Psych 458 - Questions to ponder, 5/17/99
Hastie, Penrod, & Pennington (1983)
1. When do jurors receive instructions from the judge, before or after they have heard evidence and arguments? When do you think it would be most helpful to receive instructions?
2. What do the authors mean when they talk about the
Arepresentation of a juror as a tape recorder?@ What cognitive mechanisms interfere with the truth value of this representation?3. What kinds of information are jurors asked to disregard? Do you think it is possible to disregard information that you have been exposed to? Do you think it would be easier, harder or about the same to do this in a court context as it would in other contexts?
4. What is the
Astory model@ of juror decision making? What are the three interpretive tasks of ideal juror analysis?5. Who is most influential in jury deliberations? Who talks most? (Think about how these patterns might resemble classroom participation in small classes!) If you wanted to be elected jury foreperson, where would be the best place to sit in the jury room?
6. What is a unanimous jury decision rule? What major, consistent differences have been found between juries with unanimous jury decision rules and those with majority rules?
7. Does jury size affect verdicts? Deliberations? If so, how?