fairness. 308 undergraduate psychology students served as mock jurors, were randomly separated into four groups, and each group read the same realistic summary of a trial with the defendant's age presented as 13, 15, 17, or 21 years.

Effects of false-evidence ploys and expert testimony on jurors' verdicts, recommended sentences, and perceptions of confession evidence.

During interrogations, police may use false-evidence ploys or fabricated claims to convince suspects to confess. Mock jurors read trial materials containing interrogation transcripts with or without a false-evidence ploy and one of two expert witness conditions (present or absent). We examined jurors' verdicts, recommended sentences, and perceptions of the interrogation.

The influence of liability information, severity of injury, and attitudes toward vengeance on damage awards.

This jury simulation study explored the effects of liability-related descriptive information, severity of injury, and attitudes toward vengeance on damage awards. 311 individual mock jurors read a trial summary describing a plaintiff injured in a motor vehicle accident. Half of the participants read liability-related descriptive information, theoretically unrelated to judgments concerning damages, and the other half did not.

General pretrial publicity in sexual assault trials.

An experiment was designed to explore effects of general pretrial publicity in sexual assault trials. Four pretrial publicity conditions (no publicity, neutral news media, prodefendant, and antidefendant) in the form of simulated newspaper articles were presented to 356 participants. Participants subsequently read a mock rape trial summary and reported verdicts.

Historical literacy of advanced undergraduate psychology students: pedagogical implications for courses in the history of psychology.

139 junior and senior students enrolled in courses in the history of psychology at two universities were tested on the first day of class to assess general historical literacy, literacy in the history of psychology, and recognition of 51 important figures in the history of psychology. Serious deficiencies in their historical knowledge present important pedagogical implications for the teaching of the history of the discipline.