Enhancing investigative interview training using a child avatar system: a comparative study of interactive...

Area of Science:

• Child Welfare
• Investigative Interviewing
• Virtual Reality Training

Background:

• Investigative interviews with abused children by police and Child Protective Services (CPS) are critical but often lack quality due to insufficient training.
• Current training methods fail to adequately prepare personnel for the complexities of these sensitive interviews.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate a novel training system simulating interactive environments with child abuse victims using child avatars.
• To enhance the quality of investigative interviewing skills for police and CPS personnel through realistic and engaging training.

Main Methods:

• A user study compared four interactive platforms: Virtual Reality (VR), 2D desktop, audio, and text chat.
• Participants (CPS workers, child welfare students) rated Quality of Experience (QoE), realism, responsiveness, immersion, and flow.
• Perceived learning impact, engagement, self-efficacy, and adherence to best practices were also assessed.
• A question classification model achieved 87% balanced accuracy in feedback for appropriate/inappropriate questions.

Main Results:

• Virtual Reality (VR) was rated superior in four out of five quality aspects, with 66% favoring it for immersive, realistic training.
• A question classification model demonstrated high accuracy in providing feedback on interview question quality.
• CPS professionals conducted interviews of higher quality than non-professionals, irrespective of the training platform.

Conclusions:

• VR offers a superior platform for realistic and immersive training in investigative interviewing techniques for child abuse cases.
• Effective feedback mechanisms, like the question classification model, can significantly improve interview quality.
• Professional experience is a key factor in interview quality, but enhanced training can benefit all personnel.