Marcus Boccaccini, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Psychology

Research interests include mental retardation in death penalty cases, test construction, witness testimony, and jury research.
Research Program
AB IV, Room 325
936/294-1179
Curriculum Vita
BOCCACCNI@shsu.edu
Research Program
My research program focuses broadly on the intersection of clinical psychology and the legal system. In general, I am interested in conducting research that provides useful information for practitioners, attorneys, and consultants. If you would like to know more about the full range of topics on which I conduct research, please review my C.V. Below are brief descriptions of interests in the areas of mental retardation and witness testimony.
Mental retardation in death penalty cases:

My work in the area of mental retardation focuses on how psychologists go about conducting evaluations of capital defendants and death row inmates. I'm especially interested in how psychologists assess and make decisions about adaptive behavior (day-to-day living skills) in capital cases. Current tests for assessing adaptive behavior were not developed with capital case issues in mind and the validity of these tests for capital case evaluations is not known. I'm interested in how psychologists use these existing tests and in conducting research within criminal populations to provide an empirical foundation for making conclusions about the appropriate use of these tests.

I'm also interested in laypersons' perceptions of the types of impairment in adaptive behavior that are associated with mental retardation. Thus far, my students' work in this area suggests that laypersons expect persons with mental retardation to demonstrate excessively severe levels of impairment, which has important implications for how attorneys and experts communicate information about adaptive functioning to judges and jurors. Several of my graduate students are conducting a systematic review of trial transcripts from death penalty cases to determine a) how well attorneys question experts about adaptive behavior, and b) how well experts communicate information about adaptive behavior in response to attorney questions.

Witness testimony:

My witness testimony research focuses on preparing witnesses to testify in court. My early research in this area suggested that commonly used witness preparation training techniques led to both positive and negative changes in testimony quality. Prepared witnesses appeared more composed and less nervous, but they also appeared stiff and rigid. I'm currently working with several graduate students to a) identify the specific components of the witness preparation training program that produce these negative effects, and b) develop a modified training program that does not produce these effects.

Please e-mail me if you would like to know more about my research program.