#10 - Concept Reference, Must Be True

[Administrator]

Please post your questions below! Thank you!

[tae.chung5]

My two cents:

(A) Passage says the proportion of correct to incorrect is not improved. This does not mean that there are more inaccuracy than accuracy. Using Cog. Interview, there can be 35 accurate info and 5 inaccurate info. Using Hypnosis, there can be 35 accurate info but 15 inaccurate info. The proportion did not improve, but still there are more accurate info.
(B) Witnesses are overconfident, not interviewers.
(C) No mention about intentionally deceiving.
(D) Supported by "false confidence" effect starting in LN 35.
(E) Susceptibility over time was not mentioend.

[Ben DiFabbio]

My two cents:

(A) Passage says the proportion of correct to incorrect is not improved. This does not mean that there are more inaccuracy than accuracy. Using Cog. Interview, there can be 35 accurate info and 5 inaccurate info. Using Hypnosis, there can be 35 accurate info but 15 inaccurate info. The proportion did not improve, but still there are more accurate info.
(B) Witnesses are overconfident, not interviewers.
(C) No mention about intentionally deceiving.
(D) Supported by "false confidence" effect starting in LN 35.
(E) Susceptibility over time was not mentioend.

Well done once again on the explanations, Tae! You have a strong understanding of the number/proportion problem presented in answer choice A, which makes it a tempting wrong answer choice for many students.

Happy studying, and keep up the good work.

[g_lawyered]

Hi P.S.,
Although I chose correct answer choice D. I had answer choice A as a contender. I struggled to eliminate this answer choice because to me the language in answer choice A of "interviews yield more INACCURATE info than accurate" can be implied by what P3 states

"However, even though the techniques involved are much less complex, the evidence suggests that overall accuracy, as determined by the proportion of correct to incorrect responses, is not generally improved with hypnosis; in fact, sometimes it may deteriorate. "

I implied that from the text "Accuracy may deteriorate" means leads to inaccurate info (what answer A states). I didn't research previous paragraphs to answer this question as the question stem has clue that it will only be in P2 (because of "hypnotic interviewing"). So my analysis came solely from P2.

Can someone pinpoint where answer A goes wrong or my analysis is wrong?

Thanks in advance!

[Robert Carroll]

GGIBA003,

Answer choice (A) is not saying that hypnotic interviewing results in more inaccurate information (that sounds right!) but more inaccurate information than accurate information. We don't know the specific ratio of accurate to inaccurate info - we know hypnotic interviewing is going to make that ratio worse, but does the inaccurate information actually exceed the accurate?

The following example is consistent with the passage:

A cognitive interview results in 85% of the information being accurate. A hypnotic interview results in 75% of the information being accurate.

So, the hypnotic interview results in more inaccurate information - but it's still only 25% of the total information, so there's not more inaccurate than accurate. Accurate is still a majority.

Robert Carroll