Jacques Py

Cost and benefit of a new instruction for the cognitive interview: the open depth instruction

The quality and the quantity of information recalled by eyewitnesses during a criminal investigation is of crucial importance. To increase the volume of details recalled during an interview, the cognitive interview recommends using various retrieval strategies to enhance recall. We tested a new retrieval instruction, the open depth (OD) instruction. The efficacy of this new instruction was assessed with the number of unit of information and the accuracy rate. We also assessed the cost-and-benefit of this new instruction with measures of repetition. Students watched a video of a simulated robbery and participated later in face-to-face interviews. In Study 1 (N=60), the cognitive interview using the OD instruction increased recall compared to the interview using the change of perspective (CP) instruction, without affecting the accuracy rate. The redundancy rate was higher with the OD instruction than with the CP instruction. In Study 2 (N=40), the OD instruction generated more new information without affecting the accuracy rate than the interview using motivated recall (MR) instruction. The repeated information to new information ratio was lower with the OD instruction than with the MR instruction. The advantages of the OD instruction for investigative interviewing purposes are discussed.

Academic Judgment and Institutional Evaluation Made by Teachers According to Pupils' Explanatory Activity.

The influence of sixth-graders’ explanatory activity was studied on their teachers’ academic judgment. Concerning the pupils’ explanatory activity, trait-related internal explanations were chosen more to explain positive events than negative ones, whereas the reverse was observed for effort/intention-related internal explanations. In response to positive and negative events, the trait-related and effort/related internal explanations were socially valued, whereas external explanations (Situational factors and others’ traits; Luck and others’ efforts and intentions) were socially devalued. Concerning teachers’ judgment, the more pupils chose traits and the less they chose lack of effort/intention to explain the negative events, and the less they chose traits and the more they chose effort/intention to explain the positive events, the more teachers attributed socially desirable traits to them. The more pupils chose effort/intention to explain the positive and negative events and the less they chose luck and others’ effort/intention to explain the negative events, the more teachers’ attributed socially useful traits to them (if the pupils do not value these internal explanations and devalue these external explanations). The results are discussed in reference to the social functions implied by the academic judgment.RésuméLes effets de l’activité explicative d’élèves de 6ème sur le jugement émis par leurs enseignants ont été étudiés. Concernant l’activité explicative des élèves, les explications internes-traits ont été davantage choisies en réponse aux événements positifs plutôt que négatifs, l’inverse s’observant pour les explications internes-efforts/intentions. Les explications internes (traits; efforts/intentions) sont apparues socialement valorisées et les explications externes (facteurs situationnels et traits d’autrui; chance, efforts et intentions d’autrui) socialement dévalorisées en réponse aux événements positifs et négatifs. Concernant le jugement des enseignants, plus les élèves ont expliqué les événements négatifs par des traits et moins par un manque d’effort/intention, et plus ils ont expliqué les événements positifs par leur effort/intention et moins par des traits, plus les enseignants leur ont attribué des traits socialement désirables. Enfin, plus les élèves ont choisi des explications (1) en termes d’effort/intention en réponse aux événements positifs et négatifs, et (2) en termes de chance et de manque d’effort/intention d’autrui pour les événements négatifs, plus leurs enseignants leur ont attribué des traits socialement utiles, à condition que les élèves valorisent peu ces explications internes et dévalorisent peu ces explications externes. Les résultats sont discutés en référence aux fonctions sociales impliquées par le jugement scolaire.

Questioning the acceptability of the Cognitive Interview to improve its use

Resume L’entretien cognitif est une methode d’audition des temoins et victimes de crimes et delits qui permet d’obtenir des temoignages plus exhaustifs et aussi exacts que ceux obtenus a partir d’un questionnement classique de type questions/reponses. L’ancrage scientifique de son elaboration, faisant reference a plusieurs modeles du fonctionnement de la memoire, est probablement la raison majeure de son succes aupres de la communaute scientifique. Du cote des utilisateurs potentiels, a savoir majoritairement des professionnels de la justice, son utilisation n’est pas systematique, meme pour ceux qui ont ete intensivement formes. Emerge alors la question de l’adequation de l’entretien cognitif aux caracteristiques d’une audition reelle de terrain. Dans un premier temps, nous presenterons les etudes ayant montre l’utilite de l’entretien cognitif tout en testant sa fiabilite en fonction de diverses caracteristiques de la situation d’audition, et en fonction des caracteristiques des temoins. Ensuite, nous questionnerons les couts et la compatibilite de l’entretien cognitif avec les differentes phases et les differents objectifs de l’enquete. Suite a cela, nous questionnerons l’utilisabilite de l’entretien cognitif, a travers son apprentissage, puis en presentant les solutions jusqu’alors proposees pour ameliorer son utilisabilite. Enfin notre conclusion portera sur l’acceptabilite sociale de cette technique d’entretien par les professionnels de la justice.

