Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale Research Articles

Thought suppression, memory, and interrogative suggestibility

Experimental studies often demonstrate that thought suppression (i.e., consciously trying to avoid having certain thoughts), paradoxically, leads to hyperaccessibility of the to-be-suppressed thought. On the other hand, thought suppression has been claimed to possess memory-undermining qualities. The present study sought to investigate the potential memory-undermining effect of thought suppression. Thereto, the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale (GSS; Gudjonsson, 1984; Personality and Individual Differences) was administered to 56 undergraduate students. Participants were appointed to one of three conditions: a suppression condition (n = 20), a thinking condition (n = 19), and a no-instruction control condition (n = 17). The memory performance and suggestibility tendencies of the three groups were compared. Results indicate that thought suppression has little or no influence on episodic memory or suggestibility. More specifically, thought suppression resulted in decreased accuracy of free recall compared to thinking, but not compared to no-instruction control.

The relationship between coping strategies and interrogative suggestibility

Interrogative suggestibility refers to the tendency of individuals to accept suggestive information in an interrogative context. Within the criminal justice system, this factor has substantial implications in relation to the obtaining of written statements, admissions from suspects, and, most importantly, false confessions. Gudjonsson and Clark (1986) have developed a theoretical model of suggestibility, and contend that suggestibility is mediated by an individual's cognitive abilities, mental state and personality characteristics. In particular, they emphasise the role of coping strategies, positing that active/problem‐focused coping strategies lead to greater resistance to suggestive information whilst avoidant/emotion‐focused strategies lead to increased susceptibility to accepting suggestive information. The current study evaluated this aspect of Gudjonsson and Clark's (1986) model, using the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale (Gudjonsson, 1984) and the COPE (Carver, Scheier & Weintraub, 1989) inventory. Additionally, it was evaluated whether dispositional or situational coping strategies would be a better predictor of interrogative suggestibility. Sixty‐one participants completed both measures in the belief that they were participating in an investigation into memory. The results failed to support the hypothesized relationship between methods of coping and levels of interrogative suggestibility. Additionally, neither situational nor dispositional coping strategies were found to better predict interrogative suggestibility. The results are discussed in terms of Gudjonsson's (1988) previous findings and current theories on coping behaviour.

Possible False Confession in a Military Court-Martial: A Case Study

It is known and has been documented that people make false confessions. Confession evidence issues are complex, and in this article I intended to shed light on some of those issues by presenting a case study wherein a psychologist analyzes a defendant and his legal case. The evaluation in this case study included a clinical interview and an administration and interpretation of the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory–III test (Millon, Davis, & Millon, 1997), the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inven-tory–2 test (Butcher, 1982), the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale (Gudjonsson, 1984) and Compliance Scale (Gudjonsson, 1989), and the Self-Monitoring Scale (Snyder, 1974). Results of the defendant's interrogation and his psychological testing profiles are presented, which suggest a situation that was not extremely coercive but in which a cooperative defendant may have confessed because of tacit pressure. In the end the accused was acquitted. Audiotaping or videotaping and more research on this subject are recommended.

Minimizing interrogative suggestibility

Purpose. Use of warnings about the possible presence of misinformation in questions put to witnesses can reduce the extent to which such misinformation is incorporated in witnesses' recall. Previous studies of this phenomenon, known as 'interrogative suggestibility', have not, however, attempted to establish the degree to which it can be reduced in this way. The present study used the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale 2 (GSS-2) in an attempt to make this relative judgment, based on population norms established for the scale. Method. Participants were allocated to one of three groups: (1) a 'Warned Group' underwent the GSS-2 without negative feedback but also with a warning concerning the possible presence of misinformation in questions; (2) a 'Neutral Group' underwent a variant of the GSS-2 in which negative feedback was not administered; and (3) a 'Standard Group' underwent the normal GSS-2 procedure. Results. The hypothesized pattern of results-that the provision of a warning would enhance the ability of participants to resist misinformation without completely eliminating its acceptance-was confirmed. Conclusions. Up to two-thirds of the variance in interrogative suggestibility may be potentially under the control of the interviewer. In addition to assessing levels of interrogative suggestibility in potential witnesses, the Gudjonsson scales could be used to help train professionals who interview witnesses to keep the suggestiveness of their interviewing style to a minimum. Language: en

Dissociative experiences and interrogative suggestibility in college students

The present study examined whether scores on the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES) are related to interrogative suggestibility , as measured by the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale (GSS-1). In addition, an attempt was made to identify factors that may mediate this relationship. The DES and GSS were administered to a sample of 56 female undergraduate students along with self-report measures of cognitive failures and fantasy proneness. DES and cognitive failures were found to be related to total GSS scores. In contrast, fantasy proneness was not linked to total GSS scores. Correcting for the influence of cognitive failures attenuated the correlation between DES and GSS. This suggests that cognitive efficiency is one of the mediating factors operating in the connection between dissociation and interrogative suggestibility.

