A study was conducted comparing the feedback received from students about teaching obtained using different instruments. Twelve first-and second-year undergraduate modules were selected from seven different schools within a single university. Students studying each module were allocated to 'questionnaire' and 'comparator' groups. 'Questionnaire' students completed the standard end-of-module questionnaire, whilst 'comparator' groups evaluated the modules using 'rapid feedback', 'H form', focus group and reflective diary methods. The responses of 335 students to questionnaires were compared with those of 160 using the other methods; no results were obtained from the reflective diary students. Only a minority of the issues raised by students using the comparator methods were covered by the questionnaire, and the comparator methods showed different rankings of the issues in common. The key difference between questionnaire and comparator methods was the use of closed and open questions respectively, with comparator methods being more appropriate for formative evaluation.

The Scottish legal system is a unique jurisdiction, as jurors are able to give not proven verdicts in addition to the well-known Anglo-American verdicts (guilty and not guilty). The not proven verdict has never been legally defined, meaning that currently legal practitioners can only estimate why a not proven verdict has been given. The main aim of this study was to investigate if jurors violate the regularity principle, which is commonly incorporated in many rational choice models, by testing if the introduction of the not proven verdict has an impact on the outcomes given by jurors. In addition, this study aimed to test if the introduction of the not proven verdict has an impact upon how the not guilty verdict is perceived by jurors. In this study, 128 participants listened to two vignettes centred on homicide trials. Jurors could give one of two verdicts in one of the vignettes and one of three verdicts in the other vignette. The vignettes were counterbalanced in regard to how many verdicts could be given at the end of them. It was found that jurors in a three-verdict system were less likely to give a not guilty verdict in comparison to jurors in a two-verdict system, showing that jurors violate the regularity principle and that the not proven verdict may change how the not guilty verdict is perceived. The findings of this research have implications in relation to juror communication, article 6 of the European Convention of Human Rights and juror rationality.

The present study investigated whether child (sixÁeight years of age) and adult witnesses (18Á29 years of age) would exhibit an own-age bias when trying to identify targets from video lineups. One hundred and eighty-six participants viewed two filmed events that were identical, except one starred a child target and one a young adult. After a delay of twoÁthree days each witness saw a lineup for the child and adult target. Children exhibited an own-age bias and were better at correctly identifying the own-age target from a target-present (TP) lineup and made more correct rejections for the own-age target-absent (TA) lineup. Adults however, showed a reversed own-age bias for the TP lineups as they made more correct identifications for the child target, but exhibited no bias for the TA lineups. The results suggest that differences in identification accuracy may be due to whether witness age and suspect age overlap.

The Scottish verdict of not proven represents a second acquittal verdict which is not legally defined. Existing research into the influence of the not proven verdict on jury decision making is modest. The main aim of the current study was therefore to investigate the influence of verdict systems (two vs three) on juror decision making. The effect of pre-trial bias and evidence anchors on juror judgements were also examined. One-hundred and twenty-eight mock jurors listened to two homicide vignettes and were asked to rate their belief of guilt of the accused and to give a verdict in both trials. The results suggest that pre-trial bias was a significant predictor of both verdict choice and belief of guilt, whereas evidence anchors were not a significant predictor of either. Finally, both guilty and not guilty verdicts were given with increased frequency in the two-verdict system when compared to the three-verdict system.

Some groups of eyewitnesses, such as older adults and children, are less likely to correctly reject a target absent (TA) lineup, as compared to younger adults. Previous research reports that using a silhouette in a video lineup called 'the mystery man' could increase correct rejections for TA lineups for child eyewitnesses, without reducing correct identifications for target present (TP) lineups (Havard & Memon, 2013). The current study, using older and younger adults, investigated whether using the mystery man would also increase the identification accuracy for older adults, without impairing younger adults' identification accuracy. The results found that older adults in the 'mystery man' condition, rejected TA line-ups significantly more often than those in the control condition (52% vs. 24%), with no significant effect upon the TP lineups. For the younger adults', the mystery man had no influence on identification responses for the TA or TP line-ups. Our findings suggest the 'mystery man' technique may be beneficial for older adults, without detrimentally affecting the accuracy for younger adults, and thus could increase the reliability of eyewitness evidence, where video lineups are employed.