Finding reliable sources for academic purposes ~ W A L S Imali (Portfolio Assignment PLU 3206)

 Why we need reliable resources for studies?

image 1: https://sure.nlb.gov.sg/tng/surevivors-activity4/

    Finding reliable sources is most important in acquiring information on academic matters, especially when it comes to acquiring facts, perspective, or clarification of facts. At present, finding a reliable source is more challenging than before. If someone wants to find credible sources, the most effective technique is to be doubtful.

    To obtain real facts on an academic matters, it is important to find sources that are unbiased on issues. Reliable sources are written to teach or inform a reader. To find such sources, several steps can be used. First, check the author’s credentials and affiliations. Author’s experience and his expertise knowledge to write about the subject matter are important. Should check whether the author cites additional sources in his article/paper. The source must be created by a reputable publisher, and most importantly, should check if the source is up to date. Lastly, examine if there are any endorsements or reviews of the actual source. Above all facts should be used by students, when finding reliable sources. However it’s best to search for scholarly articles or sections written by educational organizations for details and valued information.

 

Image 2:  https://paperpile.com/g/find-credible-sources/

 How to find whether we are using an unreliable resource:

1.      * Have a ~ in URL, out of date, not frequently updated or purpose is to sell something.

2.      * Not list contact information and resources

3.     *  Find lot of questions after read it

4.      * Have a lot of broken links or old information

5.     *  Author seems to be full of biases and is only giving opinions rather than facts

6.      * Author’s background does not match with the topic and he does not shows evidence of being knowledgeable, reliable, and truthful

7.     *  Bad grammar or misspelled words

8.      * Numbers or statistics that are presented without an identified source

 

What are the basics of using textbooks?

    Academic books, such as textbooks, written by experts in the relevant field are considered reliable sources. Such books go through a quality process under publishers where editors manage the publication of the book and give recommendations.

    Though the textbooks are excellent sources of information, they are not always reliable. Because the content in book could be out of date as the long turn around between submission and publication. Books are rarely peer-reviewed and will be edited, but the editors are not always specialists in the relevant subject. 

 

What are the basics of using peer-reviewed journal articles?

    Peer-reviewed journal articles are always considered as the most reliable sources. Peer-review is a quality process that articles in scholarly journals must undertake. Editors and publishers of scholarly journals look for experts/ peer-reviewers, to read through and assess the article. Peer-reviewers are qualified and well experienced experts in the same field as the author. Peer-reviewers submit comments that the author must obey to have his or her article published in that specific journal. Usually, more than one peer-reviewer evaluates each article. Peer-reviewers never get financial support for this. 

What are the basics of using internet?

    Internet based websites are not peer-reviewed sources and not all of them consider as reliable sources. Websites hosted by public institutions however, in most instances qualify as reliable sources. internet has possibility to giving faulty or biased information as anyone can write and post anything.

The following criteria can be used to assess the reliability of websites as sources:

* Reliable party

Who is the author of the material? Can the author be contacted? Does the author has knowledge in this particular field. Has the author written more on the material? Google the author, search for his or her name in library systems.

* Who publishes the web page, that is, who hosts the web page? Is it a reliable party?
Look at the first part of the URL.

* Also check the endings of the address whether it ends,
.gov (governmental entity)
.edu (educational institution)
.org (organisation)
.com (commercial entity – business and/or services)

* Unbiased discussion

What is the purpose of the website? Is it to marketing, educate, for opinions, publish facts, news? How detailed is the information presented? Is the discussion one-sided.

 * Information that has to consider

When was the website created? last updated? Are the links active? 

    Sometimes journal articles on the internet which we can find using Google or Google Scholar may not be peer-reviewed. Try to find out in what journal the article in question has appeared. Examine the website of the journal, paying most attention to “Submission guidelines” or “Information for authors” where it is specified what quality process articles published in that particular journal must undertake. 

    A source is credible when it is trustworthy. Sometimes it is not easy to determine whether a source is credible or not. Presenting false information without any credentials or proof can be done by anyone, especially online. Sources can often appear as credible even when they are not. Therefore we have to use appropriate methods to find credible sources for the purpose of learning.

References

Communication and Study skills for Psychology, Faculty of Health Science, Department of                     Psychology  and counseling, Open University of Sri Lanka

Parson, V. (2012). Study and Communication Skills for Psychology

How Do You Check the Reliability of Sources of Information? (n.d.). Https://Sure.Nlb.Gov.Sg/. https://sure.nlb.gov.sg/tng/surevivors-activity4/

K. (2012, November 5). Finding reliable sources. Slideshare. https://www.slideshare.net/kivers1/finding-reliable-sources

Credible resources ~ W A Imali

Can we use Google or Wikipedia to find credible resources?

