Reading comp PrepTest 150 · Section 1 · Question 7

Passage

Questions 6-13  .       When interviewing witnesses to a crime, police  . interviewers seek to maximize the amount of  . information Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary

Topic: Legal


Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • Background on the purpose of eyewitness interview, cognitive interview
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • List of methods to interview eyewitnesses, item 1:
      • Cognitive interview (last sentence)

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • Cognitive interview evaluation
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Author's view:
      • Although the cognitive interview increases the number of accurate details eyewitnesses recall without increasing the number of inaccurate recollections, it is complex and requires substantial training (second and third sentence)
    • Example of technique to improve recall in the cognitive interview:
      • Multiple retrieval attempts (first sentence)
    • Examples of techniques developed by social psychologists in the cognitive interview:
      • Conversation-management skills and techniques for building rapport (first sentence)
    • Cause-and-effect relationship:
      • The complexity of cognitive interviews causes some officers to not receive training and other officers to deviate from procedures (last sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "known to improve recall" (first sentence); "general consensus" (second sentence); "proven successful" (second sentence); "little impact on the number of incorrect details" (second sentence); "problem" (third sentence); "complex" (third sentence); "substantial training" (third sentence)

Paragraph 3

  • Paragraph note
    • Hypnosis evaluation
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • List of methods to interview eyewitnesses, item 2:
      • Hypnosis (first sentence)
    • Definition of "false confidence" effect: Effect in which witnesses are more confident in their reports, including inaccurate reports (fifth sentence)
    • Author's view:
      • Hypnosis is less complicated than cognitive interviews, but it does not improve the accuracy of witnesses' responses; sometimes, it even decreases accuracy, leads to "false confidence," and won't work on the interviewee (third through last sentences)
    • Cause-and-effect relationships:
      • Hypnosis can cause less accurate reports and false confidence in eyewitnesses (third and fourth sentences)
    • Author's atttidue: "not generally improved" (third sentence); "deterioate" (third sentence); "practical difficulties" (last sentence); "most notably" (last sentence)

Paragraph 4

  • Paragraph note
    • Author's advocacy for instructing eyewitnesses to close their eyes
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • List of methods to interview eyewitnesses, item 3:
      • Instructing eyewitnesses to close their eyes (third sentence)
    • Author's view:
      • The ideal method for interviewing eyewitnesses would require no special training, work for any potential eyewitness, and improve recall without increasing errors; instructing eyewitnesses to close their eyes has these characteristics (first through last sentence)
    • Cause-and-effect relationship:
      • Instructing eyewitnesses to close their eyes can cause witnesses to better remember visual and auditory materials (including video and events witnessed through live interactions) (fourth sentence)
    • Comparison between instructing eyewitnesses to close their eyes and hypnotic technique:
      • Instructing eyewitnesses to close their eyes helps eyewitnesses recall more details than hypnosis and works on more people than hypnosis (fifth sentence)
    • Comparison between instructing eyewitnesses to close their eyes and cognitive interview:
      • Equally good in improving eyewitnesses' ability to remember, but instructing eyewitnesses to close their eyes is easier to implement (sixth and last sentences)
    • Author's attitude: "ideal method" (first sentence); "may in fact" (second sentence); "demonstrate" (fourth sentence); "benefit recall" (fourth sentence); "indicate an improvement over hypnotic interviewing" (fifth sentence); "no problems" (fifth sentence); "More significantly" (sixth sentence)

Main Point: Instructing eyewitnesses to close their eyes is the ideal interview method for police interviews because it improves eyewitness recall more than hypnosis and with less specialized training than the cognitive interview.

Key Lines?

Paragraph 2, Sentences 2-3 (P2, S2-3) - Evaluation of cognitive interview

P3, S3-5 - Evaluation of hypnosis

P4, S4-7 - Recommends instructing eyewitnesses to close their eyes

Meta-Structure?

Problem/Solution: We think this passage best fits the Problem/Solution Meta-Structure. That said, this passage doesn't clearly embody any of the Meta-Structures. One could convincingly argue that this was a Resolving a Debate, an Old Approach/New Approach passage, or a Correcting the Record passage. Ultimately, we settled on Problem/Solution because the author defines a problem in the first sentences of the first and last paragraphs and a solution in the last paragraph. The problem is that in eyewitness interviews, investigators want to maximize the amount of information they can elicit (P1, S1), using a technique that doesn't require significant training but yields reliable results from any potential eyewitness (P4, S1). And the solution is, simply enough, to instruct eyewitnesses to close their eyes during the interview (P4, S3-7).

The main point in a Problem/Solution passage is typically the solution the author proffers or endorses. So, here's how we defined the main point: "Instructing eyewitnesses to close their eyes is the ideal interview method for police interviews because it improves eyewitness recall more than hypnosis and with less specialized training than the cognitive interview."

Comparisons: This passage makes liberal use of all the minor Meta-Structures, but comparisons are the most prominent. In fact, the comparisons between the three interview techniques are so prevalent that we incorporated these comparisons into our main point. This passage’s many comparisons are enumerated in the Passage Summary, above. 

Last Thoughts?