Interrogative suggestibility: The role of interviewer behaviour

Purpose. Interrogative suggestibility may vary as a function of interviewer behaviour. The present study assessed the effect of two interviewer styles on measures of interrogative suggestibility obtained using the first of the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scales (GSS1). It was hypothesized that a generally abrupt demeanour adopted by the interviewer would produce greater psychological distance, and therefore higher GSS1 scores, than a friendly demeanour. Methods. The study had a single factor between participants design. Participants were tested on the GSS1 by an interviewer whose behaviour was either ‘friendly’ or ‘abrupt’. One female experimenter conducted all of the interviews. Fifty‐five participants took part in the study. Most participants were first year undergraduate psychology students. Others were university administrative staff. Results. Two of the GSS1 measures appeared to be biased significantly by interviewer style. Participants tested in the ‘abrupt’ condition gained higher scores for Shiftand Total Suggestibility than those in the ‘friendly’ condition. Conclusions. These results are consistent with the view that the GSS1 provides measures of two different types of suggestibility. However, this finding may also mean that whilst initial responses to leading questions are mediated by more stable cognitive factors that are relatively unaffected by interviewer demeanour, post‐feedback scores may be more sensitive to the social aspects of suggestibility. Implications of the results for the objectivityand administration of the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scales are discussed.

Interrogative suggestibility: the importance of being earnest

Use of the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scales 1 & 2 (GSS 1 & 2) may be complicated by individual or situational differences in the manner in which negative feedback, a key aspect of the procedure, is delivered to the interviewee. The present study attempted to vary the social distance between interviewers and interviewees established during the delivery of negative feedback. The ability of 12 undergraduates to adopt one of three demeanours — friendliness, firmness and sterness — when administering negative feedback using the GSS 2 was assessed. Three of these undergraduates were found to be consistently more able than the others to adopt these demeanours and acted as interviewers. Each experimenter adopted her assigned demeanour when administering negative feedback in interviewing fifteen interviewees using the GSS 2 procedure. Clear trends emerged on two out of three post-feedback GSS scores, with increasing social distance producing increasing GSS scores.

The effects of alcohol withdrawal on memory, confabulation, and suggestibility

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of alcohol withdrawal on the accuracy of information obtained during an interview, and in the ability of participants to cope with interrogative pressure. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups. Group 1: patients to be tested psychologically on the second or third day of their admission. Group 2: patients who were to be assessed towards the end of their 10-day stay in hospital (i.e. after 6 or more days). The participants were a group of 75 patients admitted as inpatients to a detoxification centre in Iceland. They completed measurements of alcohol withdrawal symptoms, Mini-Mental State, state and trait anxiety, suggestibility, memory, confabulation and compliance. Significant differences emerged, as predicted, with regard to impaired cognitive abilities and heightened anxiety symptoms, but no differences were found for suggestibility, confabulation and compliance. However, a significantly larger Shift score on the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale was observed on the third day as an in-patient, as compared with that obtained on the second day of admission and for patients in Group 2. The main conclusion from the study is that, on the third day of detoxification, patients become significantly less able to cope with interrogative pressure. This has practical implications for police interviewing.

Effects of sleep loss on confidence-accuracy relationships for reasoning and eyewitness memory.

Participants (n = 48) deprived of sleep for 29-50 hr, in comparison with controls (n = 45), underestimated their performance on logical reasoning and Raven's matrices. Such caution may ameliorate adverse practical consequences of sleep loss. In contrast, although sleep loss participants were more suggestible on the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale (G. H. Gudjonsson, 1984, 1987), they maintained confidence in their suggestible responses and were inaccurate when responding with the highest rating of confidence. This indicates that the increased suggestibility is internalized and is due to a cognitive deficit rather than to compliance. Eyewitness confidence-accuracy correlations were low but usually significant and were lowest after 47-50 hr of sleep loss. Repetition of leading questions led to increases in confidence for suggestible responses (with no interaction with sleep loss) but not for nonsuggestible responses, indicating a problem for jurors' evaluations of practiced testimony.

