Committee Chair

Warren, Amye

Committee Member

Ross, David; Shelton, Jill T.

Department

Dept. of Psychology

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Place of Publication

Chattanooga (Tenn.)

Abstract

The increasing prevalence of pretrial publicity (PTP), media coverage of a case that occurs prior to a trial, raises concerns about fair trials. Jurors may rely on pretrial information rather than trial information to decide the fate of a defendant and may even confuse the sources of the information. While it is difficult to limit jurors’ exposure to PTP, jury instructions to improve memory for trial information may limit these effects. Participants (N=100) read negative PTP articles about a defendant. A week later, they were randomly assigned to jury instruction conditions (notetaking, question-posing, or standard) and watched a trial video about the case. Mock jurors who took notes and asked questions during the trial video were significantly better at remembering trial statements and attributing trial and pretrial information to its source than jurors who received standard instructions. However, instruction condition did not influence the number of guilty verdicts rendered.

Acknowledgments

I’d like to thank my entire committee for their extended support for the development of this project. Their insights have been extremely valuable in the development of my research. I would like to give special appreciation to my faculty advisor, Dr. Amye Warren. I am forever appreciative of your unwavering support and guidance throughout my graduate studies. Thank you and Dr. Shelton both for taking a chance on a girl with a degree in Behavior Analysis in your cognitive psychology program. Thank you to the UTC SEARCH award for funding this project. Additionally, I would like to thank my research assistants, Jackson Everett and Olivia Taylor, for your continued assistance and dedication to my thesis; you truly are the best.

Degree

M. S.; A thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Science.

Date

5-2024

Subject

Free press and fair trial--United States; Jury instructions; Mass media and criminal justice; Pre-trial procedure--United States; Verdicts

Keyword

Jury Member; Pretrial Publicity; Jury Instructions; Source Memory; Cognition; Verdict Decision

Document Type

Masters theses

DCMI Type

Text

Extent

viii, 57 leaves

Language

English

Rights

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

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