The order in which evidence is presented to the jury persuades them to vote in a particular direction
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What was the aim of the study?
To investigate whether the order in which evidence is presented affects the final verdict given and the juror's confidence in their decisions
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What was the method of the study?
A laboratory experiment using and independent measures design.
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What were the four conditions of the experiment?
Prosecution story and defence witness, prosecution story and defence story, prosecution witness and defence witness, prosecution witness and defence witness, prosecution witness and defence story
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What was the independent variable of the study?
The order in which evidence was presented
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What were the dependent variables?
Whether they voted guilty or not guilty and their confidence rating.
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Define story order
When the evidence is presented in chronological order which demonstrates the 'story' of the event
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Define witness order
Where the best evidence is presented first and the weakest evidence is presented last
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Describe the participants
130 students from North Western University and Chicago University who were paid to take part in an hour long experiment
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Which court case did participants have to listen to tape recordings of?
Commonwealth of Massachusetts v Caldwell
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Which court case did participants have to listen to tape recordings of?
Commonwealth of Massachusetts v Caldwell
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What did participants have to do once they had listened to the tape recording of Commonwealth of Massachusetts v Caldwell?
Reach a verdict of guilty or not guilty, then rate their confidence in this decision on a 5 point scale
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The _ _ pieces of evidence for each side (prosecution and defence) were presented in either __ __ or __ __
39 (pieces of evidence) / Story order, Witness order
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What percentage of participants reach a guilty verdict for the 'prosecution story and defence witness' condition?
78%
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What percentage of participants reach a guilty verdict for the 'prosecution story and defence story' condition?
59%
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What percentage of participants reach a guilty verdict for the 'prosecution witness and defence witness' condition?
63%
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What percentage of participants reach a guilty verdict for the 'prosecution witness and defence story' condition?
31%
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What was the result for the confidence ratings?
Greatest confidence was given by those who heard the defence/prosecution in story order. Least confidence was expressed by those who heard the two witness order condition
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What was the conclusion of the study?
The persuasive effect of presenting information in story order was shown. However it appeared that the defence story order doesn't seem as persuasive as when used for the prosecution case
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Other cards in this set
Card 2
Front
What was the aim of the study?
Back
To investigate whether the order in which evidence is presented affects the final verdict given and the juror's confidence in their decisions
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