Introduction
non-CSA, HT
In 2020, China’s Procuratorate prosecuted 15,365 persons for rape of minors, 5,880 for molesting children, and 1,461 persons for forcibly molesting and insulting minors, with increases of 19%, 15%, and 12%, respectively, compared with 2019 [Human memory is a reconstructive process subject to situational influences [In order to increase and maintain the use of open-ended questions in investigative interviews, different training programs have been developed and implemented. Nevertheless, there is a gap between knowing what is the best practice and the actual adoption of the appropriate question types during an interview. Programs that provide merely theoretical knowledge are not efficient in improving the interview quality [As a solution, a serious gaming training protocol that uses simulated CSA interviews with computer-generated avatars (hereafter, Avatar Training) has been proposed [The adoption of a less suggestive questioning style, however, does not adequately address another important issue in investigative interviews, which is, confirmation bias. Confirmation bias refers to a universal human tendency to look for and interpret evidence that is consistent with one’s prior beliefs [To address the problem with confirmation bias, we decided to investigate the impact of adding a hypothesis-building intervention to the Avatar Training. Formulating alternative hypotheses prior to interviewing a child has been suggested multiple times as a potential technique to counteract confirmation bias and to reduce false positive conclusions [However, there is some tension between hypothesis-testing and the use of open-ended questions, the capstone of a good quality interview. Hypothesis-testing can be construed as a confirmatory task in which questions are formed to confirm or rule out hypotheses [The present study was the first to bring the two approaches together. We examined not only the effect of teaching hypothesis-testing alone on the quality of CSA investigative interviewing but also the effects of a combination of hypothesis-testing and feedback on question types. The validity of a Chinese version of the Avatar Training approach was assessed as well. The present study tested the following hypotheses:Hypothesis-testing (i.e. HT) was expected to improve interviewing quality (i.e. question types used), and consequently the quality of the information derived from the Avatars.Feedback on outcome and question types was expected to improve interviewing quality, and consequently the quality of the information derived from the Avatars.The combination of hypothesis-testing and feedback on Feedback was expected to result in more improvement in interview quality than the two interventions alone.All three intervention groups were expected to perform better than the control group which received neither intervention (ie. no feedback on Feedback and no HT).The total number of hypotheses formulated by the participants, the number of non-CSA hypotheses, and the ratio (more non-CSA compared to CSA hypotheses) were expected to predict both better question quality and quality of information derived from the Avatars (these analyses were limited to the HT conditions).Improvement in interviewing quality was expected to mediate the impact of HT manipulation on interview quality variables (eliciting details).We also explored how the experimental manipulations and the question types used impacted the Avatars’ perceived reliability, contradictoriness and suggestibility.