Open-Ended Or Closed-Ended Questions

The reviewed article is about a study in which children of two different age groups, and a group of adults were asked general-to-specific questions and misleading questions in an interview to see if the timing of the misleading questions and temperament affected the quality of the witness’s testimony. The researchers hypothesized that the use of misleading questions by interviewer’s causes the witness to unwittingly incorporate false information into their testimony.

To minimise the impact of a confident eyewitness in a courtroom, Wixted (2015) suggests that a jury needs to be made aware of any hesitation displayed at the time of initial questioning. It seems that An emphasis should be placed on the early stages of an investigation whilst removing the absolute reliance of courtroom testimonies. By educating a jury about the significance of initial non-identification, it would reduce the likelihood of these testemonies from becoming conclusive

Beginning the interview and skills/techniques used (empathy, rapport building, listening skills, closed-ended questions and open-ended questions, signs of client engagement)

Eyewitness testimony has been used for many centuries and continues to be a part of our criminal justice system. Although, there has been many controversy debates on whether to allow the continuation of these testimonies in court, and allow it to be used as evidence. Eyewitness testimony can either be harmful or useful for an individual. We must fully analysis and see what certain factors (psychological, and age wise) come into the equation before coming up with final conclusions.

This week I compared and contrasted two short one-minute YouTube videos of a pretend doctor implementing closed-ended questions verse open-ended questions. The portrayal shown in the video was comparable to the depiction described in our text –“closed-ended questions that can be answered with one word,” and “ open-ended questions…are broad and require more than one- or two-word answers” (Chang, Decker, Scott, 2018).

Information is the lifeblood of a criminal investigation. The ability of investigators to obtain useful and accurate information from eyewitnesses of crimes is crucial to effective law enforcement, yet full and accurate recall is difficult to achieve (Stewart, 1985). Such elicitation of complete and accurate recall from people is important in many aspects of life; specifically, eyewitness recall may determine whether a case is solved. Principle advocates of the cognitive interview (Fisher, Geiselman, Holland & MacKinnon,

The Goal of Forensic interviewing is to “obtain a statement from a child in a developmentally-sensitive, unbiased & truth-seeking manner, that will support accurate & fair decision making in the criminal justice & child-welfare systems (Forensic, p. 1).”

To reduce some of the problems that have been found with eyewitness memory and testimony, I recommend not mistaking confidence for memory accuracy and using multiple techniques and interviewing models to develop more accurate and consistent information (i.e. using the cognitive enhanced interview model and combined with the Reid model or other models). Also, courts and jurors need to test/check for suggestibility and coercive interview or investigative practices before trials

Further statistical evidence to support the unreliability of eyewitness testimony is provided by a study conducted by Loftus and Palmer (1974) on the significance of leading questions in altering memory. This study continues to highlight the importance of post-event memory distortion by way of interrogation (police interview, recollecting the event to friends/family/colleagues), independently seeking information about the case, and/or generally being involved in the ongoing investigation.

Therefore the age of an eyewitness is an important point to note when considering the accuracy of eyewitness identification, especially with the case of very young children providing significantly inferior accuracy than adults if questioned incorrectly. When children are questioned in the same method as adults, misinterpretation and errors can weaken the child’s credibility and the accuracy of their testimony. The fact however remains that eyewitness testimony can be beneficial if caution is exercised when interviewing children so as to not repeat questions, suggest information, or allow for interviewer assumptions and/or bias.

The future, disputed over by many intellectuals, is an enigma. There is no certainty in what will occur, along with no shortage of wonder in what can come about. The future, deemed any point in time past the one humans are currently living in, is something that can only be defined by time itself. Throughout “Brave New World Revisited” by Aldous Huxley, the author speaks on the predictions of the future he made in his novel “Brave New World”, where as he seeks to justify whether or not they were accurate or irrelevant. In Brave New World Revisited, Aldous Huxley speaks on overpopulation in “Brave New World Revisited”, he acknowledges the destructive effects overpopulation can grow to have on society, some of which are already coming about. This can be seen happening today in the way that we individuals are wrongly convicted because one’s race or ethnicity.

In October 3, 2014 the Financial Accounting Standard Board (FASB) issued proposed updates to the disclosure framework for the board decision process. This disclosure framework is meant to improve the effectiveness of disclosures in notes to financial statements. According to the disclosure framework effectiveness of the financial statements could be achieved by enhancing clarity in communication of information that is most important to users of each entity financial statements. FASB agrees that reduction in volume of the notes to financial statement is note the main objective but also does not refute the fact that concentration on the most important information in note will automatically lead to reduction in the volume of notes to financial statements (Financial Accounting Standards Board, 2014).

Over the last thirty years, the idea of children as witnesses and the accuracy of their testimony has been widely debated. People are asking themselves if the memories of young children, specifically between the ages of five and ten, can be accurate and in return trusted. So, can children’s memory and testimony be accurate? Prolific amounts of research have been conducted in an attempt to answer this question. Most of the research suggests that unfortunately we can not rely on their accurate recall in testimony. I would have to say I agree with the findings.

This study examined age differences in eyewitness testimony. Children, three and six years of age, and adults interacted with an unfamiliar man for 5 minutes. Four or five days later, the witnesses answered objective and suggestive questions, recalled what happened, and tried to identify the confederate from a target-present photo line-up. The adults and 6-year-olds did not differ in their ability to answer objective questions or identify the confederate, but 6-year-olds were more suggestible than adults and recalled less about the event. Compared to the older age groups, the 3-year-olds answered fewer

In situations like these where children are victims of child abuse, their testimony is the only evidence/witness. The question is how does one know if the child is telling the truth or if she is using her imagination to come up with events that never occurred. In the year of 1994, Pezdek Elsewhere conducted a study about the costs and benefits of weighing children's eyewitness accounts too lightly or too heavily. Suffice it to say here, that weighing children's eyewitness accounts too lightly can result in the perpetuation of child victimization; weighing children's eyewitness accounts too heavily can result in false charges that can permanently destroy families. In light of the dire consequences at both ends of this criterion, it is critical for forensic investigators and the courts to understand the factors that affect children's memory for traumatic events, and to follow procedures that are most likely to maximize the veracity of children's