Using the cognitive interview with adults with mild learning disabilities

Abstract

Forty-seven adults with mild learning disabilities (mild intellectual disabilities) attending day-centres and thirty-eight adults from the general population viewed a videorecording of an accident. A day later the participants were interviewed using either a cognitive interview (CI) or a structured interview (SI, a control interview). Compared with their counterparts with learning disabilities, adults from the general population recalled more correct information and made fewer confabulations about persons and objects. Nevertheless, the type of interview had an impact. For both groups, the CI was more effective than the SI in enhancing recall although, for the ‘learning disabilities’ group, the CI also produced a disproportionate increase in the reporting of person confabulations. All the same, the accuracy ratios were similar across interview types (80% for the CI and 82% for the SI). It is suggested that the CI could be helpful in assisting people with learning disabilities to provide information about events they have seen.     

The Cognitive Interview: novice police officers' witness/victim interviewing practices

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate novice police officers’ witness interview practices immediately post investigative interview training (known as PEACE) with reference to the eight Cognitive Interview (CI) components taught. Forty-eight UK police officers took part as interviewers. Forty-eight undergraduates participated as mock witness; they viewed a non-violent crime video and 2 days later were individually interviewed by a police officer. Interviews were recorded and rated for officers’ application of the CI procedure.

Despite having recently completed the only training available to them no officer applied or attempted to apply the CI procedure in its entirety. However, some of the individual CI components were applied more frequently than others. This study provides a unique insight into the interviewing practices of some of the least researched, least experienced, and least trained investigative interviewers who, nonetheless, conduct witness interviews on a daily basis. The emergent picture suggests that either the CI procedure currently taught to novice police officers is too complex at so early a stage in their police career and/or that the current training may be insufficient to equip them with the skills necessary to effectively apply the procedure.     

Comparative analysis of true or false statements with the source monitoring model and the cognitive interview: special features of the false accusation of innocent people

Abstract

We describe two experiments designed to verify whether the source monitoring (SM) model categories and the cognitive interview (CI) contribute to distinguishing true from false statements. We used a 2 Type of Interview (Structured/Cognitive) × 2 Statement Condition (True/False) design with 18 interviewers in a sample group of 240 gender-matched university students being interviewed about a film fragment. In Experiment 1, participants who lied exculpated the protagonist from rape, whereas in Experiment 2 their lies were aimed at accusing an innocent person. As dependent variables we used criteria from the SM: details, supporting memories, thoughts and feelings and cognitive operations. The results suggest that the statements of honest participants interviewed using the CI provided more overall information than those obtained under any other condition. When a lie is aimed at exculpating someone from criminal behaviour, statements involve more cognitive operations and less sensory, temporal and contextual information, but only when the structured interview (SI) is used. When the lie is aimed at falsely accusing someone, the SI and the CI produce similar results. We discuss the forensic importance of these findings.     

Differential effectiveness of the cognitive interview in a simulation of testimony

The cognitive interview (CI) is a set of forensic evaluation procedures that has proven its efficiency. Nevertheless, little investigation has been made into its usage on witnesses with the intention of lying. With the aim of proving whether the efficiency of the CI is maintained where the witness is lying we carried out two experiments and we included instructions to tell the truth or to lie as independent variables. We used a 2 Type of interview (SI/CI)×2 Statement Condition (True/False)×2 Interviewee Gender (Male/Female) design with 18 interviewers in a sample group of 240 gender-matched university students being interviewed and the classic measures from the CI as dependent variables: the total number of details, details of actions, details about people and details concerning objects. In a first experiment, participants who lied exculpated the protagonist of a film fragment from rape, whereas in a second, those who lied accused an innocent protagonist. The results, in accordance with previous studies, showed a globally better efficiency for CI. Nevertheless, analysing the material based on type of details, this efficiency is only found in details concerning actions and objects. We discuss the forensic importance of these findings.     

Are jurors' perceptions of eyewitness credibility affected by the cognitive interview?

