Bridging the Gap in Common Ground When Talking about Voices

Despite the negative impact of voice-hearing often being bound up in what is said, there has been a distinct lack of attention paid to exploring the linguistic content of voices and/or the language voice-hearers use to describe their experiences. In this chapter, I will take a close look at how voice-hearers in the Voices in Psychosis (VIP) transcripts use language non-literally in order to convey their complex experiences, and what that might tell us about the nature of voice-hearing experiences, as well as about the function of different forms of figurative language. The topic of figurative language is a vast area of debate and theorizing, with many different accounts of what is involved. For my purposes here, it suffices to say that figurative language is a way of talking about something (the primary subject/topic or tenor) by using words or phrases that do not typically, conventionally, or literally refer to that thing (the secondary subject or vehicle). Although they are often treated as synonyms, I take ‘figurative language’ to be a slightly narrower category than ‘non-literal language’. In other words, all instances of figurative language are instances of non-literal language, but not vice versa. Metaphors and similes are both instances of figurative language, and hence also of non-literal language. However, hyperbole (exaggeration) and approximation are non-literal, but they are not fully figurative in my sense (they could be described as ‘loose use’, or ‘less than literal’). An understanding of figurative language requires a more complicated and lateral inference than simply understanding that someone is overstating for effect (hyperbole) or drawing a close approximation. That is, in part, why figurative language is so widely used in literature: it is a more adventurous use of language. It is more open to communicative failure, or to being interpreted differently by different people, but the pay-off can be great, with metaphors having the potential to yield rich and open-ended interpretations

For the Record: Questioning transcription processes in legal contexts

Written records of spoken interaction are typically assumed to be adequate for the purpose they serve, often receiving minimal scrutiny from the institutions which consume them. In this article, we scrutinize the current practices of capturing spoken interaction in legal contexts in England and Wales, and highlight some of the often serious legal consequences that result. We ask five questions of record keeping in legal settings: (i) Is the record produced an accurate representation of the spoken interaction?; (ii) Do lay and professional participants have ownership? Answered by giving careful thought to the rights they may or may not have to their data; (iii) Who has agency, who’s ‘voice’ is represented in the recorded account?; (iv) Then, we ask how usable the record is; and (v) How resource efficient it is to produce and use. By asking these questions, we make visible the underlying assumptions about transcription adequacy—in doing so, we acknowledge and enable reflection on the process of capturing spoken interaction. We envisage this model to be applicable to a range of institutional settings

Perceptual instability in police interview records: Examining the effect of pauses and modality on people’s perceptions of an interviewee

This article examines whether the representation of linguistic features within transcripts and audio recordings of police interviews can influence people’s perceptions of the interviewee. We specifically examine the influence of the representation of pauses through an experimental methodology. Participants were presented with a police interview either in audio format or in one of a series of transcript formats and asked to make a series of judgements about the interviewee. We manipulated both the presence and representation of pauses within the audio and transcript stimuli to assess how this would influence perceptions. Results showed differences between perceptions of the interviewee in the audio and transcript conditions, and that different representations of pauses within transcripts created perceptual instability between participants. The findings illustrate that the presence and representation of linguistic features in transcripts can affect perceptual judgements. We argue this should be explicitly considered by those using transcripts within the legal system

For the Record: Exploring variability in interpretations of police investigative interviews

Recent research (Haworth 2018) has demonstrated how investigativeinterview data are (unintentionally) distorted as they pass through the criminaljustice system, and the survey-based experiment we present here was designedto test our hypothesis that various aspects of the processing of police-suspectinterview data may have an impact on the quality of the official evidentialdocument produced. The quantitative and qualitative findings from thisexperiment shed light on, and provide a sound evidence base for this claim, ratherthan leaving it as an untested assumption. The experiment was designed totest each key aspect of the current process of the production of routine writtentranscripts of investigative interviews (ROTIs), focusing on the conversion fromspoken to written format, and the use of different transcription conventions, andit has enabled us to investigate which changes make the most difference in termsof the evidential quality of the end product, in order to effect a change in practicewhich will reduce or eliminate the effect of those changes. Our findings suggestthat when presented with a transcript of a police interview, we are significantlymore likely to (1) perceive the interviewee as anxious and unrelaxed, (2) interpretthe interviewee’s behaviour as being agitated, aggressive, defensive, and nervous,(3) determine that the interviewee is un-calm and uncooperative, and (4) deemthe interviewee’s version of events to be untrue, than we are if we listen to theoriginal audio recording. Moreover, subjects identified (a) consistency, (b) phraseand lexical choice, (c) emotion (crying/upset), (d) hesitation and/or pauses assignificant factors influencing participants’ perception and interpretation of theinterviewee and their story. This is particularly concerning as the latter twofeatures are not currently routinely included in police transcripts, and Haworth(2018) illustrates multiple ways in which transcripts might differ from the originalaudio recordings they are intended to replace, with respect to words and phrases,as well as general content. The findings presented in this paper provide a strongmotivation for further research into how we capture spoken interaction in legalcontexts, and they constitute something of a mandate for reform with respect tothe transcription of police interviews in the UK