Anyone can post in Wikipedia, and when you search Google (or any other search engines), the sites that appear at the top are the most popular sites OR they are the sites that pay the most money to get listed at the top.

image 1: https://www.slideshare.net/ElisabethTully/defending-the-truth-in-a-wikipedia-world

Some common domain names which are important

.edu - education sites- be sure that they have clearly identified who they are. An educational website can be written by any student with space on their college’s server. It does not mean the site is automatically reliable.

.gov - government sites- be sure that they have clearly identified who they are.

.org - organization sites- published by non-profit organizations- read the information that describes who they are and why they are publishing this information. Find out if they are being sponsored by other reputable organizations.

 .com - commercial sites- usually this means the site’s purpose is to generate revenue in some way. Determine how they are trying to do this

.net - network infrastructures- read the information that describes who they are and why they are publishing this information

Tips for evaluating websites:

Evaluating Web pages requires three actions:

 –Be suspicious

– Think critically about every page you find

– Constantly consider your intended use of the web

# Look for the author's name near the top or the bottom of the page. If you can't find a name, look for a copyright credit (©) or link to an organization.

# Look for biographical information or the author's affiliations (university department, organization, corporate title, etc.). Their background information should be related to the topic of the page in some way.

# Anyone who has visited a chat room knows that people don't always identify themselves accurately, so look for the author’s information in other sources.

# Look for an email link, address, or phone number for the author. A responsible author should give you the means to contact him/her

Eyewitness Memory ~ W A Imali

Eyewitness testimony [EWT] is evidence of events that occurred, actions that were performed or words that were spoken, given in court by a person who observed the events or actions at first hand or heard the words being spoken. (Colman, 2015, p. 269) 

EWT is a legal term that critically important in the justice system. It is essential in all criminal trials to recreate evidences from past events. US Psychologist Elizabeth F. Loftus has been studied and discussed in her book “Eyewitness Testimony” (Loftus, 1996) how subsequent information can affect an eyewitness’s description of an event. Her main focus has been on the influence of misleading information in terms of both visual imagery and wording of questions in relation to EW. In her original experiment, participants view a video recording of two cars colliding and they were asked how fast cars were going when they hit.

Experiment 1

Here participants used the word smashed, collided, bumped or contacted instead of hit. EW might be biased by the way questions are asked after accident. The misleading information may have simply influenced the answer a person gave. Some critical words would lead to have a perception of the accident being more serious.  When participant hearing the word ‘smashed’, actually imagine the accident as more severe than the participant hearing the word ‘contacted’.

Experiment 2:

Students were shown a video of a multiple car crash. One week later they were called back and asked was there any broken glass? (No broken glasses in the video). Memory is easily misleading by questioning technique and information acquired after the event can merge with original memory affecting inaccurate recall.

 

Links which are related to the Case Study:

1.   https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetailpre1989.aspx?caseid=331

1.   https://www.seattleweekly.com/news/when-30-year-old-steve-titus-was-arrested-for-the-rape-of-a-teen/

3.    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PB2OegI6wvI

Image: Steve Titus 

On October 12, 1980, a 17 years old female traveler called Celia Dalton was raped near the Seattle International Airport, Washington. Seattle Police described the rapist as around 30 years old, who has a royal blue car with temporary license plates and that car should have seat covers which made by fabric. And rapist was having a beard also. Steve Titus was arrested by Port of Seattle police and identified by the victim from a group of six photographs containing front and profile shots of Titus and five other people.

Such lineups are supposed to include people of the same race and who are not so obviously different from the suspect that the latter would stand out as the only possible perpetrator. However in this situation Titus’s photo were a different size compare to other pictures and it was the only picture in which showing a smiling face. And also it was the only picture which was a full face shot that was not separated by a black line. After looking at the photo lineup victim pointed at the picture of Titus. But she hesitantly said “This one is the closest one” and again added “it has to be this one” (Olsen, 1991)

Therefore Steve Titus was wrongly convicted in March 1981 of raping Dalton. Titus was tried and convinced based on the unverified testimony of the witness. He remained free on bail while protesting his innocence and was waiting for sentence to be imposed.

Seattle Times reporter Paul Henderson became interested in Titus' case and reporter Henderson's investigation found evidence that another girl had been attacked by serial rapist Edward Lee King recently, who lived in few miles from the airport. In July 1981 King was charged with three rapes, including the one Titus had been imprisoned. When the victim, Dalton recognized her mistake, she broke down and cried, apologized for having made such a serious misidentification. However Titus has lost faith in the justice system, lost his job and girlfriend. He became obsessed with what had happened to him. He died of a stress related heart attack at age 35.

