Mitchell L EisenCalifornia State University, Los Angeles | CSULA · Department of Psychology
Mitchell L Eisen
Ph.D.
About
45
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Introduction
We are currently working on three lines of work in our lab. First, we continue to collaborate with local law enforcement to conduct our ongoing field-simulation experiments, in which uniformed officers act as experimenters to examine witness performance under highly realistic field conditions. This work is related to the Culprit Present-Absent Criteria Discrepancy Project. These experiments are designed to test the efficacy of newly developed procedures to examine eyewitness decision-making in the field (e.g., Administering 6-pack photo arrays on tablets in the field, and testing the effectiveness of the newly developed additional opportunities instruction). These experiments are also designed to compare witness performance under laboratory versus highly realistic field conditions. The
Publications
Publications (45)
This is the latest study we have published using our 'Shift & Stick' Paradigm.
The shift and stick paradigm involves two basic elements:1) Shift: After voicing their initial identification decision, but before documenting the final choice, participants are told, “Take another look, does anyone [else] look familiar?” . This prompt consistently leads...
Objectives: This field-simulation experiment was designed to compare eyewitness performance when conducting showups and lineups under field versus laboratory conditions.
Hypotheses: We expected to replicate the findings from previous field-simulation experiments showing over-confidence in showup identifications made under field but not lab-conditio...
Adults’ claims of decades-old child maltreatment raise questions about how to obtain accurate memories about childhood events. In this study, adults who experienced a documented child maltreatment medical examination when they were 3 to 16 years old (Time 1) were interviewed 2 decades later (Time 2). The adults ( N = 115) were randomly assigned to...
Two experiments were conducted to examine whether misidentifying an innocent suspect with a unique feature (i.e., facial tattoo) would impact witnesses’ recollections of the culprit so that they would mistakenly describe the culprit as having that same feature, when in reality, he did not. In both experiments, participants viewed a video of a simul...
When adults allege childhood victimization, their long-term memory comes under scrutiny. This scrutiny can extend to the adults’ memory of childhood interviews. The concerns raise important theoretical and applied issues regarding memory for long-past discussions of child maltreatment and trauma. In this longitudinal study, 104 adults, who as child...
This study examined the recorded interviews of 132 children between 3 and 16-years of age who were involved in a forensic investigation evaluating allegations of sexual and/or physical abuse. As part of this investigation, two interviews were conducted over a 5-day period. The interviews were analyzed to examine how frequently these children disclo...
A general review of how social media searches can affect eyewitness performance. This general review is appropriate for students, lawyers and law enforcement.
While there is a growing body of research examining the relatively “cold”, cognitive decision-making components of showups, few attempts have been made to capture the “hot” affective components of showups that are thought to exacerbate the suggestiveness of the procedure. In three simulated-field experiments, we partnered with law enforcement to ex...
The present study examined the effects of interviewer support on the memory and suggestibility of children (N = 71), all of whom were involved in child maltreatment investigations. This was accomplished by questioning 3- to 12-year olds (66% African American) about a game played individually with an experimenter at the end of the maltreatment inves...
Recent changes in statutes of limitations for crimes against children permit accusations of decades-old child sexual abuse to be considered in court. These laws challenge scientists to address the accuracy of long-term memory of genital contact. To examine theoretical, clinical, and legal concerns about long-term memory accuracy, children who in th...
Two experiments were conducted to see if asking witnesses to take another look at the lineup after they voiced their identification decisions would alter their choices, and if confirming feedback could then be used to solidify the selections they shifted to. Participants watched a simulated crime and were asked to identify the culprit from a photog...
This experiment was designed to examine the effect of misinformation imparted through co-witness discussions on memory reports and line-up decisions obtained after varied retention intervals. Two-hundred and eighty-nine participants viewed a simulated car-jacking and then heard co-witnesses describe their memory for the event. Confederate accounts...
Children bring their own unique abilities, backgrounds, and circumstances into legal settings. Thus, discussions of children's memory and suggestibility require a nuanced approach to the many factors that can affect their eyewitness reports. The authors contend that children's memory accuracy and inaccuracy in forensic contexts are affected by indi...
Participants (N = 189) witnessed the theft of a computer and were immersed into what they were led to believe was an actual police investigation that culminated in a live showup. After the crime, an officer responded to the scene to take witness statements. Minutes after his arrival, the officer received a radio dispatch that could be heard clearly...
While there is a growing body of research examining the relatively “cold,” cognitive decision-making components of showups, few attempts have been made to capture the “hot” affective components of showups that are thought to exacerbate the suggestiveness of the procedure. In 3 simulated-field experiments, we partnered with law enforcement to examin...
Two experiments were conducted to examine the prejudicial effect of gang evidence on juror verdicts. In each experiment participants viewed a simulated trial where the presence of gang evidence was manipulated. Participants heard pre and post trial jury instructions and were asked to provide verdicts before and after deliberations. Each trial invol...
This study was designed to examine the potential biasing effect of gang evidence on jury verdicts. Two hundred four participants viewed one of two versions of a simulated trial that included opening statements and closing arguments by the prosecution and defense, and direct and cross-examination of the eyewitness and investigating officer. Half of...
Two studies were conducted to examine relations between suggestibility effects studied in two commonly used research paradigms and a group of individual difference factors that have been theoretically linked to eyewitness suggestibility. In Study 1, we examined relations between the immediate acceptance of misinformation as measured by errors on mi...