Abstract

Ninety-one college subjects listened to Cognitive Interviews (CI) and Standard police interviews of 7-year old children who were attempting to describe an earlier incident of playing a game of Simon Says. The subjects evaluated the witness's credibility and also the interviewer's manipulativeness. The perceived credibility of the witness was not affected by the type of interview, i.e., the CI did not render the witness unduly credible. In addition, the CI interviewer was judged to be less manipulative than the Standard police interviewer. These results were discussed in light of some potential legal concerns about using the CI.     

Modifying the cognitive interview: countenancing forensic application by enhancing practicability

The UK investigative interview model advocates police officers use the cognitive interview (CI). However, research has indicated that many officers perceive the CI as too cumbersome, complex, and time consuming for some types of crime. With this in mind we investigate the efficacy of two CI procedures, which have been substantially modified to enhance forensic practicability and retain the empirically demonstrated CI superiority effect. Employing the mock witness paradigm, both are compared to the procedure currently taught to UK police officers. Participant's memorial performance revealed no differences across interview conditions for the amount of correct and incorrect recall. However, those interviewed using the modified procedures confabulated less and were more accurate. Considering type of information recalled (person, action, object, and surrounding), no differences were found across conditions for correct or confabulated type recall. However, the two modified CIs elicited fewer incorrect person and object information items. Further, they were shorter in duration than the current procedure. Hence, for frontline less serious crime, or in time critical situations, the modified procedures may be viable alternatives. These findings and their implications are discussed.     

The cognitive interview: Much more than simply “try again”

Abstract

In the legal context, the elicitation of complete and accurate statements from witnesses and victims is essential. The Cognitive Interview (CI) was devised to improve eyewitnesses' memory by using mnemonic strategies which ask witnesses to think about what happened and encourage them to make as many retrieval attempts as possible. However, no known study has experimentally examined whether (or not) the CI superiority effect is something more than merely asking a witness to retrieve information four times. The aim of this study was to compare the recall obtained by means of the CI - in which mnemonics are used - to that obtained as a result of asking subjects to make a multiple free recall task - without using mnemonics - in a single interview session. It was expected that significant differences would still exist. Results confirmed this hypothesis.     

The cognitive interview: A meta-analysis

Abstract

A meta-analysis was performed on the effects of the cognitive interview on correct and incorrect recall. The database comprised 42 studies with 55 individual comparisons involving nearly 2500 interviewees. A strong overall effect size was found for the increase of correctly recalled details with the cognitive interview compared to a control interview (d = 0.87). The overall effect size for the increase in incorrect details, although considerably smaller, was also significant toward the cognitive interview (d = 0.28). However, the accuracy rates (proportion of correct details relative to the total amount of details reported) were almost identical in both types of interview (85% for the cognitive interview and 82% for standard interviews, respectively). Taking methodological factors into consideration it was found that effect sizes for correct details were larger if staged events were used as the to-be-remembered episode (as compared to video films) and if the interviewees actively participated in the event. With regard to incorrect details effect sizes were larger for adults as compared to children. Furthermore, the enhanced version of the cognitive interview produced more errors than the original version.     

Spaced cognitive interviewing: Facilitating therapeutic and forensic narration of traumatic memories

Abstract

The evolution of the cognitive interview (CI) is reviewed from the original package of memory-enhancing techniques through to the revised (or enhanced) CI, and the cognitive approach now taught to police officers in UK. Many officers are reluctant to apply CI, particularly to traumatised victims. The traumatising effects of crime are examined in terms of immediate response and the potential for an acute stress response and post-traumatic stress disorder, with subsequent re-experiencing of dissociated traumatic memories in the form of intrusive, unwanted imagery. Traumatic memories are described, particularly their accuracy, detail and persistence. The therapeutic potential of prolonged experience of distress while narrating the content of traumatic imagery is explained. An approach to maximising the disclosure of dissociated detail - spaced cognitive interviewing (SCI) - is described and case material presented illustrating its forensic and therapeutic application. The practice and practical implications of SCI are summarised.     

