Adapting the cognitive interview to enhance long-term (35 years) recall of physical activities

Efficacy of memory protocols in 9- to 89-year-olds' memory for prior contacts

Memory for prior contacts has several important applied implications, including contact tracing (for communicable diseases). Incomplete episodic memory reports, which occur across the developmental lifespan but are particularly relevant for children and older adults, may hamper such efforts. Prior research has shown that cognitively informed memory techniques may bolster recall of contacts in adults, but that work has not addressed the developmental efficacy of these techniques. Here we evaluated the effectiveness of such techniques for familiar and unfamiliar contacts within a sample of 9- to 89-year-olds in the context of an ongoing pandemic. The tested memory techniques bolstered recall across the lifespan, irrespective of whether the interview was conducted live with an interviewer or via a self-led interview. Children, emerging adults, and adults did not reveal any differences in memory productivity, however, older adults recalled fewer contacts. Implications for theory and application are discussed.

Améliorer le rappel des individus âgés de 60 ans et plus à l’aide de l’entretien cognitif : une revue et méta-analyse

Les aînés sont souvent perçus comme des témoins peu fiables, une perception qui est partiellement appuyée par des travaux qui démontrent que les témoignages des aînés tendent à être moins détaillés que ceux produits par des témoins plus jeunes. L’entretien cognitif est une technique d’interrogatoire qui repose sur des stratégies de rappel issues des sciences cognitives. Plusieurs travaux récents démontrent l’efficacité de l’entretien cognitif auprès d’échantillons de jeunes adultes. Toutefois, la recherche portant sur l’utilisation de l’entretien cognitif auprès de témoins âgés est récente et en développement. Le présent article effectue une synthèse des travaux portant sur l’efficacité de l’entretien cognitif auprès d’aînés ainsi qu’une méta-analyse des données publiées à ce jour. La méta-analyse comprend sept études traitant des performances de participants aînés et comparant l’efficacité de l’entretien cognitif à celle obtenue en employant d’autres techniques de rappel. Les résultats démontrent une augmentation du nombre de détails corrects rappelés quand l’entretien cognitif est utilisé. Cependant, les données actuelles ne permettent pas de conclusion valide pour le nombre de détails incorrects ou sur l’exactitude du rappel. La discussion présente les forces et faiblesses des travaux publiés à ce jour de manière à favoriser le développement futur de ce domaine de recherche.

Increasing the number of contacts generated during contact tracing interviews

To stem the spread of infectious diseases (e.g., Ebola), epidemiologists conduct contact tracing interviews (CTIs) with infected individuals regarding their contacts who may also be infected. These contact tracing interviews, however, may be vulnerable to deadly errors of omission. A promising technique to maximise recall is the Cognitive Interview (CI), which is grounded in psychological theory. In the present study, participants imagined they were infected with meningococcal meningitis and reported their contacts over the previous three days during either a control interview or a CI. To model the cognitive impairment associated with being sick, half of the participants were interviewed while simultaneously completing a cognitive impairment task. The CI generated more contacts than the control interview. However, when the cognitive impairment task was completed, the CI and the control interview performed similarly. We recommend the CI be considered as an alternative to the control interview, particularly if the interviewee is not temporarily impaired due to distraction or illness.

Children's use of sexual body part terms in witness interviews about sexual abuse

For successful prosecution, investigative interviews with child sexual abuse victims need to establish the nature of the alleged offence by determining the body parts that were involved. To date, however, there has been a paucity of research on the extent to which children clearly identify sexual body parts in interviews and how they respond to interviewers' attempts to clarify ambiguous terms. The present study sought to explore children's use of sexual body part terms in field interviews, and their responses to questions aimed at clarifying ambiguous terms. Analyses were conducted on 161 transcripts of field interviews with children aged 4-17 years old, coding for the content of interviewers' questions and of children's responses. Results revealed that many children, even some in their late teens, struggled to provide clear terms for their sexual body parts, either initially, or when asked to provide an alternate term. Questions about body part location or function tended to elicit content appropriate responses in children, irrespective of age. The study discusses the capacity (or willingness) of children to provide clear body part terms in witness interviews and the utility of particular questions. The findings imply a need for caution when following up on the meaning of terms or asking particular clarifying questions, and highlight the importance of childhood education around body parts.

