The effect of jury size and judge’s instructions on memory for pragmatic implications from courtroom testimony

Abstract

Subjects working in groups of one, two, and three heard an excerpt of courtroom testimony and were later asked to rate statements about material in the testimony as true, false, or of indeterminate truth value. Half of the subjects heard any given piece of information (Mr. X rang the burglar alarm) directly asserted (I rang the burglar alarm), while the other half heard it only implied (I ran up to the burglar alarm). Half of the subjects initially heard specific instructions about the pitfalls of interpreting implied information as if it were asserted fact, while the other half heard no such instructions. Subjects in both groups remembered a majority of implications as true. The implication instructions did not significantly reduce the number of implied statements remembered as true, and there were no differences as a function of group size.