Cognitive Interview Procedure Research Articles

A modified cognitive interview procedure for frontline police investigators

AbstractThe current investigative interviewing model for police officers in England and Wales recommends the use of the cognitive interview (CI). However, there is much to suggest that police officers do not regularly fully apply the procedure and that when they do, it is often poorly applied. Research has indicated that this is particularly the case with non‐specialist police investigators who believe the CI is too cumbersome, complex and time consuming for the types of witness interviews they conduct. With this in mind the present study investigated a CI procedure that had been substantially modified in an attempt to enhance its forensic practicability while retaining the demonstrated superiority of the CI. Employing the mock witness paradigm, the modified procedure was compared to both the current CI model and a structured interview (SI). Results revealed that the modified CI was more effective than the SI, while being as effective as the current CI, despite being significantly shorter in duration and, we argue, less demanding for the interviewer. Hence, the proposed modified CI may well be an effective practical alternative for frontline investigators. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Oral and Written Symbol Comprehension Testing: The Benefit of Cognitive Interview Probing

Traditionally, symbol comprehension is tested using open-ended, written responses. However, responses are often so brief that they may fail to indicate a participant's true understanding of some symbols. In the present study, several test methods were compared to the standard written method to determine if they produce better symbol comprehension performance. The four alternative methods included: written test with probe questioning after all responses were provided, oral test without probe questioning, oral test with probe questioning after responses for all symbols were provided, and oral test with probe questioning after each partially correct or incorrect response. The probe or follow-up questioning technique is taken from the cognitive interview procedure used in eyewitness identification research to elicit more detailed responses. Participants reported their interpretations of 31 safety symbols in one of the 5 test method conditions. Results showed that the test methods that included follow-up questioning elicited more information from participants, and increased comprehension rates in both oral and written test formats. The results have implications for cost-effective symbol design and evaluation.

Hypnotic interviewing: the best way to interview eyewitnesses?

It has been suggested that hypnosis techniques may have the potential to enhance eyewitness memory in forensic investigations. However, laboratory research shows that increases in recall with hypnosis techniques are often associated with decreases in accuracy, false confidence in incorrect information, and increased suggestibility to leading questions and misleading post-event information. These problems limit the usefulness of hypnosis as an interviewing procedure. However, in practical investigations, many factors associated with hypnosis, apart from the hypnotic induction itself, might lead to memory enhancement compared with standard police interviews. For example, hypnotic interviewers, because of their psychological, clinical, and interpersonal skills, may be better interviewers than police officers. They may use effective interviewing strategies such as those associated with the "cognitive interview"; a procedure which has the potential to enhance recall by approximately 35% without the problems of memory distortion associated with hypnosis. It is concluded, therefore, that a cognitive interview procedure should be used in preference to hypnosis.

Age trends in eye-witness suggestibility and compliance

This paper addresses two issues: whether there is a developmental trend in suggestibility to misleading post-event information, and whether suggestibility can be reduced by use of part of the cognitive interview. Twenty participants from each of three age groups (four-to-five year olds, eight-to-nine year olds and adults) watched a filmed event, and half of the participants in each age group were subsequently asked to recall everything they had seen using a method derived from the cognitive interview procedure. Following this, all participants were asked questions about the filmed event, some of which incorporated misleading information. Twenty four hours later the witnesses were interviewed again, this time critical questions were included about the truth of the presuppositions introduced in the initial questionnaire. It was found that although the eight-to-nine year olds were more suggestible than adults, the apparent greater suggestibility of very young children (four-to-five years) could potentially be explained in terms of heightened compliance to the perceived demands of the interviewer. The 'be complete' part of the cognitive interview only produced an improvement in performance for the eight-to-nine year olds.

