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Interrogation and Interviewing, problem 5, complete summary
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Legal Psychology, Maastricht University. Course Interrogation and Interviewing. Entire summary of problem 5. Passed course with an 8.0.
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Summary Problem 51. What is the Control Question Test (CQT) and how does it work?
Effectiveness, advantages, disadvantages. When can it be applied?
Offe, H., & Offe, S. (2007). The comparison question test: Does it work and if so how?
Studied the effectiveness of CQT in the lab under circumstances that are similar to real-life
circumstances, since explanations are given to examinees in actual interviews.
- 2 (presence explanation CQT: present vs. absent) x 2(presence discussion CQT: present vs.
absent) factorial design (N=55; 38 students and 27 law enforcement trainees)
Participants took part in mock crime polygraph in which guilt and innocence were randomly assigned.
Participants could choose if they wanted to be guilty or innocent in this mock crime which could bias
motivation. In the pre-test, participants either received detailed explanation in which the relevance
of the CQS was emphasized (explanation present) or no explanation (explanation absent). Then,
participants either discussed either the meanings of questions in between the test charts (discussion
CQT present) or had little break instead (discussion CQT absent). Peripheral blood flow, stomach
respiration, skin resistance and relative blood pressure were measured. Polygraph examination was
performed one week and 5 months after the crime.
Results
- Giving the examinee instructions about the relevance of comparison questions leads to
significantly more accurate identifications than not giving these.
- Guilty participants rated significantly higher subjective stress for relevant questions than for
control questions
- Innocent participants rated significantly higher subjective stress for comparison questions
compared to relevant questions.
This study is against Icoana’s study by saying that reliable results can be achieved and RQ and CQ
questions can be physiologically compared.
- Expected difference of stress between RQ and CQ corresponds to significance = successful!
When details were explained for guilty condition, decrease subjective stress!
CQ and RQ questions are robust to any kind of and variation and don’t chance identification rates.
Iacono, W. G. (2008). Effective policing - Understanding how polygraph tests work and are used.
Control or comparison question test (CQT): relevant questions paired with control questions
- Relevant question: deal with incident under investigation
- Control questions: Probe the integrity of a suspect by querying about possible past
misbehaviours that one who committed such a crime might also have engaged in.
“For a sexual abuse case: Have you ever committed a sexual act you were ashamed of?”
Likely to elicit lies or nervous denials.
Individual’s attention is involuntary channelled to whatever question holds the greatest
immediate threat to his/her well-being
Guilty relevant question
Innocent control question
Truthful people will respond more strongly to the control than to the relevant question.
Liars are expected to find the relevant questions of greater concern, so they’ll respond
more strongly to these questions.
- Laptop to digitize and record physiological reactions to the questions. The magnitude of each
type of physiological response to each control question and the relevant question with which it is
paired, is determined to estimate the likelihood of the examinee being truthful or deceptive.
Skin conductance
, Respiration
Cardiovascular activity
3 phases of interview:
1) Pre-test component: questions about honesty, nature of punishment, factual evidence about
the crime.
Goal: convince subject that control questions are same important as relevant questions. By
getting subject to agree that the kind of person to commit the particular crime, would also
be likely to engage in other criminal behaviours.
2) Questioning while reactions are recorded
3) Confronting suspect in attempt to obtain an admission or confession
Disadvantages
- There is no standardization for the CQT: results are not independent of the procedure followed.
This can affect test outcome. Even when 2 examiners are trained to administer the same CQT
protocol, the resulting CQTs will be different. because of this it’s more a semi-structured
interview than a scientific test.
Variations in: choice of questions, wording and ordering of questions, inclusion of other
questions besides relevant and controls, whether to include a stim test etc.
- Problem of innocent bias- you’re afraid and could be labelled as liar
If an innocent person is not lying in response to a control question, cannot think of a lie
associated with the control question, or has divulged all instances of lying during the
review of control questions carried out in the pretest interview (i.e., the subject actually
believes the examiner’s assertion that the CQT cannot be passed if any lie is held back), the
test will be failed. Hence, the CQT is biased against innocent suspects.
- Accuracy is low or undermined because there is no theoretical basis and countermeasures
possible (used by guilty to appear truthful)
- Validity is hard to check because it depends on emotions
- Large false negative errors
- Field:
Devoid of meaningful theory
Failed to accumulate knowledge
Relies on studies of poor quality
Ignores contradicting evidence regarding effectiveness of the technique
Continues to make claims unsubstantiated
Make claims that are hard to believe given what we know about human psychophysiology
Because the CQT (a) has a weak theoretical foundation, making it unlikely that it can be as accurate
as polygraph proponents claim, (b) is biased against the innocent, and (c) may be subject to
countermeasures used by the guilty to appear truthful, CQT results cannot constitute evidence of
either deception or truthfulness.
Benefits
- Easier to implement than GKT
Conclusion
- CQT cannot be used as the ultimate arbiter of truthfulness
- Innocents are more likely to fail than are guilty individuals to pass. This is supported in field
studies of CQT validity. CQT control questions do not provide adequate control for the emotional
impact of the threatening accusation contained in the relevant questions. Passed CQTs are more
credible than failed CQTs.
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