The use of XR technology in criminological research:a scoping review

Objectives: Criminology has begun to use virtual reality (VR) as a tool to understand criminal behaviour. There have been many advances in VR that open up the possibility of novel research designs, in addition to the inclusion of augmented reality (AR) as a potential research tool. A review of the efficacy of the use of AR and VR (together known as XR) within criminology is now required to guide the further development of this field. Methods: We employed a scoping review, which after screening, incorporated 41 papers for review. Results: We uncovered three important characteristics for the papers: research topics for which XR is employed, the prominence of VR research over AR and XR and methodological rigour. VR is mostly employed for creating scenarios, in particular in research on memory and aggression. Studies vary greatly in their use of interaction within VR scenes, description of technical specifications and sample sizes. Conclusions: Despite the identification of some methodological limitations in the existing literature, VR has found its place in criminological research. With technological advancement, AR may also find its place in the future, allowing for the ongoing development of research applications. Creating comprehensive guidelines on how to use XR technology in criminology remains necessary.</p

Examining witness interviewing environments

The literature on information elicitation in psycholegal settings has predominantly focused on the investigator–interviewee dynamic, with little attention to the environment in which the interview takes place. The present study compared the impact of two interview locations on the disclosure of crime‐related information and perceptions of rapport building. Participants experienced a virtual reality mock crime, and 1 week later were interviewed at either their homes, or a formal room akin to a real‐world police interview room. Participants in the home setting reported feeling more at ease and in control compared to participants interviewed in the formal room. However, we found no differences between conditions on the quantity and quality of information disclosure and participants' perceptions of rapport building. Based on our findings, we found no advantages or disadvantages for conducting witness interviews at their homes. However, these results underscore the practicality of interviewing witnesses outside the police interview room if deemed as more convenien

Introduction to Psychology Study Guide

This study guide is designed to accompany the Introduction to Psychology – 1st Canadian Edition open text by Jennifer Walinga and Charles Stangor. For each chapter it summarizes the learning objectives and presents multiple-choice, true-false and fill-in-the-blank test of the material covered. It provides links to resources to enable students to deepen their understanding of key topics and to explore related issues. Finally, it offers suggestions for hands-on activities relevant to each chapter.This PDF is a representation of the book as it was on January 1, 2019. The online version may have been updated. For the most recent version, please visit the book url

‘The intoxicated co-witness: How alcohol and discussion affect eyewitness memory reports.

Intoxicated witnesses are routinely encountered by law enforcement officers (Evans, Schreiber Compo & Russano, 2009). Such witnesses may have discussed details of the crime with each other prior to having their statement taken (Skagerberg & Wright, 2008). In order to understand the consequences of co-witness discussion on intoxicated witnesses, three studies were conducted investigating the effect of intoxication on misinformation when (a) the source of misinformation is a written statement from a seemingly intoxicated source in an online study; (b) when two intoxicated dyad partners engage in a face to face discussion in a laboratory based, alcohol administration study; and (c) when an intoxicated person encounters post event information from a sober video witness in the field. The results suggest that intoxication does not influence the tendency to report misinformation. This is consistent when the source of misinformation is perceived to be intoxicated and the recipient is sober, both co-witnesses are intoxicated, or the recipient of misinformation is intoxicated whilst the source is sober. Intoxication also does not influence source monitoring ability. That is, both sober and intoxicated participants are equally able to identify the source of their memory recall. The results also add to the current literature on the effect of intoxication on eyewitness memory at an individual level. They demonstrate that at moderate doses, whilst accuracy is not impaired, intoxication may reduce the completeness of recall and the confidence a witness has in their memory. At higher doses however, in addition to the detrimental effects of alcohol on confidence and completeness, accuracy is also impaired. The findings have implications for the criminal justice system given that intoxicated witnesses usually complete their evidential interview at a later date when sober (Crossland, Kneller & Wilcock, 2018). Witnesses who were intoxicated at the time of the crime and who engaged in co-witness discussion are no more prone than their sober counterparts to report co-witness information and are equally able to identify the source of the information that they report. Additionally, an intoxicated witness may report fewer details, and the accuracy of their statement may be influenced by their degree of intoxication. As such, breathalysing witnesses at the scene of the crime should be encouraged in order to understand the likely effect intoxication will have on their testimony

