CFI Psychological Aspects of Interviewing 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which psychological phenomenon causes individuals to accept a false narrative as their own memory after repeated exposure to misleading information?
- Source monitoring error
- Memory implantation (Correct answer)
- Confabulation
- Retroactive interference
Correct answer: Memory implantation
Memory implantation occurs when repeated exposure to post-event misinformation causes a person to incorporate false details into their actual memory.
Question 2: In the context of forensic interviewing, 'cognitive load' is most useful because it:
- Increases a subject's willingness to confess
- Makes deception harder to sustain simultaneously with narrative demands (Correct answer)
- Reduces the interviewer's emotional involvement
- Improves the subject's long-term memory retrieval
Correct answer: Makes deception harder to sustain simultaneously with narrative demands
High cognitive load taxes the working memory needed to maintain a fabricated story, which can cause inconsistencies in deceptive accounts.
Question 3: A subject's sudden shift from cooperative body language to closed posture directly after a specific question is best interpreted as:
- Definitive proof of deception
- A reliable indicator of guilt
- A behavioral change worthy of further exploration (Correct answer)
- A sign the interview should be terminated
Correct answer: A behavioral change worthy of further exploration
Behavioral changes in context are noteworthy cues that warrant follow-up, but no single nonverbal signal is a reliable indicator of deception on its own.
Question 4: The psychological concept of 'anchoring bias' in forensic interviewing refers to:
- A subject anchoring their alibi to a specific time
- An interviewer over-relying on the first information received when evaluating a case (Correct answer)
- Using spatial anchors to help a witness recall a scene
- A technique to stabilize an emotionally volatile interviewee
Correct answer: An interviewer over-relying on the first information received when evaluating a case
Anchoring bias occurs when the interviewer's initial impressions or early case information unduly influence the interpretation of subsequent evidence.
Question 5: Which stage of Kübler-Ross's grief model is most commonly misidentified as deceptive resistance during a forensic interview?
- Acceptance
- Bargaining
- Denial (Correct answer)
- Depression
Correct answer: Denial
The denial stage can appear as adamant rejection of facts, which untrained interviewers may mistake for deliberate deception rather than a grief response.
Question 6: A forensic interviewer uses open-ended prompts to allow free recall primarily because:
- It is faster than structured questioning
- Free recall produces more accurate but less complete information than direct questioning
- Suggestibility is minimized when subjects generate their own narrative (Correct answer)
- It satisfies legal requirements for admissible statements
Correct answer: Suggestibility is minimized when subjects generate their own narrative
Open-ended prompts reduce interviewer-induced contamination, preserving the subject's original memory trace and minimizing suggestibility.
Question 7: Psychological 'reactance' in a forensic interview setting most likely manifests as:
- A subject becoming more forthcoming after being praised
- A subject becoming resistant or contrary when they perceive their autonomy is threatened (Correct answer)
- A witness spontaneously correcting an earlier false statement
- An interviewer abandoning a line of questioning due to emotional discomfort
Correct answer: A subject becoming resistant or contrary when they perceive their autonomy is threatened
Reactance theory predicts that people resist perceived threats to their freedom, which can cause an interviewee to become oppositional when they feel coerced.
CFI Psychological Aspects of Interviewing 2
Which psychological phenomenon causes individuals to accept a false narrative as their own memory after repeated exposure to misleading information?