Suggestibility and children with mild learning disabilities: The use of the cognitive interview

Abstract

The aims of this paper were firstly to identify any differences in the level of suggestibility between 20 7–9-year-old children with mild learning disabilities and 20 children with average academic ability using the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale 2 (GSS2) and, secondly, to note the impact of the cognitive interview on the response patterns of children with mild learning disabilities.

On the GSS2, average academic ability children recalled significantly more correct details than children with mild learning disabilities. There was no significant difference between the two groups of children on distortions, fabrications, total confabulations or on any of the four measures of suggestibility.

In the second part of the study, 38 children with mild learning disabilities watched a filmed event and then were interviewed using either a standard or a modified version of the cognitive interview. Following this, all participants were asked specific questions, some of which incorporated misleading information. One week later each participant was re-questioned. This time critical questions were included about the truth of the presuppositions introduced in the initial interview session. It was found that the cognitive interview elicited significantly more correct and incorrect details than a standard interview with no significant difference in fabrications. Use of the cognitive interview did not significantly affect susceptibility to subsequent misleading suggestions.     

Facing into the wind's teeth: An interview with hal pepinsky

Editor's Note: The title of the interview comes from a poem by William Carlos Williams entitled The Manoeuvre. There Williams talks about seeing two starlings, just before alighting, turning in the air together backwards--but what got to him, he says, was that in doing so, they faced "into the wind's teeth." Commenting on the poem, Denise Levertov points out that, while it is a celebration of life, it also tells us that life sometimes requires adroit manoeuvering, its fullness emerging when we work not against but in cooperation with that which makes it most difficult. The interview speaks to this throughout.     

Examination of the consistency of interviewer performance across three distinct interview contexts

Abstract

The current study examined the consistency of investigative interviewers' performance (n=31) across three distinct interview paradigms: (a) a mock interview where an adult actor played the role of a child recalling abuse, (b) a mock interview where a school child recalled an innocuous event that was staged at the child's school, and (c) a field interview where the interviewer elicited a statement of abuse from a child. Performance was measured by calculating the proportion of open-ended and leading questions, and by eliciting expert ratings of the presence of a range of problem behaviours commonly exhibited by interviewers. Overall, the performance of individual interviewers was relatively stable across the tasks. Heterogeneity in stability, however, differed according to the type of question and the nature of the event being examined. In particular, the mock interview paradigm where the adult acted the role of an alleged child abuse victim produced a measure of performance that was more similar to the field interview than the interview where a school child recalled an innocuous event. The implications of the findings for trainers, and directions for future research, are discussed.     

Fading lies: applying the verifiability approach after a period of delay

ABSTRACT

We tested the utility of applying the Verifiability Approach (VA) to witness statements after a period of delay. The delay factor is important to consider because interviewees are often not interviewed directly after witnessing an event. A total of 64 liars partook in a mock crime and then lied about it during an interview, seven days later. Truth tellers (n?=?78) partook in activities of their own choosing and told the truth about it during their interview, seven days later. All participants were split into three groups, which provided three different verbal instructions relating to the interviewer’s aim to assess the statements for the inclusion of verifiable information: no information protocol (IP) (n?=?43), the standard-IP (n?=?46) and an enhanced-IP (n?=?53). In addition to the standard VA approach of analysing verifiable details, we further examined verifiable witness information and verifiable digital information and made a distinction between verifiable details and verifiable sources. We found that truth tellers reported more verifiable digital details and sources than liars.     

