Developing Best Practices For Online Elicitation

Getting information quickly is crucial in time-sensitive operational contexts to (i) assess immediate threats, (ii) inform decision-making, and (iii) expedite transmission of intelligence. Research to date has neglected this interviewing context and current practices are not informed by psychological science or empirical data. To address this gap, we developed a Time-Critical Questioning (TCQ) protocol to (i) quickly establish rapport; (ii) align the interviewer-interviewee roles and goals b; (iii) promote reporting of priority information; and (iv) implement effective questioning practices to support memory retrieval. Following a developmental pilot study (N = 111), we used a novel immersive methodology to assess the TCQ protocol, a two-part interviewing approach comprising framing instructions (I-RELATE instructions) and structured follow-up questioning. Participants (N = 142) completed an Escape Room activity in teams for 60 min and were interviewed individually for 10 min using the TCQ protocol or a control interview. Participants interviewed using the TCQ protocol reported more correct priority information (i.e., how to escape) than participants interviewed with the control interview. Notably, participants interviewed using the TCQ protocol provided more information earlier (i.e., during free recall) than those in the control condition. This expedient information gain may be useful in time-sensitive interviewing contexts.

(From the journal abstract)

Hope, L., Kontogianni, F., Thomas, W. et al. Development and testing of a Time-Critical Questioning protocol for eliciting information in time-sensitive contexts. Sci Rep 15, 14855 (2025).

In a globalised world, investigators often interact with witnesses from diverse cultural backgrounds. To date, there is a wealth of research on the use of evidence-based practices to facilitate recall and reporting in information elicitation contexts. However, research has been primarily conducted with participants from western (and typically individualistic) cultural contexts, ignoring the potential effects of cultural communication norms on memory reporting among other factors. We compared reports provided by two samples that contrast on the individualist-collectivist dimension (UK vs Lebanon). Participants (N = 118) witnessed a staged crime event and provided an account (in their native language) using a self-administered Timeline Technique or a Free Recall format, before responding to cued recall questions. As in previous research, UK participants reported more correct information when using the Timeline Technique compared to free recall. Contrary to hypotheses, participants in Lebanon provided a similar amount of information across reporting format conditions. Overall, Lebanese participants provided fewer correct details both in spontaneous self-administered reporting formats and in cued recall, compared to their UK counterparts. These findings have implications for information-gathering practices in cross-cultural interactions and highlight the (potential) need to modify existing techniques for different cultural contexts.

(From the journal abstract)

Hope, L., Kontogianni, F., et al. (2023) Exploring cultural differences in eyewitness accounts using a self-administered reporting technique, Psychology, Crime & Law, https://doi.org/10.1080/1068316X.2023.2279330