As we mentioned in the Meta-Structure section, this passage is teeming with comparisons. So many, in fact, that we should expect several questions that test our understanding of the relative strengths and weaknesses of each interview technique. If you feel comfortable memorizing a few comparisons, that can save you a lot of time as you progress through the questions. (If you don’t feel confident memorizing these, that’s OK too. You can always check the passage to answer the questions, especially if you use your notes and highlights/underliens to review the passage efficiently.) In case you want to memorize these facts, we've listed out a few notes to clarify the relative strengths and weaknesses of each approach:

  • The cognitive interview produces more accurate results than hypnosis but requires specialized training.
  • Hypnosis produces less accurate results than the cognitive interview and instructing eyewitnesses to close their eyes, but its techniques are less complex than the cognitive interview. However, it works on fewer people than the cognitive interview and eye closing.
  • Instructing eyewitnesses to close their eyes produces equally accurate results as the cognitive interview and more accurate results than hypnosis, but its training and techniques are easier than the cognitive interview, and it works on more people than hypnosis.

Question prompt

According to the passage, Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: D

The notes below walk through why it fits the stem and how to eliminate the rest.

Question Type

Legal

Strategy Overview

Refer to notes or what you highlighted/underlined to locate where the passage discusses instructed eye-closure technique, then head to the answers and refer to the relevant part of the passage as needed to eliminate answer choices that must be true

Answer Anticipation

For these Bizarro Must Be True questions, the incorrect answers will all be supported by the passage. The correct answer will either present a topic not discussed by the passage or assert a claim contradicted by the passage. Therefore, it can be difficult to predict what the correct answer will say. However, when the question stem provides some guidance as to where the textual support is located in the passage, we can predict what the incorrect answers will say. Taking a little bit of time to make this prediction can allow us to eliminate the incorrect answers very quickly.In this case, the question asks about the instructed eye-closure techniques. Our notes reveal that this technique was discussed in the fourth paragraph. If we had highlighted the comparisons made between the eye-closure method and hypnosis and the cognitive interview, we could quickly review a few key facts. According to the author, instructing eyewitnesses to close their eyes helps eyewitnesses recall more details than hypnosis and works on more people than hypnosis (P4, S5). Additionally, the instructed eye-closure technique improves eyewitnesses' ability to remember just as effectively as the cognitive interview, but the eye-closure technique is easier to learn and implement than the cognitive interview (P4, S6-7). Other facts are outlined in this paragraph, so we may need to review the passage to eliminate a few supported answer choices.

Answer choices

  1. A
    It requires less training Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    (A) Does this seem consistent with what we reviewed in the fourth paragraph or what you recall about the instructed eye-closure technique?

    Probably. Our review of the fourth paragraph reminded us that the instructed eye-closure technique is easier to learn and implement than the cognitive interview (P4, S7). So, this is supported and can be eliminated.

  2. B
    Studies have shown that Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited

    (B) Does this seem consistent with what we reviewed in the fourth paragraph or what you recall about the instructed eye-closure technique?

    Probably. Based on our review, we know the instructed eye-closure technique improves eyewitnesses' ability to remember just as effectively as the cognitive interview (P4, S6). Does it improve memory for events witnessed on video specifically?

    If you can't recall, it might be best to table this answer choice and keep moving. You might find an answer choice you know is false, allowing you to select the correct answer without eliminating (B).

    However, if you have to research (B), you'll find it's supported. The author says that recent studies demonstrate that the instructed eye-closure technique improves recall for "events witnessed on video" (P4, S4). So, (B) is supported and thus incorrect.

  3. C
    It does not lead Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) Does this seem consistent with what we reviewed in the fourth paragraph or what you recall about the instructed eye-closure technique?

    Probably. Our review indicated that the instructed eye-closure method improves eyewitnesses' ability to remember just as much as the cognitive interview (P4, S6). Do we know that the technique "does not lead to an increase in erroneous" report?

    If you can't recall, it's fastest to table this answer choice and assess the following one. We can acknowledge that (C) is probably supported. If (D) or (E) express an idea we know is unsupported, we can possibly select the correct answer without researching or eliminating (C).

    However, if you had to research (C), you'll find it's supported. The author said that instructing eyewitnesses to close their eyes improved memory "with no increase in errors" (P4, S7).

  4. D
    It may give rise Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D matches the stem

    (D) Does this seem consistent with what we reviewed in the fourth paragraph or what you recall about the instructed eye-closure technique?

    Almost certainly not. The whole point about the instructed eye-closure technique was that it helps eyewitnesses recall more details than hypnosis (P4, S5). If you recall, hypnosis gave rise to the "false confidence" effect, where witnesses confidently assert inaccurate information (P3, S4). We can be quite confident that (D) is not supported, as it contradicts the comparison between the instructed eye-closure technique and hypnosis.

    If you need to check the passage to confirm that the false confidence technique is attributed to hypnosis or that instructing eyewitnesses to close their eyes improves memory "with no increase in errors" (P4, S7) before you feel comfortable selecting (D), that is OK too!

  5. E
    It is common to Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    (E) Does this seem consistent with what we reviewed in the fourth paragraph or what you recall about the instructed eye-closure technique?

    We didn't encounter this detail when reviewing the comparisons between the three interview techniques. If you need to review whether the passage asserted this claim, however, you'll see it's supported. The author says that encouraging eyewitnesses to close their eyes is a technique used by hypnosis and the cognitive interview (P4, S3). So, (E) is supported and incorrect.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 1%
  2. B 1%
  3. C 2%
  4. D Credited 95%
  5. E 1%

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