PrepTest 150

[lcid:3696] Prep Test 150 LSAT — Reading Comp — S1 Reading comp

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

It can be inferred 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/underline to locate where the passage discusses the effects of hypnotic interviewing, and refer to the relevant part of the passage as needed to find that answer choice that must be true

Answer Anticipation

For questions that ask us to infer, from a few details in the passage, an answer choice that must be true, quickly finding and reviewing that piece of information is critical. That is why we make brief notes describing the role of each paragraph and highlight or underline definitions and the minor Meta-Structures — doing so helps us find the salient information efficiently and reliably. Once we review that part of the passage, we can look through the answer choices to see which one is best supported by what we reviewed. Since the question stem asks us to make an inference, the correct answer probably won't restate something from the passage. Instead, the question will likely require us to draw a connection between a few different pieces of information.Here, the question asks about the effects of hypnotic interviewing. Where did those show up in the passage? Our notes suggest that the information would be in the third paragraph. If we highlighted or underlined the cause-and-effect relationships expressed in that paragraph — as we recommend doing for all minor Meta-Structures — we'd be able to review the effects of hypnotic interviewing very efficiently. The author says that hypnotic interviews can sometimes lead to less accurate responses from the eyewitnesses (P3, S3) and to the "false confidence" effect, where eyewitnesses are more confident in their responses, regardless of whether their responses are accurate (P3, S4). The correct answer will probably relate to one of these effects.

Answer choices

  1. A
    Interviews yield more inaccurate Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    (A) Does this answer choice reflect the author's claims that hypnotic interviewing can sometimes lead to less accurate responses or the "false confidence" effect?

    This answer choice seems to reflect the notion that hypnosis can sometimes produce inaccurate results. For this reason, many test-takers select this answer choice. However, expert test-takers would recognize that this statement is very strong and difficult to support. It suggests that hypnotic interviewing always leads to predominantly inaccurate responses. For this reason, experts would table (A) and look at the remaining options, or they'd feel comfortable eliminating (A) outright.

    If we assessed (A) more carefully, we'd realize the passage doesn't support it. The author says that "the proportion of correct to incorrect responses ... may deteriorate" under hypnosis (P3, S3). That means the accuracy sometimes goes down. It doesn't necessarily imply that the accuracy always goes down, as (A) asserts. Moreover, even if the accuracy went down, there could still be more accuracies than inaccuracies. For these reasons, (A) is incorrect.

  2. B
    Interviewers are overly confident Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited

    (B) Does this answer choice reflect the author's claims that hypnotic interviewing can sometimes lead to less accurate responses or the "false confidence" effect?

    Unless we really misinterpreted the "false confidence" effect, no. The false confidence effect refers to when witnesses are more confident in their reports, including inaccurate statements (P3, S4). It doesn't refer to the interviewers' confidence that they followed complex procedures. So, we should feel comfortable eliminating (B).

  3. C
    Interviewers are not able Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) Does this answer choice reflect the author's claims that hypnotic interviewing can sometimes lead to less accurate responses or the "false confidence" effect?

    Nope. For this reason, experienced test-takers would table or eliminate (C). They wouldn't waste time reviewing the passage to see if it described attempts to deceive the interviewer. Besides, if we did check the text, we wouldn't find any discussions relating to intentional deception. Therefore, (C) is incorrect.

  4. D
    Interviewers are not able Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D matches the stem

    (D) Does this answer choice reflect the author's claims that hypnotic interviewing can sometimes lead to less accurate responses or the "false confidence" effect?

    Yes, this appears to relate to the "false confidence" effect. As we know from our review, eyewitnesses who are hypnotically interviewed are often more confident in their responses, regardless of whether their responses are accurate (P3, S4). So, interviewers using hypnosis would not be able to assess the reliability of a witness's statement by asking the witness how sure they are. It's possible that the witness has succumbed to the "false confidence" effect and will say they are very certain even when they are very wrong. So, (D) is supported by the passage, and we can justifiably select it and move on to the next question.

  5. E
    Interviewees become less susceptible Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    (E) Does this answer choice reflect the author's claims that hypnotic interviewing can sometimes lead to less accurate responses or the "false confidence" effect?

    Negative. So, decisive test-takers would table or eliminate this answer choice and review whichever options they have remaining. They wouldn't research the passage to see if the author said that the effects of hypnosis fade throughout the interview process. Besides, we wouldn't find that support even if we re-read the entire passage. The author never implied that interviewees became less susceptible to hypnosis over time. The author only said that some people weren't susceptible to hypnosis at all (P3, S5).

What this tests

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