On the Limitation of Penalties and the Non-Equivalence of Penalties and Taxes

This paper compares the impacts of a penalty on accident and a per-unit tax on output, when social damages depend on the output of firms. The choice of the optimal regulation, aiming at internalizing a damage, is influenced both by the market power of firms and by their potential (in)solvency in case of accident. Output strategies influence the solvency situation of firms for paying a penalty, which may lead to multiple equilibria (all firms are either solvent or insolvent in case of accident). When social damages are large, the optimal penalty is capped for avoiding a situation with insolvent firms. In this case, a regulator implements a per-unit tax.JEL Classification: K13, L13     

The cognitive interview and its effect on misleading postevent information

Abstract

The present study investigated the effectiveness of the cognitive interview on reducing the impact of the misinformation effect. A 2×2 between-groups design was used, with interview type (cognitive or structured) and narrative type (misleading or neutral) as the independent variables. Adults (n=40) viewed video footage depicting a bank robbery and then received either a misleading or neutral postevent narrative. Participants were interviewed with either a cognitive or a structured interview regarding their memory for the original footage. The cognitive interview produced significantly more correct pieces of information than the structured interview, without an increase in errors or confabulations. An anomalous significant interaction was found regarding the number of incorrect pieces of information, where recipients of the structured interview made more recall errors when receiving neutral postevent information compared to neutral postevent information. A misinformation effect was successfully achieved but the enhancing effects of the cognitive interview were unable to reduce it. Results are discussed within the misinformation effect theoretical framework. The limitations of the present study are also discussed.     

Mental reinstatement of context with child witnesses: does it matter whether context is reinstated ‘out loud’?

Abstract

In this study we examined the impact of two types of mental reinstatement of context instructions in facilitating children's recall of a staged event across two stages of development. Specifically, a 2 × 3 factorial design was utilised incorporating two age groups (6- and 12-year-olds) and three interview conditions (standard recall, mental reinstatement where the child was instructed to reinstate the context ‘out loud’, and mental reinstatement without the explicit ‘out loud’ instruction). Overall, mental reinstatement instruction led to more correct and fewer incorrect responses than the standard recall instruction. The effect of mental reinstatement was similar across the age groups and irrespective of whether the child was asked to reinstate ‘out loud’. Beneficial effects of the technique, however, were only evident for cued-recall questions as opposed to free-narrative responses. The implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed.     

Challenging interviewees during interviews: The potential effects on lie detection

Abstract

The impact of interview styles on lie detection was examined. Thirty-six truth tellers and liars (undergraduates) were interviewed in three different ways: The interview started with an information-gathering interview style (Phase 1), which then developed into an interrogation (Phase 2), and finally transformed back into an information-gathering interview style (Phase 3). On the basis of DePaulo and Kirkendol's Motivational Impairment Effect, which suggests that when people are highly motivated to get away with their lies they actually look like they are controlling their behavior, it was hypothesized that the most prominent differences between liars and truth tellers would emerge in Phase 3. The findings supported this hypothesis, and thus suggest that specific interview styles could facilitate lie detection.     

Innocent of the crime under investigation: suspects’ counter-interrogation strategies and statement-evidence inconsistency in strategic vs. non-strategic interviews

ABSTRACT

The study examines the counter-interrogation strategies applied by mock suspects (N?=?94), who are innocent of a mock crime under investigation but who were present at the scene, for different reasons, at around the time the crime occurred. Half were present at the crime scene to carry out a lawful act, the other half to carry out an unlawful act. Furthermore, this study examines the effect of the Strategic Use of Evidence (SUE) technique as a strategic interviewing technique (vs. a non-strategic technique), on suspects’ statement-evidence inconsistencies. Participants were randomly assigned to the two interview conditions (strategic vs. non-strategic) and were interviewed as suspects of a crime, which none of them had committed. The results show that the most commonly used counter-interrogation strategy in both groups was to be honest. However, 26.1% of the innocent suspects, performing an unlawful act, reported the strategy to be deceptive. In addition, the statements of suspects executing an unlawful act were significantly more inconsistent with the evidence in the strategic than the non-strategic interview condition. The increased statement-evidence inconsistency rates potentially put these suspects at risk of being assessed as guilty of a crime they did not commit.