Interpersonal deceit and lie-detection using computer-mediated communication

This thesis examines the use of computer-mediated communication for lie-detection and interpersonal deceit. The literature within the fields of lie-detection and mediated communication are reviewed and it is proposed that there is a lack of knowledge surrounding how people use CMC to deceive one another. Qualitative research was carried out in order to address this shortcoming, exploring the self-reported experiences of chat room users who have been exposed to online deceit. Reports were provided that describe the misrepresentation of age, gender, vocation, affection, and appearance. The importance of stereotypes in driving suspicions is also emphasised within the reports. It is suggested that this key characteristic has more dominance in CMC than it would do face-to-face because of the occlusion of the traditional nonstrategic clues to deceit. Evidence for an alternative set of nonstrategic leakage clues was examined further by conducting a variant of the Guilty-Knowledge test within the context of a CMC based crime. It was found that participants exhibited a response time inhibition effect when presented with 'guilty knowledge' and that this effect was detectable through a standard two-button mouse. The use of such nonstrategic cues to deceit was explored further in a study that examined how CMC might be used to add additional control to a Statement Validity Assessment truth-validation test. It was found that the content analysis technique used by SVA was unable in its present form to correctly distinguish between truthful and fabricated statements of participants interviewed using a CMC chat program. In addition, it was found that the deletion-behaviours of participants fabricating a story within CMC provided no quantitative or qualitative evidence that they were lying

Attention Restraint, Working Memory Capacity, and Mind Wandering: Do Emotional Valence or Intentionality Matter?

Attention restraint appears to mediate the relationship between working memory capacity (WMC) and mind wandering (Kane et al., 2016). Prior work has identifed two dimensions of mind wandering—emotional valence and intentionality. However, less is known about how WMC and attention restraint correlate with these dimensions. Te current study examined the relationship between WMC, attention restraint, and mind wandering by emotional valence and intentionality. A confrmatory factor analysis demonstrated that WMC and attention restraint were strongly correlated, but only attention restraint was related to overall mind wandering, consistent with prior fndings. However, when examining the emotional valence of mind wandering, attention restraint and WMC were related to negatively and positively valenced, but not neutral, mind wandering. Attention restraint was also related to intentional but not unintentional mind wandering. Tese results suggest that WMC and attention restraint predict some, but not all, types of mind wandering

Detecting Deception Through Non-Verbal Behaviour

The security protocols used in airport security checkpoints primarily aim to detect prohibited items, as well as the detection of malicious intent and associated deception to thwart any threats. However, some of the security protocols that are used are not substantiated by scientifically validated cues of deception. Instead, some protocols, such as the Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques (SPOT) program, have been developed based on anecdotal evidence and invalid cues of deception. As such, the use of these protocols has received a lot of criticism in recent years from government agencies, civil rights organisations and academia. These security protocols rely on security personnel’s ability to infer intent from non-verbal behaviour, yet the literature suggests that the relationship between non-verbal cues and deception is unreliable and that people are poor at detecting deception. To improve upon our understanding of the validity of these protocols, this thesis used virtual reality to replicate a security checkpoint to explore whether there were valid cues of deception, specifically in an airport context. People’s ability to identify whether others were behaving deceptively was assessed, as well as the factors that may be informing decision-making. Chapter Four of this thesis found that the non-verbal cues of interest, which were segment displacement, centre of mass displacement, cadence, step length and speed were not significantly different between honest and deceptive people. A verbal measure, response latency, was found to only distinguish between honest people and those who were deceptive about a future intention, but not those who were deceptive about having a prohibited item. In light of the use of non-verbal measures in practice despite the lack of scientific support, Chapters Five to Seven aimed to gain a greater insight into people’s deception detection capabilities. The findings from Chapters Five to Seven reflected that the ability to detect deception from non-verbal behaviour was no better than guessing. Specifically, Chapter Five found that the accuracy of detecting deception was no different from chance levels. Six themes emerged as the factors that were used to inform decision-making. The themes were physical appearance, disposition, walking behaviour, body positioning, looking behaviour and upper limb movement, though a qualitative analysis revealed that there were subjective interpretations of how the themes mapped onto deception. Chapter Six introduced two techniques of information reduction to assess whether accuracy could be improved above chance levels by lessening the impact of biasing factors. Neither technique resulted in accuracy above chance levels. In Chapter Seven, eye tracking was utilised to assess the gaze patterns associated with the detection of deception. People looked at the legs more than other areas of the body prior to decision-making, though only looking at the left arm and hand were linked with accuracy. Detection accuracy was poor overall, though looking at the left arm was linked with reduced accuracy, whilst looking at the left hand was linked with increased accuracy. Overall, this thesis showed that the non-verbal cues that were assessed could not distinguish between honest and deceptive people. In the absence of valid cues, observers were not able to identify deception at a rate above chance even with the reduction of potentially biasing factors. The results of this thesis reinforce the idea that incorporating nonverbal measures into threat/deception detection protocols may not be warranted because of the dubious nature of their reliability and validity, as well as the poor deception identification capabilities when relying on non-verbal behaviour