An Exercise in Exceptions

In this chat format, we gather regular authors and guests in Slack and have a moderated conversation, guided by prompts and questions selected in advance. Participants get to respond to each other's points, make comments, and ask each other questions in real-time. The transcript has been lightly edited. rabbitsnore (Timothy J. Luke) Welcome to another Exercise in Exceptions chat! This time, our topic is the conference we attended recently -- that is, the meeting of the American Psychology-Law Society (APLS) . In a previous chat, we’ve talked with Gabi Rico about her first conference experience at APLS . Today, we’re chatting with a fellow researcher about our impressions of the content of the conference. Will and I are joined today by our friend Natalie Gordon . Natalie, care to introduce yourself and say a little bit about what kind of work you do? Natalie Gordon Sure! Thank you for having me. I am a PhD student in psychology and law at John Jay ...

In this chat format, we gather regular authors and guests in Slack and have a moderated conversation, guided by prompts and questions selected in advance. Participants get to respond to each other's points, make comments, and ask each other questions in real-time. The transcript has been lightly edited. Will Crozier &#x1F419 Welcome to another Exercise in Exceptions chat! As you may have noticed from our latest post, Timothy and I recently attended the annual meeting for the American Psychology-Law Society - perhaps one of the best conferences to learn about what's new in the psych and law world. The two of us presented in a symposium on memory in criminal investigations. However, Timothy and I have been attending conferences for years. It's easy for us to forget what going to your first conference can be like. So today, we've invited Gabriela Rico, who attended APLS earlier this month, for the first time, in order to get your perspective on the ...

Conferences are like...geeky work-vacations Academics love attending conferences. Chances are you’ve had at least one college class cancelled so that your professor could run off to some exotic location. In fact, both Timothy and I spent the last week in Memphis, Tennessee (a location that is perhaps not exotic, but in the midst of a March nor’easter, was difficult to get to) for the American Psychology-Law Society (APLS) annual meeting – and have returned excited and full of new ideas. In this week’s post, we’re going to deviate a bit from the normal theme of psychology and law and address a more meta-science topic – that is, what’s a conference, and what’s so great about them?

There are rigorous procedures for handling physical evidence. Why not for memory?  Anyone who has watched enough crime dramas can describe many of the fundamentals of collecting and handling physical evidence. Photograph everything as it was when you found it. Wear gloves. Avoid doing anything that could contaminate the samples. And always keep notes on where you found evidence, when you collected it, how you stored it, and who had it at what time. Meticulously maintaining a “chain of custody” – a record of how evidence has been handled – helps protect the integrity of the evidence. And in case of deliberate or accidental mishandling, it helps identify whether and how much its integrity has been damaged. It’s easy to see why this is important. How can we trust DNA testing on, for example, an article of clothing found at a crime scene, if we have no idea how it was handled and stored on the way from the scene to the lab? If it was handled with bare hands (or previously used glov...