Interrogative Suggestibility and Change Blindness
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Interrogative Suggestibility and Change Blindness: Implications for Police Interviewing.
IRAS ID
121494
Contact name
Shihning Chou
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The University of Nottingham
Research summary
Recent research has highlighted that misidentifications can occur as a result of what is termed “Change Blindness” (CB, Nelson et al., 2011); referring to the inability of observers to detect large changes to scenes from one glance to the next (Simons & Levin, 1998). Research has shown that CB can occur at a crime scene, with participants misidentifying bystanders when they are asked to identify from a subsequent lineup (Davis, Loftus, Vanous & Cucciare, 2008). The inability to detect a change at a crime scene can lead to inaccuracies in identifying suspects, mistaken eyewitness identification within police lineups, and wrongful convictions (Nelson, Laney, Fowler, Knowles, Davis & Loftus, 2011).
Interrogative suggestibility is the ’’extent to which, within a closed social interaction, people come to accept messages communicated during formal questioning, as a result of which their subsequent behavioural response is affected’’ (Gudjonsson & Clark, 1986). During police interrogations, witnesses are often asked to give details related to what they have seen and answer a series of questions relating to the crime such as what the ‘criminal(s)’ looked like. If these details are incorrectly remembered or, due to possible leading questions, remembered inaccurately, this can have an impact on where the investigation leads next, or results in an innocent suspect being convicted. In light of this, one’s suggestibility may therefore have an impact on how likely they are to be CB. Research suggests that those with a Learning Disability (LD) are at increased risk of vulnerability within police interviewing, and are significantly more suggestible than those without a LD.
Therefore, in this study we attempt to investigate whether there is a relationship between suggestibility and CB. The study aims to determine whether those who are more suggestible, are more likely to be CB.
REC name
East Midlands - Nottingham 1 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/EM/0341
Date of REC Opinion
29 Oct 2013
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion