Christopher J. Lively

St. Francis Xavier University · Department of Psychology

We examined the extent to which presenting youth interrogation rights using different combinations of three multimedia elements (Animation, Audio, and Caption) improved comprehension. A 2 (Animation: Present, Absent) × 2 (Audio: Present, Absent) × 2 (Caption: Present, Absent) between-participants design was employed using samples of adults (Experim...

Judges are the gatekeepers of evidence in the justice system. Granted that witness testimony is pivotal to the truth-seeking function of the criminal justice system, and that judges sometimes intervene and ask questions in the courtroom to help ensure the testimony is accurate, little is known about judges’ questioning practices. In the current stu...

Listening to music aids regulation of emotional arousal and valence (positive versus negative). Anxiety sensitivity (AS; fear of arousal-related sensations) increases risk for emotion dysregulation and associated coping behaviors like substance use and exercise avoidance. The relationship between AS and music listening, however, has received very l...

The effect of the suspect-corroborator relationship and number of corroborators on alibi assessments was examined across two experiments. In both experiments, we explored the effect of relationship type and number of corroborators on believability, likelihood of guilt, and decision to retain the suspect as the primary suspect; we increased the soci...

The questioning practices of Canadian lawyers were examined. Courtroom examinations (N = 91) were coded for the type of utterance, the assumed purpose of the utterance, and the length of utterance. Results showed that approximately one-fifth of all utterances were classified as productive for gathering reliable information (i.e. open-ended, probing...

Questioning practices of judges were analyzed. Most frequently asked questions to witnesses were clarification and closed yes/no. Per curium (vs. direct and cross) examinations contained significantly more closed yes/no questions, and significantly more multiple questions (vs. direct). Open-ended questions generated the longest responses from witne...

The relative impact of five alibi components on the assessment of alibi veracity was investigated using a policy-capturing methodology. Participants (N = 115) were instructed to assume the role of a homicide investigator and evaluate 32 alibis that varied on five dichotomous variables: Salaciousness; Legality; Change in Details; Superfluous Details...