INTERVIEWING WITNESSES: WHAT WORKS AND WHAT DOESN'T?
Target Article by Memon and Stevenage on Witness Memory

<hr> Amina Memon & Sarah V. Stevenage (1996) Interviewing Witnesses: What Works and What Doesn't?. Psycoloquy: 7(06) Witness Memory (1)<br>Versions: <a href=ftp://www.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/pub/psycoloquy//1996.volume.7/psyc.96.7.06.witness-memory.1.memon>ASCII</a> <a href=https://www.cogsci.ecs.soton.ac.uk/cgi/psyc/newpsy?7.06>formatted</a><hr>
<TITLE>Psycoloquy 7(06): Interviewing Witnesses: What Works and What Doesn't?</TITLE>
<H1>INTERVIEWING WITNESSES: WHAT WORKS AND WHAT DOESN'T?<br>
Target Article by Memon and Stevenage on Witness Memory<br>
</H1>
<ADDRESS>Amina Memon & Sarah V. Stevenage<br>
Department of Psychology<br>
University of Southampton<br>
Highfield Southampton SO17 1BJ<br>
United Kingdom<br>
<br>
<a href=mailto:am@psy.soton.ac.uk>am@psy.soton.ac.uk</a> 
<a href=mailto:svs1@psy.soton.ac.uk>svs1@psy.soton.ac.uk</a> 
</ADDRESS>
<P><H1>Abstract</H1><BLOCKQUOTE>
In a forensic setting a witness is a key contributor.
Much research has recently been directed to helping the witness
achieve as full and accurate a recall as possible. One of the most
promising techniques to emerge is the cognitive interview (CI).
Tests of the cognitive interview with young adults suggest that it
generates consistent and significant gains in the amount of correct
information recalled. However, more recent studies (with adults and
children) suggest that the gains are accompanied by an increase in
errors and confabulations. These findings have important
implications for the cognitive interview as a forensic tool. The
following target article critically examines the evidence and
raises theoretical and methodological issues arising from work on
the CI. In light of the Recovered Memory debate, broader practical
implications of this work are considered.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><H1>Keywords</H1><i>
Cognitive interview, errors, eyewitness memory,
facilitated recall, police procedures, questioning, recovered
memories, structured interview.
</i>
<H1>References</H1><UL>
<LI>Bekerian, D.A. & Dennett, J.L. (1993) The cognitive interview: Reviving the issues. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 7 (4), 275-298. 
<LI>Bekerian, D.A., Dennett, J.L., Hill, K., & Hitchcock, R. (1992) Effects of detailed imagery on simulated witness recall. In F. Losel, D. Bender, & T. Bleinsener (Eds.). Psychology and Law: International Perspectives. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. 
<LI>Bekerian, D.A., Dennett, J.L., Reeder, C., Slopper, K., Saunders, H., & Evans, L. (1994) The influence of the cognitive interview technique on attributions of memory. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of British Psychological Society, April, Brighton. 
<LI>Bower, G. (1967) A multicomponent theory of memory trace. In K. W. Spence and J.T. Spence (Eds.) The Psychology of Learning and Motivation, Vol 1, New York: Academic Press. 
<LI>Carris, M., Zaragoza, M., & Lane, S. (1992) The role of visual imagery in source misattribution errors. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Society, Chicago, IL. 
<LI>Ceci, S.J., & Bruck, M. (1995) Jeopardy in the Courtroom. New York: American Psychological Association books. 
<LI>Ceci, S., Loftus, E., Leichtman, M. & Bruck, M. (1994) The possible role of source misattributions in the creation of false beliefs among preschoolers. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 42, 304-20. 
<LI>Ceci, S., Leichtman, M. & White, T. (in press) Interviewing preschoolers. In Peters, D. (Ed.), The Child Witness in Cognitive, Social and Legal Context. Netherlands, Kluwer. 
<LI>Ceci, S.J., Ross, D.F., & Toglia, M.P. (1987) Age differences in suggestibility: Narrowing the uncertainties. In S.J. Ceci, M.P. Toglia, & D.F. Ross (Eds.), Children's Eyewitness Testimony, New York: Springer. 
<LI>Christianson, S. A. & Hubinette, B. (1993) Hands up! A study of witnesses' emotional reactions and memories associated with bank robberies. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 7, 365-379. 
<LI>Cohen, G., & Java, R. (1995) Memory for medical history: Accuracy of recall. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 9, 273-288. 
<LI>Cronin, O., Memon, A., Eaves, R., & Bull, R. (1992, September) The cognitive interview with child witnesses: a child centred approach? Paper presented at the Third European Conference of Psychology and Law, Oxford University, Oxford. 
<LI>Davies, G., Tarrant, A., & Flin, R. (1989) Close encounters of the witness kind: Children's memory for a simulated health inspection. British Journal of Psychology, 80, 415-529. 
<LI>Davies, G.M., & Thomson, D.M. (Eds). (1988) Memory in Context: Context in Memory, Chichester, John Wiley and Sons Ltd. 
<LI>Eich, E. (1995) Mood as a mediator of place dependent memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 124, 293-308. 
<LI>Fisher, R.P. & Geiselman, R.E. (1992) Memory enhancing techniques for investigative interviewing: The Cognitive Interview. Springfield III: Charles C. Thomas. 
<LI>Fisher, R.P., Geiselman, R.E., & Amador, M. (1989) Field test of the cognitive interview: Enhancing the recollection of actual victims and witnesses of crime. Journal of Applied Psychology, 74(5), 722-727. 
<LI>Fisher, R.P., Geiselman, R.E., & Raymond, D.S. (1987) Critical analysis of police interviewing techniques. Journal of Police Science and Administration, 15, 177-185. 