The explanatory production among fourth-graders to ninth-graders: Impact of institutional and social demands on the development of unstable internal causality

The causal explanation has an effect: (1) on expectancy and value at an intra-individual level (Weiner, 2000); (2) on feeling and affective evaluation at an interpersonal level (Weiner 2000); and (3) on institutional judgment at an organizational level (Dubois, 2003). A study was conducted with pupils between the 4th and 9th grades in order to explore how evident these constraints are in the production of causal explanations in response to daily events The analyses of variance performed on the number of explanations produced (for each type of explanation — internal stable, internal, unstable, external stable and external unstable) indicated, firstly, that the number of explanations of all four types increased with school grade. Secondly, academic events elicited more internal unstable explanations and did so to a greater extent as school grade increased. They also elicited more internal stable explanations and fewer external (stable or unstable) explanations than non-academic events. Thirdly, pupils produced more internal stable explanations in response to positive compared to negative events, whereas the reverse was observed for internal unstable explanations. These results are discussed in reference to the two constraints involved in explanations of daily events: an organisational constraint relating to the existence of social valorization of internal explanations and an intra-individual constraint bound to the preservation of self-esteem.RésuméL’explication causale a un effet (1) sur les attentes entretenues et la valeur de soi à un niveau intraindividuel (Weiner, 2000), (2) sur les émotions ressenties et l’évaluation affective à un niveau interpersonnel (Weiner 2000), et (3) sur le jugement institutionnel à un niveau organisationnel (Dubois, 2003). Une étude a été menée avec des élèves scolarisés de la classe de CM1 à la classe de 3ème pour explorer comment ces différentes contraintes transparaissent dans la production explicative en réponse à des événements quotidiens. Les analyses de la variance menées sur le nombre d’explications internes stables, internes instables, externes stables et externes instables, ont indiqué que le volume de ces quatre types explicatifs a augmenté avec le niveau de scolarisation. Les événements scolaires ont suscité davantage d’explications internes instables, d’autant plus que le niveau de scolarisation était important, davantage d’explications internes stables et moins d’explications externes stables et instables que les événements non scolaires. Enfin, les élèves ont produit davantage d’explications internes stables pour les événements positifs plutôt que négatifs, l’inverse s’observant pour les explications internes instables. L’ensemble des résultats est discuté en référence de l’intervention dans la production explicative d’une contrainte organisationnelle relative à l’existence de la valorisation sociale des explications internes et d’une contrainte intraindividuelle liée à la préservation de la valeur de soi.

Is the social representation of nanotechnology anchored in that of GMOs

The use of nanotechnology (devices/materials composed of parts less than 10 nanometres) in the development of new products is rapidly expanding. Industrialists and decision-makers consider nanotechnology to be the next industrial revolution, but fear they risk the same resistance to nanotechnology that their counterparts experienced with genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Although risk perception studies have shown that perceived risk of GMOs is quite high compared to that related to nanotechnology, no study to date has explored a potential direct social representation link between the two. The present study aims to fill that gap by comparing the social representations of nanotechnology and GMOs among a population of non-experts. This study was conducted with 282 students in human and social sciences and natural sciences. Using a free association task with the inductive words ‘nanotechnology’ and ‘GMO (genetically modified organism)’, we identified the existing social representations of the two based on a structural approach. While the representation of GMOs is objectified in the field of agriculture, objectification for nanotechnology seems to still be lacking, although its possible objectification likely lies in computing and robotics. Our calculation of the rate of similarity of associative words with nanotechnology and GMOs indicated no present, direct link between their social representations. We discuss the possible evolution of the social representation of nanotechnology over time.

Capturing the scene: efficacy test of the re-enactment investigative instruction

Purpose As eyewitnesses provide the most valuable information for criminal investigations, it is important to further develop and test techniques for collecting eyewitness testimony so that they meet the major objective of a police interview: obtaining details pertaining to criminal actions. The purpose of this paper is to test a new instruction – the re-enactment investigative instruction – formulated to collect the most fine-grained details of a criminal event as accurately as possible. It leads the interviewee to decompose all directly recollected actions into the most minimal actions so that the event can be accurately re-enacted. Design/methodology/approach In all, 40 participants individually viewed a video depicting a robbery, were randomly assigned to a re-enactment or structured interview (SI) group and then interviewed face-to-face. Each interview was comprised of two free recall phases and a questioning phase. Manipulation of the re-enactment instruction took place in the second free recall phase of the re-enactment interviews (RIs). Findings The RI elicited more correct information compared to the SI (d=1.14), and slightly but not significantly less incorrect information (d=0.09). Participants in the RI condition reported significantly more details pertaining to general and specific actions. Practical implications The re-enactment instruction shows the potential to increase witness recall in a way that promotes recall of both additional correct information and investigative-relevant information. Originality/value The instruction provides witnesses a retrieval strategy that facilitates overcoming both the gap between memory availability and accessibility and the gap between memory availability and output regulation, eliciting more details with no significant increase of errors.

Promoting responsible gambling via prevention messages: insights from the evaluation of actual European messages

Abstract Prevention messages are short sentences supposed to broadcast preventive intentions. Three types of messages are noticeable: messages correcting erroneous beliefs, messages informing about the risks and messages promoting responsible gambling. While the results in the literature about messages promoting results are alerting, they are frequently used in European prevention campaigns. The present study relied on language and semantics models to evaluate the communicative and preventive values of 14 messages: 7 were actual European prevention messages and 7 messages were created for the study. Overall, 339 participants answered an online questionnaire in which they evaluated the communicative value of one of the messages and then ranked all the messages according to their preventive level. Results showed that messages informing about the risks and messages correcting erroneous beliefs have a higher level of communicative value than messages promoting responsible gambling. Indeed, the latter are judged as more ambiguous and as less preventive than the two other types of messages. As models of conversational pragmatics suggest that ambiguous messages convey at least two interpretations, the article discusses the possibility that individuals comprehend these messages as incentives to control their impulses (prevention) and incentives to control the game (promotion).