Centro de Documentação da PJ
Analítico de Periódico
CD 368
Transfer of avatar training effects to mock investigative interviews with adult witnesses [Recurso eletrónico] / Mari-Liis Tohvelmann ..[et al.]
European Law Enforcement Research Bulletin, Luxembourg, Special conference (Edition n. 7, 2026), p. 95-111
Edição especial da conferência n.º 7 da “CEPOL R&S Conference 2024/2025”, subordinada ao tema “Tackling the World of High-Risk Criminal Networks (HRCN)", que teve lugar em Ostia (Roma), nos dias 25 a 27 de março de 2025.
TÉCNICAS DE ENTREVISTA, TESTEMUNHA, VÍTIMA, SOFTWARE, METODOLOGIAS, ESTUDO DE CASOS
Interviewing witnesses is a delicate and complex process that must follow certain principles. Previous studies have noted that investigative interviews with adult victims and witnesses are often of low quality. Research also suggests that interviewing skills improve when the interviewers are given feedback on their performance. We have created a web-based adult witness avatars (AWA) software to simulate investigative interviews with adult victims and witnesses that would help interviewers train question types that will allow the witnesses to recall more accurate accounts. We examined whether avatar interviews coupled with feedback (versus no feedback) would result in improvements in interviews with human mock witnesses. Half of the 58 participants received process feedback after each of four simulated interviews. The avatars revealed predefined memories and made errors as a function of algorithms formulated based on previous empirical research on the response behaviour of adult witnesses in experimental studies. We found that feedback was linked to a high proportion of recommended questions within the AWA training itself. Receiving feedback after the simulated interviews increased the proportion of recommended questions (i.e. free recall and open questions) in mock interviews with human interviewees compared with not receiving feedback (67 % versus 49 %, respectively). However, there were no significant differences between feedback and control groups in terms of correct or incorrect details elicited from the mock witnesses. Future steps and implications for this type of software in training investigative interviewing skills will be discussed.
