Perceptual instability in police interview records

Examining the effect of pauses and modality on people’s perceptions of an interviewee

Authors

  • James Tompkinson Aston Institute for Forensic Linguistics, Aston University
  • Kate Haworth Aston Institute for Forensic Linguistics, Aston University
  • Felicity Deamer Aston Institute for Forensic Linguistics, Aston University
  • Emma Richardson School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Loughborough University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/ijsll.24565

Keywords:

police interviewing, human speech perception, transcription, pausing behaviour

Abstract

This article examines whether the representation of linguistic features within transcripts and audio recordings of police interviews can influence people’s perceptions of the interviewee. We specifically examine the influence of the representation of pauses through an experimental methodology. Participants were presented with a police interview either in audio format or in one of a series of transcript formats and asked to make a series of judgements about the interviewee. We manipulated both the presence and representation of pauses within the audio and transcript stimuli to assess how this would influence perceptions. Results showed differences between perceptions of the interviewee in the audio and transcript conditions, and that different representations of pauses within transcripts created perceptual instability between participants. The findings illustrate that the presence and representation of linguistic features in transcripts can affect perceptual judgements. We argue this should be explicitly considered by those using transcripts within the legal system.

Author Biographies

  • James Tompkinson, Aston Institute for Forensic Linguistics, Aston University

    Dr James Tompkinson is a Research Fellow in the Centre for Spoken Interaction in Legal Contexts (SILC) within the Aston Institute for Forensic Linguistics. His research focuses on topics which are relevant to both forensic phonetics and forensic linguistics. These include transcription, speaker comparison methods, regional variation in English dialects, perceptual judgements based on speech information, and spoken and written threats.

  • Kate Haworth, Aston Institute for Forensic Linguistics, Aston University

    Dr Kate Haworth is the Director of the research centre for Spoken Interaction in Legal Contexts (SILC), part of Aston’s Institute for Forensic Linguistics. Prior to her academic career she was a barrister and practised civil and criminal law. Her research interests include all aspects of language and communication in legal contexts, especially spoken interaction and the use of language data as evidence, focusing particularly on investigative interviews.

  • Felicity Deamer, Aston Institute for Forensic Linguistics, Aston University

    Dr Felicity Deamer is a Lecturer in the Aston Institute for Forensic Linguistics. Her current research uses language analysis to shed light on issues that emerge at the intersection between law and psychiatry. This work includes analysis of a wide range of linguistic data including evidential expert psychiatric reports submitted as evidence, police interviews with people experiencing serious mental illness and bodycam footage from secure mental health wards.

  • Emma Richardson, School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Loughborough University

    Dr Emma Richardson is a Lecturer in Language and Social Interaction at Loughborough University. Her research interests centre on improving access to criminal justice for ‘vulnerable’ (as defined by law) victims and witnesses of crimes such as kidnap, domestic violence and sexual offence. She uses conversation analysis to examine how these crimes are reported and progressed.

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Published

2023-08-16

Issue

Vol. 30 No. 1 (2023)

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Articles

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How to Cite

Tompkinson, J., Haworth, K., Deamer, F., & Richardson, E. (2023). Perceptual instability in police interview records: Examining the effect of pauses and modality on people’s perceptions of an interviewee. International Journal of Speech, Language and the Law, 30(1), 22-51. https://doi.org/10.1558/ijsll.24565