3. Fisher and Geiselman

Question 1

Alm

Answer 1

To study and test the cognitive interview in the field.

Question 2

Design:

Answer 2

Field experiment with actual interviews of real witnesses by serving Police detectives.

Question 3

Participants:

Answer 3

15 detectives from the Robbery Division of Dade County Florida. All were experienced with a minimum of five years with the division

Question 4

Procedure

Answer 4

In the first phase of the experiment, detectives were asked to record a selection of their next interviews using the standar interview techniques they normally used. The detectives were then divided into two groups with one being trained on Cognitive Interview techniques.

Detectives completed the training programme and were used in the results which follow. Over the next seven months more interviews were recorded by the two groups.

The post training interviews were analysed by a team at the University of California who were blind to the conditions

Question 5

Results

Answer 5

The seven trained detectives elicited 47% more Information after training and 63% more Information than the untrained detectives.

In terms of accuracy, laboratory based research had shown no difference between the cognitive interview and the standard Interview with approximately 85% of all statements being correct in all conditions

Question 6

Conclusions

Answer 6

Strong support was obtained for the effectiveness of the cognitive interview in the field. More Information was from witnesses to real events with no loss of accuracy