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Experimental psychology and the courtroom
Author(s) -
Wells Gary L.
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
behavioral sciences and the law
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.649
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1099-0798
pISSN - 0735-3936
DOI - 10.1002/bsl.2370020404
Subject(s) - jury , legal psychology , plea , experimental psychology , psychology , attribution , relevance (law) , perception , comprehension , jury instructions , forensic psychology , cognition , history of psychology , social psychology , cognitive psychology , law , criminology , computer science , political science , neuroscience , programming language
Experimental social and cognitive psychology cover a range of topics such as attitudes, attribution, decision making, perception, memory, comprehension, and reasoning. The relevance of these topics to the law is apparent in such domains as jury selection, jury behavior, plea bargaining, eyewitness testimony, sentencing, and police investigation strategies. Despite early attempts to apply experimental psychology to law (circa 1900–1920), it was not until the mid 1970s that a robust law‐relevant literature in experimental psychology began to unfold. The experimental psychology/law interface continues to experience some problems in (1) generalizing from specific research experiments to real‐world conditions, and (2) identifying solutions rather than just problems.