Eliciting Reliable Information in Investigative Interviews

Interviews are an important part of investigations, as the information obtained from interviewees generates leads and evidence. However, for several psychological reasons, even cooperative victims and witnesses do not spontaneously report all the information they know, and their accounts may incorporate errors. Furthermore, suspects often deliberately withhold information or may attempt to mislead the interviewer. First, known psychological factors promote complete and accurate reports by cooperative witnesses and victims. Such factors relate to the social dynamics between the witness and interviewer (e.g., developing rapport), the interviewee’s and the interviewer’s cognitive processes, and communication between the witness and interviewer. Empirical research examines interviewing techniques that incorporate these interviewing principles. Second, some suspects may be reluctant to volunteer information. Typically, two interview styles encourage suspects to talk: An information-gathering style seeks to establish rapport with interviewees and uses open-ended exploratory questions to elicit information and establish guilt. An accusatorial style uses closed-ended confirmatory questions to elicit confessions. The former approach performs better at eliciting accurate information and true confessions. In any interview, the ability to detect truth from deceit is important. Many lie detection techniques are based on listening to speech or observing behavior, but only some discriminate between truth and deceit.

How Do Older Adults Respond to Active Australia Physical Activity Questions? Lessons From Cognitive Interviews

The aim of this study was to examine older adults’ understanding and interpretation of a validated questionnaire for physical activity surveillance, the Active Australia Survey (AAS). To address this aim, cognitive interviewing techniques were used during face-to-face semistructured interviews with 44 adults age 65–89 years. Qualitative data analysis revealed that participants were confused with questionnaire phrasing, misunderstood the scope of activities to include in answers, and misunderstood the time frame of activities to report. They also struggled to accurately estimate the frequency and duration of their activities. Our findings suggest that AAS questions may be interpreted differently by older adults than intended by survey developers. Findings also suggest that older adults use a range of methods for calculating PA frequency and duration. The issues revealed in this study may be useful for adapting AAS for use in older community-dwelling adults.

Inoculating against eyewitness suggestibility via interpolated verbatim vs. gist testing

In real-life situations, eyewitnesses often have control over the level of generality in which they choose to report event information. In the present study, we adopted an early-intervention approach to investigate to what extent eyewitness memory may be inoculated against suggestibility, following two different levels of interpolated reporting: verbatim and gist. After viewing a target event, participants responded to interpolated questions that required reporting of target details at either the verbatim or the gist level. After 48 hr, both groups of participants were misled about half of the target details and were finally tested for verbatim memory of all the details. The findings were consistent with our predictions: Whereas verbatim testing was successful in completely inoculating against suggestibility, gist testing did not reduce it whatsoever. These findings are particularly interesting in light of the comparable testing effects found for these two modes of interpolated testing.

Interviewing Cooperative Witnesses

Police interviews of witnesses are critical for solving crimes, yet police are poorly trained and often make mistakes when interviewing witnesses who are cooperative. To overcome this limitation, researchers have developed the cognitive interview (CI), which incorporates principles of cognitive and social psychology in a face-to-face interview format. Laboratory and field research show that the CI elicits considerably more information than conventional interviews in criminal and noncriminal investigations. We explore the real-world applications of the CI.

Development and testing of a specific quality-of-life questionnaire for knee and hip osteoarthritis: OAKHQOL (OsteoArthritis of Knee Hip Quality Of Life)

OBJECTIVE

To design a quality-of-life (QOL) instrument specific for patients with knee or hip osteoarthritis and to assess its validity and reproducibility.