The Ice in Voices:Understanding negative content in auditory-verbal hallucinations

Negative voice-content is the best sole predictor of whether the hearer of an auditory-verbal hallucination will experience distress/impairment necessitating contact with mental health services. Yet, what causes negative voice-content and how interventions may reduce it remains poorly understood. This paper offers definitions of negative voice content and considers what may cause negative voice-content. We propose a framework in which adverse life-events may underpin much negative voice-content, a relation which may be mediated by me- chanisms including hypervigilance, reduced social rank, shame and self-blame, dissociation, and altered emo- tional processing. At a neurological level, we note how the involvement of the amygdala and right Broca's area could drive negative voice-content. We observe that negative interactions between hearers and their voices may further drive negative voice-content. Finally, we consider the role of culture in shaping negative voice-content. This framework is intended to deepen and extend cognitive models of voice-hearing and spur further devel- opment of psychological interventions for those distressed by such voices. We note that much of the relevant research in this area remains to be performed or replicated. We conclude that more attention needs to be paid to methods for reducing negative voice-content, and urge further research in this important area

'For the Record': applying linguistics to improve evidential consistency in police investigative interview records

The ‘For the Record’ project (FTR) is a collaboration between a team of linguistic researchers and police in the England & Wales jurisdiction (E&W). The aim of the project is to apply insights from linguistics to improve evidential consistency in police interview transcripts, which are routinely produced by transcribers employed by the police. The research described in this short report is intended as a pilot study, before extension nationally. For this part of the project, we analysed several types of data, including interview audio and transcripts provided by one force. This identified key areas where current transcription practice could be improved and enhanced, and a series of recommendations were made to that force. This pilot study indicates that there are three core components of quality transcription production in this context: Consistency, Accuracy, and Neutrality. We propose that the most effective way to address the issues identified is through developing new training and guidance for police interview transcribers

The language profile of formal thought disorder

Formal thought disorder (FTD) is clinically manifested as disorganized speech, but there have been only few investigations of its linguistic properties. We examined how disturbance of thought may relate to the referential function of language as expressed in the use of noun phrases (NPs) and the complexity of sentence structures. We used a comic strip description task to elicit language samples from 30 participants with schizophrenia (SZ), 15 with moderate or severe FTD (SZ + FTD), and 15 minimal or no FTD (SZ−FTD), as well as 15 first-degree relatives of people with SZ (FDRs) and 15 neurotypical controls (NC). We predicted that anomalies in the normal referential use of NPs, sub-divided into definite and indefinite NPs, would identify FTD; and also that FTD would also be linked to reduced linguistic complexity as specifically measured by the number of embedded clauses and of grammatical dependents. Participants with SZ + FTD produced more referential anomalies than NC and produced the fewest definite NPs, while FDRs produced the most and thus also differed from NC. When referential anomalies were classed according to the NP type in which they occurred, the SZ + FTD group produced more anomalies in definite NPs than NC. Syntactic errors did not distinguish groups, but the SZ + FTD group exhibited significantly less syntactic complexity than non-SZ groups. Exploratory regression analyses suggested that production of definite NPs distinguished the two SZ groups. These results demonstrate that FTD can be identified in specific grammatical patterns which provide new targets for detection, intervention, and neurobiological studies

Do you read me? Speech acts, expressive behaviour and states of mind in rape cases

This paper argues that there are three separable but related dimensions that are important to the legal notion of consent. One is a consenting state of mind, the ‘going along with’ a plan of action, which may or may not be communicated or even reflected upon, but which certainly can be. A second is displaying behaviour which reveals or is an expression of consenting. Another is intentionally communicating consent. I illustrate how the communicative act is often vitally important as evidence of an underlying consenting state, but the underlying consenting state has to be postulated and brought to the fore since consensual actions (e.g. sexual intercourse) can, and more often than not do, take place without the communicative acts, and the communicative acts might for various reasons be made in the absence of the genuinely consenting state of mind. The arguments I put forward offer a reframing of cases in which an apparent intentional communication of consent was treated as consent, rather than as a piece of evidence which may or may not be indicative of a consenting state of mind. This paper emphasises that we must not allow the importance of something as evidential to eclipse the underlying phenomenon, which is itself, however hard to access otherwise, the thing of primary legal importance

Relating to the Speaker behind the Voice: What Is Changing?

We introduce therapeutic techniques that encourage voice hearers to view their voices as coming from intentional agents whose behavior may be dependent on how the voice hearer relates to and interacts with them. We suggest that this approach is effective because the communicative aspect of voice hearing might fruitfully be seen as explanatorily primitive, meaning that the agentive aspect, the auditory properties, and the intended meaning (interpretation) are all necessary parts of the experience, which contribute to the impact the experience has on the voice hearer. We examine the experiences of a patient who received Relating Therapy, and explore the kinds of changes that can result from this therapeutic approach