Minority Student Initiative - Michelle Pena

Michelle M. Pena is a fifth year student at Florida International University pursing a PhD in Legal Psychology. She presented her research at the Annual meeting of AP-LS in Seattle, WA in 2017! Congratulations, Michelle!

Blind versus informed interviewing: The importance of visual access to nonverbal behavior.
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Abstract: National guidelines recommend that investigators review case information before conducting interviews, yet recent research on blind interviewing suggests this may not be as effective of a technique as originally thought. Student-participants played the role of either an interviewer and a witness. Interviewers were informed or blind to case information. Interviews were conducted either face-to-face or with a divider placed between participants so that they were unable to see one another. Preliminary results suggest incorrectly informed interviewers ask more suggestive questions and blind interviewers elicit more accurate information demonstrating that having very little information about the case before conducting an interview may actually be more beneficial. However, preliminary data suggests that there is no significant effect of visual access to nonverbal behavior leaving us with the question, what is driving blind interviewing’s effect?

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