The potential conflict between clinical and judicial decision making heuristics.

The Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale (GSS; Gudjonsson, 1984) was introduced as a tool for identifying suspects who are at risk of making false confessions. High GSS-scores indicate a greater risk of making false confessions. Recently, some authors have claimed that low GSS-scores can be used to support the credibility of recovered memories. This new application broadens the use of the GSS in two ways. First, low GSS-scores are considered to possess diagnostic value. Second, the GSS is advocated as a practical tool in clinical settings. This article critically evaluates such a clinical application of the GSS. Our main argument has to do with the incompatibility of basic clinical and judicial decision making heuristics. Psychotherapists, and other medical professionals, should base their decisions on different parameters than judicial professionals. Compared to judicial heuristics, clinical heuristics can be characterized as more empathetic, less critical, and less conservative. Given these differences, clinical conclusions (including those about the accuracy of recovered memories) cannot be easily translated into judicial decisions. If they do enter the judicial domain, these conclusions may lead to dubious forensic decisions.

The effects of alcohol on interrogative suggestibility: The role of State‐Anxiety and mood states as mediating factors

Purpose. The goal of this study was to determine whether alcohol would increase or decrease interrogative suggestibility. Methods. Four groups of participants (N = 51) were administered the story and immediate recall of the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale 2. After this they were administered one of three doses of alcohol or a placebo followed by delayed recall and the questioning part of the scale. Changes in mood and anxiety were monitored with the help of Profile of Mood States and Spielberger State‐Anxiety Scale. Results. Alcohol decreased yielding to leading questions both before (Yield 1) and after (Yield 2) interrogative pressure was applied but had no effect on changing answers in response to the pressure (Shift). State‐Anxiety and Clearheaded‐Confused mood were found to mediate the effects of alcohol on Yield 2. No other significant mediational relationships were found. Conclusions. Alcohol appears to decrease suggestibility with the exception of reactions to applied interrogative pressure. This decrease is not totally explainable by the mediating effects of either mood states or anxiety.

Interrogative suggestibility, anxiety and dissociation among anxious patients and normal controls

The Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale (GSS-2) was administered to 37 anxious patients and 44 matched controls. Participants also completed the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES), the Tellegen Absorption Scale (TAS) and the State-Trait-Anxiety Inventory (STAI). The results showed that the anxious patients have higher suggestibility, state/trait anxiety, dissociation and absorption scores than the normal controls. Suggestibility correlated positively with trait and state anxiety, dissociation and absorption in the entire sample.

Factors moderating the effects of alcohol on interrogative suggestibility

The aim of the study was to determine whether personality and emotion experience factors would moderate the suggestibility-decreasing effect of alcohol. Participants (N = 51) were administered tests measuring personality and emotion experience variables. The effects of alcohol on interrogative suggestibility were explored with the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale Form 2. Anger and guilt moderated significantly the effects of alcohol. Tendencies towards moderation were also found for social-evaluative anxiety and general anxiety proneness. The results are discussed in relation to the theoretical model of interrogative suggestibility.

The response alternatives of suggestible and non-suggestible adolescent offenders

The study investigated the response alternatives of suggestible and non-suggestible adolescents as assessed by the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale. A theoretical model of interrogative suggestibility (Gudjonsson & Clark, 1986) hypothesized that highly suggestible individuals were particularly susceptible to changing their responses to false-alternative questions following negative feedback during interrogation. The results of the present study did not support this hypothesis in a sample of forensic adolescents.

THE GUDJONSSON SUGGESTIBILITY SCALE (GSS): FURTHER DATA ON ITS RELIABILITY, VALIDITY, AND METACOGNITION CORRELATES

This article presents two studies in which the psychometric properties and validity of the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale (GSS) were further investigated. Results of the first study (N = 40) indicate that the GSS has reasonable internal consistency. Additionally, a modest, but significant test-retest stability was found for the GSS. As to the association between suggestibility and self-reported cognitive efficiency (i.e., metacognition measures), scores on the Yield dimension of the GSS were positively and significantly related to scores on the Dissociation Experiences Scale (DES), but not to scores on the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ). In a second, experimental study (N = 53), evidence was found for the predictive validity of the GSS. In that study, subjects saw a slide series and were then confronted with leading questions about the critical (emotional) slide. In addition, they completed the Yield scale of the GSS. A small but significant correlation was found between subjects' Yield scores on the GSS and their susceptibility to leading questions about the slide series.