This study was designed to examine the potential biasing effects of gang association on mock juror verdicts. Three hundred and fifteen undergraduate psychology students watched one of three versions of a simulated trial that included opening and closing arguments by the defense and prosecution, together with direct and cross-examination of the inve...
This study was designed to examine the potential biasing effects of gang association on mock juror verdicts. Three hundred and fifteen undergraduate psychology students watched one of three versions of a simulated trial that included opening and closing arguments by the defense and prosecution, together with direct and cross examination of the inve...
Our goal was to examine children's expressed emotions when they disclose maltreatment. Little scientific research exists on this topic, and yet children's emotional expressions at disclosure may inform psychological theory and play a crucial role in legal determinations.
One hundred and twenty-four videotaped forensic interviews were coded for chil...
Participants were administered a standard tape-recorded version of the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A (HGSHS:A) and then a modified version of the HGSHS:A response booklet that asked each participant to report which suggested behaviors they performed during the procedures. These response booklets were altered to include 3 ad...
This study was designed to examine patterns of family functioning among college students who are offspring of addicted parents. 218 undergraduate psychology students were administered a series of measures assessing family functioning, dissociation, parental addiction, and a history of child abuse. As predicted, offspring of addicted parents reporte...
Memory, suggestibility, stress arousal, and trauma-related psychopathology were examined in 328 3- to 16-year-olds involved in forensic investigations of abuse and neglect. Children's memory and suggestibility were assessed for a medical examination and venipuncture. Being older and scoring higher in cognitive functioning were related to fewer inac...
The present study was designed to assess children's memory and suggestibility in the context of ongoing child maltreatment investigations. One hundred eighty-nine 3-17-year-olds involved in evaluations of alleged maltreatment were interviewed with specific and misleading questions about an anogenital examination and clinical assessment. For the ano...
The goal of the present study was to investigate the consistency of children's reports of sexual and physical abuse.
A group of 222 children, ages 3-16 years, participated. As part of legal investigations, the children were interviewed twice about their alleged experiences of abuse. The consistency of children's reports of sexual and physical abuse...
The purpose of this study was to investigate relations between acquiescence, dissociation, and resistance to misleading information. A total of 111 participants took part in a series of staged events and then completed both the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES) and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2). The participants return...
The present article reviews research and theory related to dissociation, memory, and suggestibility in adults and children. We examine various manifestations of dissociation (e.g. trait versus state accounts of dissociation, pathological versus non-pathological dissociation), the different ways that memory and suggestibility are defined and measure...
This study examined how individual differences in dissociation, absorption and a history of abuse are related to memory and suggestibility for the details of a personally experienced, known event. One hundred and thirty college students took part in a staged event and completed the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES), the Tellegen Absorption Scale...
In this review we examine factors hypothesized to affect children's memory for traumatic events. Theoretical ideas on the processing and remembering of trauma are presented and critiqued. We review research on how psychopathology may generally influence and dissociation and posttraumatic stress disorder may specifically influence children's memory...
This book (see record 1996-97605-000 ) represents a new and interesting addition to the burgeoning literature on developmental psychopathology. Most all of the contributions to this volume will be of interest to those readers who are intimately familiar with the current work on this topic as well as to those nonspecialists who are intrigued with th...
This study investigated the relationship between resistance to misleading information and performance on the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility (HGSHS:A), and examined the impact of obtrusive observation on subjects' hypnotic responsivity, memory, and resistance to misleading information. Eighty-five college students were administered t...
The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate a brief, self-report measure of the degree of perceived change resulting
from cardiac illness. Life change has been widely recognized as stressful, but it is usually assessed with generic checklists
of events which have been found wanting in terms of reliability and validity. The proposed measur...
This study investigates the creative abilities of children with learning disabilities by employing a new measure designed to assess creativity without the use of verbal or analytic skills. Sixteen normally performing and 16 children with learning disabilities were administered this task and a control task of verbal fluency. The children with learni...
In this chapter, we review relevant studies on memory and suggestibility in children, including the developmental literature on effects of stress and trauma on memory. We also focus on the possible role of individual differences in children's memory performance. This review is followed by a discussion of the importance of ecological validity in stu...
Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Miami, 1993. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 86-98).
Projects
Projects (3)
The field-simulation paradigm combines the ecological validity of field experiments with the experimental control of lab studies. Like field experiments, the police are the experimenters, and witnesses are led to believe that their identifications will lead to the arrest of the suspect. However, like lab studies, the investigators maintain experimental control over all aspects of witnessing experience and identification procedures. This paradigm allows for the direct comparison between witness performance under field versus lab-conditions.
The shift and stick paradigm is designed to examine administrator influence on witnesses making identifications from photographic lineups. This paradigm involves two basic elements:1) Shift: After voicing their initial identification decision, but before documenting the final choice, participants are told, “Take another look, does anyone [else] look familiar?” . This prompt consistently leads a large majority of participant/witnesses to shift their identification decisions and selected a different picture. 2) Stick: After shifting, witnesses are given confirming feedback to reinforce the shifted selection, and after some delay they are administered the same lineup again. When given a second chance to identify the culprit, most of those witnesses who shifted to another picture and then had that altered decision reinforced with confirming feedback go on to select the same picture they had shifted to.
In these experiments we are examining the possibility that witnesses who encounter culprit-absent identification procedures require less evidence for an affirmative identification than do witnesses who encounter culprit-present identification procedures.
