The aim of this study was to understand if guilty suspects' perceptions regarding the prior information or evidence held by the interviewer against the suspect could be influenced through the content of the investigative questions. To test this idea, we explored three question‐phrasing factors that we labeled as topic discussion (if a specific crime‐related topic was discussed or not), specificity (different levels of crime‐related details included in the questions), and stressor (emphasis on the importance of the specific crime‐related detail in the questions). The three factors were chosen based on relevance theory, a psycholinguistic theory that explores how people draw inferences from the communicated content. Participants (N = 370) assumed the role of the suspect and read a crime narrative and an interview transcript based on the suspect's activities. After reading the narrative and the transcripts, participants responded to scales that measured their perception of interviewer's prior knowledge (perceived interviewer knowledge [PIK]) regarding the suspects' role in the crime, based on the questions posed by the interviewer in the transcripts. Of the three factors tested, we found that questioning about a specific crime‐related topic (topic discussion) increased their PIK. This study is the first to explore the underlying mechanisms of how suspects draw inferences regarding the interviewer's prior knowledge through the content of the investigative questions adopting concepts of psycholinguistic theory.

中文翻译：

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提出的问题如何影响嫌疑人对访问者的先验知识的看法？

这项研究的目的是了解是否可以通过调查问题的内容来影响犯罪嫌疑人对面试官针对犯罪嫌疑人持有的先前信息或证据的看法。为了检验这个想法，我们探索了三个被称为主题讨论（无论是否讨论了与犯罪相关的特定主题）的问题，因子（特异性（问题中所包含的与犯罪相关的细节的不同程度））和压力源（强调问题中与犯罪相关的细节的重要性）。基于相关性理论选择了这三个因素，该理论是一种语言学理论，旨在探讨人们如何从交流的内容中得出推论。参加人数= 370）担任犯罪嫌疑人，并根据犯罪嫌疑人的活动阅读犯罪叙述和采访笔录。在阅读了叙述和笔录后，参与者根据问卷中谈话者提出的问题，根据自己对受访者对犯罪嫌疑人角色的先验知识（即受访者知识[PIK]）的看法进行了评分。在测试的三个因素中，我们发现对特定犯罪主题的质疑（主题讨论）增加了他们的PIK。这项研究是第一个探索犯罪嫌疑人如何通过采用心理语言理论概念的调查问题的内容来对访调员的先验知识进行推断的潜在机制。