I__. - International Military Testing Association

staff concluded that inclusion of the subject interview resulted in a significant improvement in
the background investigation procedure.
A survey by the Director of the Central Intelligence (Office of Personnel Investigations,
1986) of 12 government agencies examined the productivity of various sources for the purposes
of applicant screening and security clearances. Background investigation sources included in
this study were subject interviews, neighbor interviews, education and employment record
checks, national agency checks, and the polygraph. The results of the study suggested that the
subject interview was the second most productive source for identifying serious adverse
information.
Flyer (1986) summarized much of the early personnel security screening literature
conducted in the military. Although no data were presented, he noted that the most important
finding of Air Force research on personnel security screening was “the unique and considerable
value of the subject interview.
In summary, the limited research on investigative interviews suggests that they may be
useful personnel security screening devices.
Related Research
Although the research on investigative interviews is scarce, there is a wealth of research
on interviewing in other contexts (e.g., employment, survey research). This research is useful to
the extent that it suggests additional techniques to apply in the investigative interview setting or
provides a theoretical model that explains interviewing behavior.
For example, with respect to question characteristics, research examining eyewitness
testimony (Lipton, 1977) compared the relative effectiveness of open-ended vs. close-ended
questions. The results indicated that narrative, open-ended formats tend to produce very
accurate, but incomplete information, Close-ended, interrogatory formats, on the other hand,
tend to produce more complete, but less accurate information. This led one researcher (Loftus,
1982) to suggest that open-ended questions be used first, followed by specific (close-ended)
questions to ensure that complete information is obtained.
The decades of research on employment interviews and the more recent research on the
detection of deception provide a rich source of ideas for improving investigative interviewing
procedures. Many of these ideas have been recently summarized in a review of investigative
interviewing and related research (Bosshardt, DuBois, Carter, & Paullin, 1989).
While these large scientific literatures on related interviewing techniques can provide
many ideas, there is a strong need to thoroughly investigate the utility of these ideas in the
investigative interview setting before adopting them in practice. A careful consideration of the
very different contexts that exist between the investigative interview and other interview settings
suggests that results may not generalize, or that the effects may not be the same.
For example, the purpose of the investigative interview is to screen out people, while the
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