The effectiveness of the cognitive interview in eliciting new information from eyewitnesses

Abstract

This research aimed to investigate whether the utilisation of the cognitive interview during eyewitness questioning can prove useful in gathering new information about the crime in comparison to the standard police interview. Eyewitnesses are a crucial part of the investigative processes of the police and their memory is vulnerable, both during and postevent. It can be influenced by misinformation as well as their levels of stress throughout the crime. The cognitive interview (CI) is a method of questioning, and its main goal is to increase memory retrieval by using techniques such as mental reinstatement and reporting the crime backwards. This study used an experimental design, where 10 participants were divided into two groups, one undergoing the standard police interview and the other one undergoing the cognitive interview. They were shown four video simulations, depicting different crimes. The interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed. Afterwards, they were analysed using thematic analysis, where the common codes between the five interviews per video were linked together by the same detail of the crime. Although there was no significant difference between the information elicited from both interviews, some observations were noted. The question about reporting the event backwards in the CI elicited some important details, possibly due to the recency effect, but the appearance of the offenders was hardly noticed in this same interview style, as there were no specific questions about it, when compared to the standard interview.