ABSTRACT
During trials, judges often admonish the jurors to disregard something they have seen or heard that fails to qualify as admissible evidence (Tanford, 1990). These admonitions, which are sometimes called “curative instructions,” vary in complexity. Sometimes the jurors are told to ignore a particular fact or statement altogether. Sometimes they are instructed to use a piece of evidence conditionally—that is, to draw inferences from it only if they determine that certain conditions are met, and otherwise to ignore it. Sometimes they are instructed to use a piece of evidence for a limited purpose—that is, they are told that they may use it to draw one type of inference, but not another.
