One method of restricting the coverage of the comparison question so that it will not include the time in which the incident under investigation took place. Time bars generally predate the crime. A typical time bar for the comparison question might be phrased “Before the age of X, did you ever…” or “Prior to 1998, did you ever …” There is a school of thought that examinees may confuse the relevant questions with the comparison questions unless these two types of questions are designed to avoid any degree of overlap. Research has not supported this hypothesis, however. See: Amsel (1999); Podlesny & Raskin (1978); Horvath (1988); Horvath & Palmatier (2008). Also see exclusionary comparison question