Individual differences and the suggestibility of human memory

AbstractThe present study was conducted to identify individual difference measures that correlate with memory suggestibility. An adapted version of the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale was used to measure student participants' suggestibility for real, distorted and entirely fabricated autobiographical statements on a questionnaire detailing recollections of their induction week. The individual suggestibility scores for each of these events were then correlated with the Inventory of Childhood Memories and Imaginings (ICMI) scale, the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES) and the Social Desirability Scale (SDS).Analysis indicated that both the ICMI and DES were positively correlated with suggestibility scores for misleading statements. The results also suggest that dissociation, as well as being a supposed cause of amnesia for childhood abuse, is also related to higher confidence scores for suggested events that did not occur. Copyright © 1997 British Society of Experimental and Clinical Hypnosis

False attribution of suggestibility to explain recovered memory of childhood sexual abuse following extended amnesia

Suggestibility is central to arguments proffered by critics of recovered memory of childhood sexual abuse who believe that memories involving amnesia are false creations of treatment. The present study represents the first direct investigation of suggestibility among patients who report recovered memory. Suggestibility was measured in 44 patients who recovered memories and in a 31 patient comparison group without a history of sexual trauma using the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale. Results indicated that patients who recover memories were remarkably less suggestible than the clinical field has been led to believe by advocates of false memory. As a group, they scored low on suggestibility. Recovered Memory patients yielded to suggested prompts an average of 6.7 times per case. This compares to an average of 10.6 in the Psychiatric comparison group. Paradoxically, patients without a history of sex abuse were more at risk for altering memory to suggestive prompts. These findings appreciably challenge advocated theories of suggested memory.

The psychological characteristics of ‘false confessors’. A study among icelandic prison inmates and juvenile offenders

In this study the psychological characteristics of 62 prison inmates, who claimed to have made a ‘false confession’ during a police interview, were compared with those of other inmates. The personality tests administered were the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ), the Gough Socialisation Scale, the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale (GSS 1). the Gudjonsson Compliance Scale (GCS), and the self-deception (SDQ) and other-deception (ODQ) questionnaires of Sackeim and Gur. In addition, Ravens' Standard Progressive Matrices were administered. The results showed that the ‘false confessors’ were significantly more antisocial in their personality, compliant and emotionally labile, than the other inmates and had lower self-deception and other-deception scores. A subgroup of coerced-internalized ‘false confessors’ was identified and they differed from the others in terms of elevated suggestibility and confabulation scores as measured by the GSS 1. In a parallel study of 108 juvenile offenders it was found that none of them reported having made a ‘false confession’, in contrast to 12% of the prison inmates. Overall, the results indicate that ‘false confession’ in Iceland may be largely confined to persistent offenders who possess antisocial personality characteristics.

The relationship of confabulation to the memory, intelligence, suggestibility and personality of prison inmates

This study investigates the relationship of confabulation to memory, intelligence, suggestibility and personality, as measured by the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire and the Gough Socialisation Scale. The subjects were 255 Icelandic prison inmates. Confabulation was measured from the memory narrative of the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale (GSS 1). The two components of confabulation--distortions and fabrications--were scored and analysed separately. Distortions and fabrications correlated poorly with each other. Furthermore, the confabulation scores correlated very poorly with the other psychological variables. The only positive correlations were a positive relationship with GSS Shift and a negative relationship with intelligence. Language: en

The relationship of confabulation to the memory, intelligence, suggestibility and personality of prison inmates

This study investigates the relationship of confabulation to memory, intelligence, suggestibility and personality, as measured by the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire and the Gough Socialisation Scale. The subjects were 255 Icelandic prison inmates. Confabulation was measured from the memory narrative of the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale (GSS 1). The two components of confabulation—distortions and fabrications—were scored and analysed separately. Distortions and fabrications correlated poorly with each other. Furthermore, the confabulation scores correlated very poorly with the other psychological variables. The only positive correlations were a positive relationship with GSS Shift and a negative relationship with intelligence.