The effects of note-taking and trial transcript access on mock jury decisions in a complex civil trial.
Mock juries were either permitted to take notes or not and provided with access to the trial transcript during deliberations or were not given access. Juries viewed a videotape of a complex trial involving multiple plaintiffs. Note-taking juries were able to distinguish among differentially worthy plaintiffs when assigning awards while non note takers did not distinguish among the plaintiffs and allocated higher overall compensation. Note-taking was significantly more effective than access to trial transcripts in increasing jury competence. Note-taking juries appeared better able to recognize probative evidence and reject false lures than were non note-taking juries. Limits and implications of the present study were discussed.
Horowitz
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Department of Psychology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331, USA. ihorowitz@orst.edu
ForsterLee
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D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003071:Cognition; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007603:Jurisprudence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011897:Random Allocation