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The Implicit Association Test (IAT) is used to assess attitude beyond the limitations of explicit measurements. Nevertheless, the test requires opposition between two attitude objects and also measures an extra-personal dimension of attitude that may reflect associations shared collectively. The first limitation can be overcome by using a Single Category IAT and the second by a personalized version of IAT. This study compares attitudes to smoking measured using a Single Category IAT with a personalized version of the test. The results, collected from 111 students, showed that the Single Category IAT did not distinguish smokers from non-smokers; smokers had negative scores. The personalized version did distinguish smokers from non-smokers, and smokers' scores seem to be neutral.

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The quality and the quantity of information recalled by eyewitnesses during a criminal investigation is of crucial importance. To increase the volume of details recalled during an interview, the cognitive interview recommends using various retrieval strategies to enhance recall. We tested a new retrieval instruction, the open depth (OD) instruction. The efficacy of this new instruction was assessed with the number of unit of information and the accuracy rate. We also assessed the cost-and-benefit of this new instruction with measures of repetition. Students watched a video of a simulated robbery and participated later in face-to-face interviews. In Study 1 (N 060), the cognitive interview using the OD instruction increased recall compared to the interview using the change of perspective (CP) instruction, without affecting the accuracy rate. The redundancy rate was higher with the OD instruction than with the CP instruction. In Study 2 (N 040), the OD instruction generated more new information without affecting the accuracy rate than the interview using motivated recall (MR) instruction. The repeated information to new information ratio was lower with the OD instruction than with the MR instruction. The advantages of the OD instruction for investigative interviewing purposes are discussed.

International audienceThe use of nanotechnology (devices/materials composed of parts less than 10nanometres) in the development of new products is rapidly expanding.Industrialists and decision-makers consider nanotechnology to be the nextindustrial revolution, but fear they risk the same resistance to nanotechnologythat their counterparts experienced with genetically modified organisms (GMOs).Although risk perception studies have shown that perceived risk of GMOs isquite high compared to that related to nanotechnology, no study to date hasexplored a potential direct social representation link between the two. Thepresent study aims to fill that gap by comparing the social representations ofnanotechnology and GMOs among a population of non-experts. This study wasconducted with 282 students in human and social sciences and natural sciences.Using a free association task with the inductive words ‘nanotechnology’ and‘GMO (genetically modified organism)’, we identified the existing social representationsof the two based on a structural approach. While the representation ofGMOs is objectified in the field of agriculture, objectification for nanotechnologyseems to still be lacking, although its possible objectification likely lies incomputing and robotics. Our calculation of the rate of similarity of associativewords with nanotechnology and GMOs indicated no present, direct link betweentheir social representations. We discuss the possible evolution of the socialrepresentation of nanotechnology over time

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Four decades of research and hundreds of studies speak to the power of post-event misinformation to bias eyewitness accounts of events (see e.g., Loftus' summary, 2005). A subset of this research has explored if the adverse influence of misinformation on remembering can be undone or at least reduced through a later warning about its presence. We meta-analyzed 25 such post-warning studies (including 155 effect sizes) to determine the effectiveness of different types of warnings and to explore moderator effects. Key findings were that (1) post-warnings are surprisingly effective, reducing the misinformation effect to less than half of its size on average. (2) Some types of post-warning (following a theoretical classification) seem to be more effective than others, particularly studies using an enlightenment procedure (Blank, 1998). ( 3) The post-warning reduction in the misinformation effect reflects a specific increase in misled performance (relative to no warning), at negligible cost for control performance. We conclude with a discussion of theoretical and practical implications.

Purpose As eyewitnesses provide the most valuable information for criminal investigations, it is important to further develop and test techniques for collecting eyewitness testimony so that they meet the major objective of a police interview: obtaining details pertaining to criminal actions. The purpose of this paper is to test a new instruction – the re-enactment investigative instruction – formulated to collect the most fine-grained details of a criminal event as accurately as possible. It leads the interviewee to decompose all directly recollected actions into the most minimal actions so that the event can be accurately re-enacted. Design/methodology/approach In all, 40 participants individually viewed a video depicting a robbery, were randomly assigned to a re-enactment or structured interview (SI) group and then interviewed face-to-face. Each interview was comprised of two free recall phases and a questioning phase. Manipulation of the re-enactment instruction took place in the second free recall phase of the re-enactment interviews (RIs). Findings The RI elicited more correct information compared to the SI (d=1.14), and slightly but not significantly less incorrect information (d=0.09). Participants in the RI condition reported significantly more details pertaining to general and specific actions. Practical implications The re-enactment instruction shows the potential to increase witness recall in a way that promotes recall of both additional correct information and investigative-relevant information. Originality/value The instruction provides witnesses a retrieval strategy that facilitates overcoming both the gap between memory availability and accessibility and the gap between memory availability and output regulation, eliciting more details with no significant increase of errors.