Interviewing Techniques Flashcards
Outline the introduction to interviewing techniques
Forensic investigations are an attempt to reconstruct a past event using physical evidence (e.g., hair, fibers, DNA) and eyewitness evidence (e.g., memory & ID). The investigative interview plays a pivotal police role in the ‘production’ of eyewitness testimony because memory is a constructive process that is prone to error and is easily influenced by the recall environment, including police interviews. Incorrect witness evidence can in itself lead to miscarriages of justice thus, extensive research has been conducted into interviewing eyewitness’ techniques. The strengths and weaknesses of standard police interview, cognitive interview, a modified ‘Sketch Plan’ Mental Context Reinstatement and the self-administered interview.
outline early interviewing techniques intro
Eyewitnesses provide crucial evidence for the investigation of criminal cases yet incorrect evidence taken from witnesses can lead to miscarriages of justice. The stakes are high however, until fairly recently police officers were not routinely trained to interview witnesses thus, attempting to determine the quality of real-life police interviews with witnesses has proved difficult.
what is the reason for the lack of field research on real-life police interviews with witnesses?
until fairly recently police officers were not routinely trained to interview witnesses thus, attempting to determine the quality of real-life police interviews with witnesses has proved difficult. One reason for the lack of field research, is the fact that very few eyewitness interviews are recorded, in order for them to be examined, in the first place.
- However, this is changing in England and Wales due to implementation of new legislation, policy and procedures opening up the doors of the witness interview room to the researcher.
Who conducted a study on the early interview techniques. and what did was found?
Unfortunately, research studies on the subject revealed poor interviewer performance. Considering that research in the area of memory has shown that poor questioning can worsen witness evidence inherent unreliability. A study of witness interviews conducted in the UK (McLean, 1992) predicted (based on previous study of interviews with suspects within the same force) that the officers would use a high proportion of leading (questions that suggest an answer) and closed questions (that encourage yes/no answers), would monopolise the talking time, and would distort the witness’ accounts. Indeed, 66% of the questions asked were inappropriate, a higher proportion than found in a parallel study examining interviews with suspects.
what was the conclusion ofthe early interview techniques study?
McLean, himself a police officer, concluded that there was a much greater willingness by the police officer to encourage a suspect to talk freely than a witness.
who conducted the more recent evaluation of police interviewing in the UK and what was found?
Clarke and Milen (2001), conducted a more recent national evaluation of police interviewing in the UK, after the implementation of a national interview training programme. Finding also showed a poor skill level in the witness interviews that they examined, and similar to McLean, highlighted that the interviews with suspects were of a higher standard.
Additionally, in the witness interviews very few officers made the effort to develop rapport with the interviewees and the interviews were police led.
What is cognitive interview based on?
Due to earlier problems with interviewing witnesses, psychologist responded with new, more reliable and effective eyewitness interview technique based on principles of memory retrieval but also incorporates principles of general cognition, social dynamics and communication.
who developed the cognitive interview?
Fisher & Geiselman (1984), developed the Cognitive Interview and later the Enhanced Cognitive Interview (1992).
describe the two principals that CI is based on
The CI is based on two principles of memory: 1. A memory trace consists of several elements of related information, 2. There are several possible ways of retrieving an encoded event, so information that cannot be retrieved in one way, may be accessible using another method.
what are the mnemonic components of cognitive interview?
Based on these theoretical assumptions, Fisher and Geiselman (1992) developed several mnemonic components that are now proven to facilitate the accurate retrieval of witnessed episodes. These are: the instructions to report everything, mental reinstatement of context, recalling events in a variety of different orders and change perspective technique.
outline the process of cognitive interview
The CI protocol is divided into five sections. First, an introduction is made that establishes a relationship between the witness and the interviewer. At this point, the interviewer explains the expected social dynamics for the remainder of the interview, emphasizing a witness- centered approach. The interviewer then gives the witness an opportunity to provide an uninterrupted narration of what s/he experienced. During this time, the interviewer is able to construct a strategy for eliciting additional information. Based on the contents of the uninterrupted narrative, the interviewer guides the witness through several information-rich memory representations (scenes, images). The interviewer then reviews the information generated during the entire interview, followed by the close of the interview in a manner that will extend its functional life.
evidence for the cognitive interview?
An empirical Meta-analysis of 46 cognitive interview papers found that CI produces a large increase in the correct details recalled, a small increase in errors and no difference in confabulations. CI yielding significantly more information than standard police interviews is not surprising because the principals are based on memory theory relating to how humans access episodic memories. Additionally, it was found that CI benefits older witnesses more than young adults and that the effect size of CI declines with delay between event and interview, longer delay (1-2 weeks) reduces correct details and confabulations.
LImitations of the cognitive interview.
However, the paper also highlighted some limitations of the cognitive interview. For instance, with respect to behaviour change of police officers, Clark and Milne (2005) found no evidence of the CI procedure having been used at all in the vast majority (83%) of British interviews they examined. Subsequent research highlighted that the CI procedure, as it has been taught to trainee police officers, is either too complex or is administered too early in their police career to provide a foundation for their investigative work (Dando et al., 2009c). Police officers also felt the interviews they were conducting related mostly to less serious crimes where the additional time and resources involved were not necessary.
- As a solution a modified mental reinstatement of context procedure was developed for frontline police investigators.
Cons of the Cognitive interview
- Time consuming and resource intensive.
- Ambivalence by officers towards its use.
- Some components (e.g. Reverse Order instruction) difficult to apply and underlying logic not apparent.
- CI was restricted to more serious offences and conducted by an increasingly limited number of officers
Who developed the Sketch plan mental reinstatement of context (Sketch MRC) ?
Sketch plan mental reinstatement of context (Sketch MRC) was developed by Dando, Wilcock & Milne, (2009) as a less complex and less time consuming alternative to cognitive interview.
