Greater response cardinality indirectly reduces confidence

Koriat's Self-Consistency Model of subjective confidence proposes that the consistency and accessibility with which a response is retrieved are cues to confidence in the accuracy of that response. The Self-Consistency Model, however, has only been assessed using two-alternative forced-choice questions. Consideration of open-ended questions suggested that response cardinality—the number of unique response options that might come to mind—should directly reduce response consistency, and thus indirectly reduce confidence. Australian undergraduate students (N?=?389) completed a 20-item open-ended general-knowledge test with confidence ratings attached to each answer. Replicating previous Self-Consistency Model findings, but in an open-ended format for the first time, consistency and accessibility were independent positive predictors of confidence, though the prediction of accessibility did not reach statistical significance. Extending the model, the number of unique responses given by participants, a measure of response cardinality, was found to be a strong negative predictor of consistency and indirect negative predictor of confidence. Implications of the results therefore include the use of simple strategies such as prompting or providing varying numbers of response options as potentially effective for manipulating cardinality and thus confidence.     

The Impact of Multifaceted Questions on Eyewitness Accuracy Following Forced Fabrication Interviews

Lawyers will frequently use complex-question forms, such as multifaceted questions (single questions that contain both a true and a false proposition), when cross-examining witnesses, and prior research has shown that use of such questions reduces testimonial accuracy. The present study extends this research by using a forced fabrication paradigm (Chrobak & Zaragoza, 2008) to assess how multifaceted questions might affect eyewitness suggestibility after exposure to misleading post-event information. Consistent with prior studies, the use of multifaceted questions led to lower accuracy than simple questions. The novel finding was that multifaceted questions caused larger impairments in performance among fabrication participants (who had earlier been suggestively interviewed), than in control participants (who had not). We also provide preliminary evidence that the impairment caused by multifaceted questions is due to both (a) having to consider two propositions simultaneously, and (b) the shift in question focus from the fabricated event to a true event.     

Different answers to different audiences: effects of social context on the accuracy-informativeness trade-off

Research on conversational exchanges shows that people attempt to optimise their responses’ relevance when they definitely know the correct answer (e.g., “What time is it?”). However, such certainty is often unavailable while speakers may still be under social pressure to provide an answer. We investigated how social context influences the informativeness level when answering questions under uncertainty. In three experiments, participants answered difficult general-knowledge questions placed in different social contexts (formal vs. informal). Participants generated their answers, then they were presented with a given context, and decided on the number of alternative responses they wanted to provide (single, with one alternative vs. plural, with several alternatives) and whether the answer should be reported or withheld (report option). Participants reported more answers in the informal context. In the formal context, single answers were preferred, and they were more frequently reported. We conclude that social context influences the level of informativeness in a conversation, affecting achievable accuracy. Our results also show the joint influence of the confidence and the social context on willingness to share information.     

The influence of lawyers' questions on witness accuracy,confidence, and reaction times and on mock jurors' interpretation of witness accuracy

Two studies demonstrate the influence of lawyers' complex questions on mock‐witness accuracy, confidence, and reaction times and on the interpretation of witness accuracy by mock jurors. In study one, 32 mock witnesses were shown a short film and then questioned either with lawyers' complex questions or simple alternatives. In Study 2, 20 mock jurors viewed video footage of the mock witnesses assigned to each of the two previous conditions and were asked to rate their confidence in the witnesses' answers. The findings of the two studies indicated that lawyers' use of confusing questions reduce not only accuracy but also speed of response and both witnesses' and jurors' ability to determine accuracy. The implication of these findings is straightforward, lawyers should ask simple questions wherever possible. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Family therapists as front line mental health providers in war-affected regions: using reflecting teams, scaling questions, and family members in a hospital in Central Africa

This paper will illustrate the utilization of systemic family therapy services inside a hospital in a war-affected region of the Central African Republic. Through an international non-governmental organization (NGO), the author, a family therapist, provided counselling supervision and services to hospital staff and patients in an area of open conflict in the northern region of the country. In circumstances of chronic insecurity fuelled by both government and rebel forces, families displaced in this region are vulnerable to numerous health conditions and social problems. Family therapy techniques and ideas were used to work with individuals, couples and families presenting with health and social problems resulting from HIV-TB, infections, chronic malnutrition, acute poisoning and beliefs about sorcery. Case examples illustrate the systems consultation model used with the mental health team in order to expand and promote the sustainability of patient mental healthcare in this underserved region.     

Questions about questions: New views on an old prejudice

The belief that good analysts do not ask, and do not answer, questions is a still-living strange recommendation, transmitted throughout psychoanalytic generations. The authors have extensively reviewed electronic databases and technical texts. They found that interrogative acts are largely omitted from technical considerations, generating a prejudice that does not consider questions as proper psychoanalytic tools, and they discuss possible foundations for this belief. The authors believe that the few authors that have touched on this issue have done so in a non-systematic and frequently incomplete form. Linguistic philosophy presents questions as speech acts : actions that are able to alter the equilibrium of dialogical discourses. This view permits psychoanalysts to understand the potentiality of questions to introduce psychic change because they can, simultaneously, interfere in the self, in the other and in the intersubjective relationship. An internal state of curiosity is described as a component of the mind of the analyst. Based on the argument of the ubiquity of the state of curiosity of the analyst, the authors carried out a set of technical propositions, regarding, on the one hand, when questions are not to be introduced (for instance, in the presence of free associations) and, on the other hand, when they would be useful as expanding factors of the preconscious-conscious system. Considering psychoanalyses as experiences of curiosity, they emphasize that both the internal state of curiosity of the analyst, and the eventual verbal questions put to the patient are potentially positive factors for psychic change. The authors present several clinical vignettes.     

The effect of long‐term training on police officers' use of open and closed questions in field investigative interviews of children (FIIC)

This study intends to assess the effect of long‐term training on police officers' use of open and closed questions in investigative interviews of children. One hundred field investigative interviews of children were divided into two groups based on the interviewers' level of competence (training and experience). The police officers' questions were classified into groups of either open or closed. In all interviews, the mean numbers were 20 open and 217 closed questions, corresponding to an open–closed question ratio of 1:10. The most competent interviewers used 22 open questions and the less competent used 19 open questions, but the difference was not statistically significant. Analyses of variance (ANOVA) showed a significant effect of question but no main effect of competence. ANOVA revealed a descending number of open questions during the interviews, whilst the distribution of closed questions showed an inverted U distribution with most frequent use of closed questions in the middle part of the interviews. Possible strategies of enhancing the use of open questions are discussed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

重估测谎决策的Bayes推断试验

谎与非谎的情绪反应没有独立的客观标准,以Polygrapy构成技术的测谎缺乏稳定的效度。本研究尝试运用Bayes方法分析一项实测案例,计算两名被试的低显性测谎反应结果,使准确判决有谎的概率由机会水平50％分别调整到可明确分辩的74％和49％,从决策分析角度为改良测谎程序和提高测谎效率提供了一种新的操作思路。