Van Dijk and Kintsch’s situation model as a means to improving juror comprehension

ABSTRACT

Although Van Dijk and Kintsch’s model of text comprehension has been shown to be an effective theory for describing many findings with academic implications, their model has far reaching potential beyond the classroom – perhaps into the courtroom. At the end of a criminal trial, jurors are provided with a set of instructions regarding how they should apply relevant law to the present case. Unfortunately, most current juror instructions are very difficult to comprehend. Though linguistically based simplifications of these instructions have improved comprehension for jury-eligible adults, comprehension remains quite poor resulting in jurors basing decisions on stereotypes and biases rather than the law. The present essay reviews some of the research that has been conducted on improving juror comprehension, the effectiveness of some of these attempts, and makes an argument for utilizing Van Dijk and Kintsch’s situation model as a vehicle for additional improvement in juror instructions and hence juror comprehension.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.