Applying the Cognitive Interview Procedure to Child and Adult Eyewitnesses of Road Accidents

Dans la première de deux études, des étudiants visionnèrent des vidéocassettes de différents accidents de la route et furent ensuite interviewés afin de comparer les procédures du Standard Interview (SIP) et du Cognitive Interview (CIP). Le SIP est régulièrement employé par les officiers de police pour recueillir de l'information sur les accidents de la circulation; à la vérité, il est utilisé aussi dans beaucoup d'autres circonstances légales. Le CIP est une procédure d'entretien relativement innovatrice qui semble considérablement augmenter la somme d'informations correctes reconnues comme valables par les interviewés. Dans l'étude I le CIP élicita de manière signific‐ativement plus correcte des items informatifs sur les accidents de véhicules de la route que ne le fit le SIP; et les deux procédures rapportèrent des quantités semblables et peu importantes d'informations incorrectes. Le CIP a rarement été appliquéà des témoins oculaires enfants et dans l'étude II des groupes âgés de 4/5 ans, de 9/10 ans, et de 14/15 ans visionnèrent les mêmes vidéo‐cassettes sur les accidents de la route et furent aussi interviewés pour comparer le SIP et le CIP. Parmi les enfants de tous âges le CIP élicita significativement des items informatifs plus corrects que ne le fit le SIP. II recuellit aussi une information moins incorrecte chez les groupes des 4/5 ans et des 14/15 ans, tandis que chez les 9/10 ans une quantité semblable d'information incorrecte fut élicitée tant avec le SIP que le CIP. L'article conclut sur le fait que le CIP est intéressant à utiliser avec les témoins oculaires d'accidents de la route, qu'ils soient adultes ou enfants.In the first of two studies, 48 university students watched video‐recordings of genuine road accidents and were subsequently interviewed to compare a Standard Interview Procedure (SIP) and the Cognitive Interview Procedure (CIP). The SIP is invariably employed by police officers to gain information about traffic accidents; and, indeed, it is used in many other legal contexts too. The CIP is a relatively innovative interview procedure which seems consistently to increase the amount of correct information made available by interviewees. In Study I the CIP elicited significantly more correct information concerning the road‐vehicle accidents than did the SIP; and the two procedures yielded similar, low amounts of incorrect information. The CIP has seldom been applied to child eyewitnesses, and in Study II 4/5‐year‐olds, 9/10‐year‐olds, and 14/15‐year‐olds watched the same video‐recordings of road accidents and were likewise interviewed to compare the SIP and CIP. Across children of all ages the CIP elicited significantly more correct items of information than did the SIP. It also elicited less incorrect information for 4/5‐year‐olds and 14/15‐year‐olds, although for the 9/10‐year‐olds similar amounts of incorrect information were elicited through the CIP and the SIP. It is argued that the CIP is useful for both adult and child eyewitnesses of road‐vehicle accidents.

Memory for medical history: Accuracy of recall

AbstractMedical diagnosis often depends on the ability of patients to recall and report their medical history. In this study 104 people kept health diaries for 3 months, recording the incidence, frequency, data, duration, and severity of health events (symptoms, illnesses, injuries, visits to health professionals, and medication). Memory for the events recorded was tested immediately after the diary‐keeping period or at 1 month or 3 months later. Effects of age, gender, education, health status, anxiety, and retention interval were observed. With a free recall procedure only 47 per cent of health events were recalled. Following the free recall two different kinds of intervention were compared. Use of a recognition checklist yielded recall of 29 per cent of the forgotten events but with a cognitive interview procedure only 6 per cent of the forgotten items were retrieved.

Changing perspectives in cognitive interviewing

Abstract A study is presented which investigated aspects of a specialist method for taking evidence from witnesses known as ‘Cognitive Interviewing’. Specifically, the study sought to evaluate four techniques used in this form of interviewing, namely the Report All, Reinstate Context, Change Order, and the Change Perspectives mnemonics. The findings suggest that while none of these mnemonics significantly increased inaccuracy, all but the Change Perspectives mnemonic facilitated recall of accurate information. The findings are discussed in terms of the applied functional utility of each of the mnemonics and the Cognitive Interview procedure in general.