Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Jul 6:13:753111.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.753111. eCollection 2022.

Transfer of Avatar Training Effects to Investigative Field Interviews of Children Conducted by Police Officers

Kristjan Kask  1 , Francesco Pompedda  2 , Annegrete Palu  3 , Karolyn Schiff  1 , Mari-Liis Mägi  4 , Pekka Santtila  5   6
Affiliations

Transfer of Avatar Training Effects to Investigative Field Interviews of Children Conducted by Police Officers

Kristjan Kask et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

Previous research with students and some professional groups (psychologists) has demonstrated that repeated feedback in simulated investigative interviews with computerized child avatars improves the quality of interviews conducted with real children who have witnessed a mock event. However, it is not known whether this type of training would improve the quality of investigative interviews with actual child victims and witnesses of physical and sexual abuse. Twenty-two police investigators participated in the study. Half of them received feedback during four simulated interviews whereas the other half received no feedback during four such interviews followed by another four interviews after which they also received feedback. Transcripts of interviews both before and after the training were coded for interview quality. Receiving feedback after the simulated interviews increased the proportion of recommended questions both within the simulations and, importantly, also during interviewing with actual child victims and witnesses. This study demonstrated for the first time transfer of learning from simulated interviews to actual investigative interviews.

Keywords: child sexual abuse (CSA); interview training; investigative interviewing; serious games; training with virtual reality.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Experimental design.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Effects of feedback on proportion of recommended questions during the avatar training interviews. (A) Estimated marginal means (EMM) of the difference in initial four interviews between Group A (n = 11; received feedback) and Group B (n = 11; did not receive feedback). (B) Difference in Group B’s initial four interviews (n = 9; did not receive feedback) and subsequent four interviews (n = 9; received feedback). *Significant pairwise difference between conditions at the indicated interview. Error bars show 95% confidence intervals. Bonferroni correction applied *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001 (2-tailed).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Ayres P., Paas F. (2009). Interdisciplinary perspectives inspiring a new generation of cognitive load research. Educ. Psychol. Rev. 21 1–9. 10.1007/s10648-008-9090-7 - DOI
    1. Benson M. (2015). Evaluation of a Comprehensive Interactive Training System for Investigative Interviewers of Children (No. PhD). Geelong: Deakin University.
    1. Benson M. S., Powell M. B. (2015). Evaluation of a comprehensive interactive training system for investigative interviewers of children. Psychol. Public Policy Law 21 309–322. 10.1037/law0000052 - DOI
    1. Blume B. D., Ford J. K., Baldwin T. T., Huang J. L. (2010). Transfer of training: a meta-analytic review. J. Manag. 36 1065–1105. 10.1177/0149206309352880 - DOI
    1. Brubacher S. P., Powell M., Skouteris H., Guadagno B. (2015). The effects of esimulation interview training on teachers’ use of open-ended questions. Child Abuse Neglect 43 95–103. 10.1016/j.chiabu.2015.02.004 - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources