Cognitive Interview & Admissions Flashcards
7 cards from real CFA practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Cognitive Interview & Admissions flashcards as text
A subject who provides an unusually detailed alibi immediately and without prompting is exhibiting a behavior known as:
Answer: Volunteered over-explanation
Volunteering excessive detail to establish an alibi unprompted is a classic behavioral indicator of deception, as innocent subjects typically wait to be asked.
Which of the following best describes the 'reverse order recall' technique used in cognitive interviews?
Answer: Asking the subject to replay events starting from the end and working backward
Reverse order recall disrupts a rehearsed false narrative because fabricated stories are harder to recount backward than genuine memories.
When an interviewee responds to a direct accusation with an immediate, emphatic denial ('I absolutely did NOT do that!'), experienced fraud examiners interpret this as:
Answer: A behavioral baseline requiring further evaluation
No single behavior is conclusive for deception or truthfulness; emphatic denials must be evaluated against the subject's established baseline and other behavioral clusters.
The 'soft accusation' technique in admission-seeking interviews involves:
Answer: Stating the examiner's belief in guilt gently to gauge the subject's reaction
A soft accusation delivers the examiner's conclusion of culpability in a low-key manner, then observes whether the subject's response is a plausible denial or a confession-adjacent reaction.
An interviewer who promises a subject that 'everything will be easier if you just tell the truth' may create legal risk because:
Answer: The promise could be construed as an inducement that renders any admission involuntary
Inducements—including implied promises of leniency—can make subsequent admissions legally involuntary and therefore inadmissible or challengeable in court.
Which seating condition BEST supports the cognitive interview goal of maximizing a witness's memory retrieval?
Answer: A quiet, comfortable environment with minimal distractions
A calm, distraction-free environment allows the subject to allocate full cognitive resources to memory retrieval rather than managing environmental stressors.
In fraud examination, a subject who says 'to be honest with you' or 'to tell you the truth' as a qualifier may be signaling:
Answer: That prior statements may not have been entirely truthful
Qualifiers like 'to be honest' implicitly raise the question of why honesty needed to be explicitly stated, suggesting possible deception in earlier or surrounding statements.