CPI Witness Psychology & Debunking Flashcards
6 cards from real CPI practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 6 CPI Witness Psychology & Debunking flashcards as text
What is 'pareidolia' and why is it relevant to paranormal investigation?
Answer: The brain's tendency to perceive familiar patterns (like faces) in random stimuli, which can produce false paranormal evidence
Pareidolia is the psychological tendency to perceive meaningful patterns—such as faces or figures—in random stimuli, making it a common source of false photographic and visual paranormal evidence.
Which factor most significantly affects the reliability of a witness's paranormal account?
Answer: The time elapsed between the experience and when it was reported, along with the witness's emotional state
Memory degrades and becomes susceptible to suggestion over time, so the elapsed time between experience and report—combined with emotional state—significantly impacts account reliability.
What is the 'ideomotor effect' and how can it influence paranormal investigation results?
Answer: Unconscious muscular movements that cause devices like dowsing rods or talking boards to move without conscious intent
The ideomotor effect causes unconscious muscle movements that can make dowsing rods, pendulums, or Ouija boards appear to respond independently, producing misleading paranormal results.
When interviewing a witness who is visibly distressed, what is the best CPI approach?
Answer: Allow the witness to calm down, use open-ended non-leading questions, and document their account without suggesting answers
Investigators should allow witnesses to settle before interviewing and use open-ended, non-leading questions to avoid implanting suggestions that contaminate the account.
What is 'confirmation bias' and how should a CPI investigator guard against it?
Answer: The tendency to favor information that confirms pre-existing beliefs, guarded against by applying consistent skeptical analysis to all evidence
Confirmation bias leads investigators to accept evidence supporting paranormal explanations while dismissing contrary data, and it is countered by applying rigorous skeptical analysis equally to all evidence.
Which psychological phenomenon can cause multiple witnesses to report the same paranormal experience after hearing each other's accounts?
Answer: Social contagion / suggestion, where one person's account influences others' memory and perception
Social contagion occurs when one witness's detailed account influences the memories and perceptions of others, causing them to 'remember' or report similar experiences they may not have originally perceived.