METHODS

One-on-one or group interviews were conducted with 79 patients and 28 healthcare professionals. Of the 80 potential items identified from the results, 46 were selected based on their content and were used to develop version 1 of the OsteoArthritis of Knee and Hip Quality of Life Scale (OAKHQOL). The psychometric characteristics of the scale were evaluated in patients who met Altman's criteria for knee or hip osteoarthritis.

RESULTS

Based on the results of psychometric analyses in 263 patients, three items were excluded, leaving 43 items in the final version (2.3) of the OAKHQOL. Principal components analysis identified four domains: physical activities, mental health, social functioning, and social support. A pain domain was individualized later. Construct validity, reproducibility, and discriminating power of the domains were satisfactory. Standardized response means after joint replacement surgery were close to 1 for the pain and physical functioning domains and equal to 0.7 for the mental health domain, indicating good sensitivity to change.

CONCLUSIONS

The OAKHQOL is the first QOL tool specifically dedicated to lower-limb osteoarthritis. It captures specific aspects of QOL in patients with knee or hip osteoarthritis and exhibits psychometric properties consistent with use in longitudinal studies.

The effect of exercise and nettle supplementation on oxidative stress markers in the rat brain

Chronic swimming training and phytotherapeutic supplementation are assumed to alleviate oxidative damage, and support cell survival in the brain. The effect of forced, chronic swimming training, and enriched lab chow containing 1% (w/w) dried nettle (Urtica dioica) leaf were investigated for oxidative stress, inflammation and neurotrophic markers in Wistar rat brains. The rats were divided into groups subjected to swimming training (6 weeks) or to nettle supplementation (8 weeks) or to a combination of these two treatments. The level of oxidative stress was measured by electron spin resonance (EPR), and by the concentration of carbonylated proteins. Nettle supplementation resulted in a decreased concentration of free radicals in both cerebellum and frontal lobe. Swimming, however, did not influence significantly the oxidative damage nor was it reflected in the carbonyl content. The protein content of nerve growth factor (NGF), and brain-derived neurotrophic factors (BDNF) was evaluated by E-Max ImmunoAssay in the cerebellum. No changes occurred either with exercise or nettle diet treatments. On the other hand, nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kappaB) binding activity to DNA increased with the combined effect of swimming training and nettle diet, while the activator protein1 (AP-1) DNA binding activity showed a more profound elevation in the nettle treated animals. The amount of c-Jun decreased by swimming training. In conclusion, the results suggest that both exercise and nettle influenced physiological brain functions. Nettle supplementation reduces the free radical concentration and increases the DNA binding of AP-1 in the brain. Nettle was found to be an effective antioxidant and possible antiapoptotic supplement promoting cell survival in the brain. Exercise, as a downregulator of c-Jun and in combined group as an upregulator of NF-kappaB, may play also a role in antiapoptotic processes, which is important after brain injury.

OAKHQOL: A new instrument to measure quality of life in knee and hip osteoarthritis

OBJECTIVE

To develop a questionnaire with which to measure quality of life (QoL) in patients with knee and hip osteoarthritis (OA).

STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING

Thirty-two caregivers and 96 OA patients were interviewed individually (using cognitive and face-to-face techniques) and in focus groups. A group of experts working independently at first and then consensually used the interview transcripts to generate a 46-item questionnaire.

RESULTS

Analysis of questionnaires completed by 263 patients with hip or knee OA resulted in the exclusion of three items (two because of low reliability and one because of a low response rate). Principal component analysis revealed four factors: physical activity, mental health, social functioning, and social support. A pain dimension was individualized. Preliminary testing showed the reliability of the five dimensions to be satisfactory (intraclass correlation coefficients: 0.70-0.85), construct validity was adequate when correlated with the SF36 (Spearman correlation coefficients: 0.43-0.75), and discrimination was satisfactory. The osteoarthritis knee and hip quality of life questionnaire (OAKHQOL) consists of 43 items in five dimensions and three independent items.

CONCLUSION

The OAKHQOL is the first specific knee and hip OA quality of life instrument. Its development followed an a priori structured strategy to ensure content validity. It meets psychometric requirements for validity and reliability.