Human memory is not an exact mirror of our experience And Titus case as an example of how careful we must be when human memory is involved in a law suit." (Henderson, 1981)

“These things just don’t happen accidentally. There’s always an element of misconduct”, said by Paul Henderson. (Anderson, 2013). The victim identified Titus in court, and Port police attached series of events and EWT that linked Titus and his car to the crime scene. Therefore it had enough evidence to prove that Titus is guilty. Henderson learned that the victim’s memory of her attacker was not clear, and that she had been directed by police to identify Titus as the perpetrator.

 Elizabeth Loftus is an American cognitive psychologist and expert on human memory. In her TED Talk she focuses on false memories.  Titus was arrested as his vehicle and physical appearance were similar to the actual culprit. By the time trial came up, victim altered her testimony and said she was “absolutely positive that’s the man,” referring to Titus. Based on this EWT, a jury imprisoned Titus. Loftus’s question is how the victim’s memory went from ‘closest’ to a ‘positive’ identification? Here the eyewitness is looking to find nearest match to the person they saw, not the actual one.

Loftus has found that many people believe that their memory works like a recording device, where you can call it up and replay it. But it is actually like a Wikipedia page, misinformation is everywhere and anyone can change it. During the EWT, misinformation generates due to the seriousness of crime, environmental conditions, lengthy view of crime scene, illumination, arousal level and time delay between the witnessing of the crime and testifying. When someone is fed misinformation, their memory can be inaccurate and fabricated.

We still believe EW as one of the most convincing methods of evidence presented in court. But if individuals are failed in recalling how accurate can EWT be? There various factors contributing to the unreliability of eyewitness identification have been explored by Loftus, 1979. There are 3 main factors contributing to misidentifications. First, there are psychological factors of the witness such as anxiety/ stress, reconstructive Memory, weapon Focus, leading questions.

Second, there are systematic factors related to functions of the criminal justice system including procedures used for lineup identification and suggestions that may be introduced during investigation and identification.

Third, there are faults in eyewitness identification influence by social and cultural expectations and difficulties with cross-racial identification, which may introduce confusion even there is no bias. All three of these factors contribute to the administration of criminal justice and persuasions of the guiltiness.

However the psychological research has suggested best way to improve the accuracy and fairness of EWT using cognitive interview (CI). In CI; eyewitness should reports everything they can think relating to the incident, the eyewitness tries to recreate mentally the setting that existed at the time and their state of memory, report in several different sequential orders moving backwards and forwards in time, the eyewitness is encouraged to report the details from different perspectives. These techniques all designed to enhance retrieval of the original memory and to provide extra clues that might help to push witnesses’ memory. And to improve the EW justice, it should educate judges and juries about the science so they can better evaluate eyewitnesses who testify in court as well.  

 

References

Anderson, R. (2013, May 2). When 30-year-old Steve Titus was arrested for the rape of a... Seattle Weekly. https://www.seattleweekly.com/news/when-30-year-old-steve-titus-was-arrested-for-the-rape-of-a-teen/

Colman, A. M. (2015). Eyewitness Testimony. In Oxford Dictionary of Psychology (4th ed., p. 269). Oxford University Press.

Cousino, M. B. (n.d.). Steve Titus - National Registry of Exonerations Pre 1989. The National Registry of Exonerations. https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetailpre1989.aspx?caseid=331

False Memories and Memory Errors (The Mandela Effect!). (2019, November 14). [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=21&v=S2FUCZpT-_Q&feature=emb_logo

Henderson, P. (1981). Titus Smile [Image 4]. The Seattle Times. https://special.seattletimes.com/o/news/local/tituscase/lookingback.html

Henderson, P. (1981, July 2). Looking back at Titus case. The Seattle Times. https://special.seattletimes.com/o/news/local/tituscase/lookingback.html

Huff, R. C., Rattner, A., & Sagarin, E. (1996). Convicted but Innocent: Wrongful Conviction and Public Policy (1st ed.). SAGE Publications, Inc. https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=EpI5DQAAQBAJ&pg=PA85#v=onepage&q&f=false

How reliable is your memory? | Elizabeth Loftus. (2013, September 23). [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PB2OegI6wvI

Loftus, E. F. (1996). Eyewitness Testimony: With a New Preface (With a New Pref ed.) [E-book]. Harvard University Press.

May, K. T. (2013, June). The fiction of memory: Elizabeth Loftus at TEDGlobal 2013. TED Blog. https://blog.ted.com/tk-elizabeth-loftus-at-tedglobal-2013/

[Misinformation effect]. (n.d.). Slideplayer. https://slideplayer.com/slide/10254938/

Olsen, J. (1991). Predator: Rape, Madness, And Injustice In Seattle (First Edition). Delacorte Press.

Speed estimates in mph according to verb used. (n.d.). [Image 1,2]. West-1.Amazonaws.Com. https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/tutor2u-media/resource-samples/02-AQA-Psychology-RM-Application-Worksheets-Memory-SAMPLE.pdf?mtime=20170825104402