Putting Cognitive Science to Work in the Legal System: An Evidence Based Approach to Testimony Evaluation and Beyond

This programme of research will focus on using methods from law, psychology, and neuroscience to examine how the credibility, accuracy, and overall reliability of eye-witness accounts are assessed in the criminal justice system, and to design new practice and procedure to enhance the accuracy of such evaluations. The research will examine decisions of the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) and lay decision-makers (jurors) and will be conducted in collaboration with practitioner partners. As part of this research a new "Cognitive Science and Empirical Law" laboratory will be created in collaboration with the Centre for Criminal Appeals, to promote the integration of cognitive science into legal practice more generally. This has the potential to transform the administration of justice by replacing old and outdated traditions with evidence-based practice and procedure.

The first stage of the research will examine how laypeople and the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) evaluate the testimony of others in the current system, and where such evaluations are likely to agree or disagree with assessments based on scientific evidence. Research will include (i) identifying common assumptions that are made by jury-eligible adults and the CCRC when evaluating testimony, and the extent to which these assumptions are consistent scientific understanding, (ii) using psychological theory and experimental research to identify situations in which assessments of witness accounts are likely to be based on misunderstandings or failure to incorporate relevant information into decision-making, and (iii) using tools from psychology and neuroscience to examine the cognition underlying assessments of testimony and how certain assumptions or biases may be associated with underlying neural mechanisms.

The second stage of the research will assess current practice and procedure, and formulate recommendations for practice and procedure based on findings from the first stage of the research and relevant psychological theory. Importantly, research suggests that informing decision-makers of relevant science may not be sufficient to improve the effectiveness of their evaluations, and more nuanced interventions are likely to be needed. All interventions will be designed in consultation with current legal practitioners and tested in mock trials. This distinguishes the work from much existing research in psychology and law, which has not combined in-depth examination of memory and decision-making with the design of improved legal procedure and has been incorporated into the legal system in ways that are not proven to have desired effects (e.g. through judicial warnings).

The final stage of the research programme will focus on integrating my findings into current legal practice in order to have a direct impact. This will include working with practitioners, designing legal arguments, and utilizing statistical techniques such as network analyses to identify the interventions that are likely to be most effective.

A "Cognitive Science and Empirical Law" laboratory will be created in order to facilitate this research and also to promote the integration of cognitive science and empirical law into legal practice more generally. This laboratory will conduct independent research, and will also work in collaboration with the Centre for Criminal Appeals to conduct research that will directly benefit current casework. Trained student research assistants will assist with research in the laboratory. This will serve to facilitate the integration of science and the law in future scientists and legal practitioners.

By enhancing our understanding of how testimony is currently evaluated and how testimony evaluation can be improved, and by facilitating the integration of cognitive science research into the legal system, this project promises a significant contribution to the criminal justice community both nationally and internationally. The project has the potential to dramatically reduce wrongful conviction and to minimize systematic failures to successfully prosecute defendants in cases in which testimony is often the primary evidence including sexual assaults, offences against children, and domestic violence. This impact will be achieved in a number of ways.

First, impact will be achieved through the production of model guidelines to be used by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC, who examine new evidence following a conviction to identify potential miscarriages of justice) when evaluating testimony. These model guidelines will be developed using cognitive science research, and will facilitate evaluations that are consistent with current scientific understanding. Guidelines will be tested in experimental research and developed following consultations with practitioners from the CCRC. This will ensure the guidelines are not only scientifically supported, but also feasible to apply in practice, and will thus ensure maximum impact.

Second, the project will identify weaknesses of current courtroom procedure involving juror evaluation of testimony and will develop suggestions for new practice and procedure to increase the accuracy of juror evaluations. Consultations with lawyers in the criminal justice system will take place throughout the research project in order to ensure that developed solutions are practical and address current weaknesses from their perspective. Concrete policy recommendations relating to criminal procedure will also be made.

Third, through identifying weaknesses in current procedure and incorrect assumptions that are typically made, the research may help to identify cases in which a defendant was wrongfully convicted. Although the research may not in itself provide a basis for an appeal, it may be used by organisations such as the Centre for Criminal Appeals when selecting potential miscarriages of justice to investigate further. The Center for Criminal Appeals will be consulted as part of this project, in order to understand testimony evaluation from their perspective and to ensure the work is useful to them.

Finally, the project's broader aim of promoting and facilitating the integration of scientific knowledge into the legal system, particularly through the creation of a Cognitive Science and Empirical Law laboratory, will have important applied impact in the criminal justice system. The laboratory will collaborate with the Center for Criminal Appeals, who will refer issues arising in current cases that are in need of appropriate empirical research, to the laboratory. In this way the laboratory can conduct research that will be directly useful in legal cases, bridging the gap between academic research and legal practice.