<LI>Fisher, R.P., Geiselman, R.E., Raymond, D.S., Jurkevich, L.M. & Warhaftig, M.L. (1987) Enhancing eyewitness memory: refining the cognitive interview. Journal of Police Science and Administration, 15, 291-297. 
<LI>Fisher, R.P. & McCauley, M. (1995) Improving eyewitness testimony with the cognitive interview. In M Zaragoza, J.R. Graham, G.C.N. Hall, R. Hirschman, & Y.S. Ben-Porath Eds.). Memory and testimony in the child witness. pp 141-159. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. 
<LI>Gee, S., & Pipe, M.E. (1995) Helping children to remember: The influence of object cues on children's accounts of a real event. Developmental Psychology, 31(5), 746-758. 
<LI>Geiselman, R.E., Fisher, R.P., Firstenberg, I., Hutton, L.A., Sullivan, S.J., Avetissian, I.V. & Prosk, A.L. (1984) Enhancement of eyewitness memory: an empirical evaluation of the cognitive interview, Journal of Police Science and Administration, 12, 74-79. 
<LI>Geiselman, R.E., Fisher, R.P., MacKinnon, D.P., & Holland, H.L. (1986) Eyewitness memory enhancement in the cognitive interview. American Journal of Psychology, 99, 385-401. 
<LI>Geiselman, R.E., Fisher, R.P., MacKinnon, D.P., & Holland, H.L. (1985) Eyewitness memory enhancement in the police interview: Cognitive retrieval mnemonics versus hypnosis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 70, 401-412. 
<LI>George, R.C. (1992) A field evaluation of the cognitive interview. Unpublished Master's Thesis, University of East London. 
<LI>George, R.C., & Clifford, B. (1991) A field comparison of the cognitive interview and conversation management. Paper presented at the British Psychological Society Annual Conference, Bournemouth, U.K. 
<LI>Goodman, G. & Bottoms, B. (1993) Child victims, child witnesses: Understanding and Improving testimony. New York: The Guilford Press. 
<LI>Gudjonsson, G. (1992) The psychology of interrogations, confessions and testimony. Chichester, Wiley. 
<LI>Gudjonsson, G. & Clare, I. C.H. (in press) The relationship between confabulation and intellectual ability, interrogative suggestibility and acquiescence. Personality and Individual Differences. 
<LI>Gwyer, P., Clifford, B.R. & Dritschel, B. (1995) The effects of the Cognitive Interview on recall, recognition and the confidence/accuracy relationship. Manuscript submitted for publication. 
<LI>Herrmann, D. (1995) Doing good science and appreciating the basic applied relationship. Paper presented at the 1st biennial meeting of the Society for Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, University of British Columbia. 
<LI>Kihlstrom, J. F. (in press) The Trauma Memory argument. Consciousness and Cognition. 
<LI>Koehnken, G., Finger, M., Nitschke, N., Hofer, E. & Aschermann, E. (1992) Does a cognitive interview interfere with a subsequent Statement Validity Analysis? Paper presented at the American Psychology and Law Society meeting, San Diego. 
<LI>Koehnken, G. (1995) Interviewing adults. In R. Bull & D. Carson (Eds.) Handbook of psychology in legal contexts. Chichester: Wiley. 
<LI>Koehnken, G., Schimmossek, E., Aschermann, E. & Hofer, E. (in press) The cognitive interview and the assessment of the credibility of adults' statements. Journal of Applied Psychology. 
<LI>Koehnken, G., Thurer, C., & Zorberbier, D. (1994) The cognitive interview: Are interviewers memories enhanced too? Applied Cognitive Psychology, 8, 13-24. 
<LI>Koriat, A. & Goldsmith, M. (1996) Memory metaphors and the laboratory/real-life controversy: Correspondence versus storehouse views of memory. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 19.2 (June, 1996). 
<LI>Koriat, A. & Goldsmith, M. (1994) Memory in naturalistic and laboratory contexts: distinguishing accuracy oriented and quantity oriented approaches to memory assessment. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 123, 397-315. 
<LI>Krass, J., & Kinoshita, S., & McConkey, K.M. (1989) Hypnotic memory and confident reporting. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 3, 35-51. 
<LI>Lindsay, D.S. & Read, J.D. (1994) Psychotherapy and memories of child sexual abuse: A cognitive perspective. Applied Cognitive Psychology. 8, 281-338. 
<LI>Loftus, E. & Ketchum, K. (1991) Witness for the defence. New York: St Martins Press. 
<LI>MacLeod, M., Frowley, J., & Shepherd, J. (1994) Whole body perception and identification. In D. Ross, R.D. Read, & M. Toglia (Eds.). Adult eyewitness testimony: Current trends and developments. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. 
<LI>Mantwill, M., Koehnken, G., & Aschermann, E. (1995) Effects of the cognitive interview on the recall of familiar and unfamiliar events. Journal of Applied Psychology, 80, 68-78. 
<LI>McCauley, M.R. & Fisher, R.P. (1995) Facilitating children's eyewitness recall with the revised cognitive interview. Journal of Applied Psychology, 80, (4), 510-517. 
<LI>Memon, A. (in press) The cognitive interview. In O. Hargie. A handbook of communication skills. London: Routledge. http://www.soton.ac.uk/~am/memon-in-press.html 
<LI>Memon, A., Bull, R. & Smith, M. (1995) Improving the quality of the police interview: can training in the use cognitive techniques help? Policing and Society, 5, 53-68. 
<LI>Memon, A., Cronin, O., Eaves, R., & Bull, R. (1996) An empirical test of the mnemonic components of the Cognitive Interview. In G.M. Davies, S. Lloyd-Bostock, M. McMurran & C. Wilson (Eds) Psychology, Law & Criminal Justice. (pp. 135-145). Berlin: De Gruyter. http://www.soton.ac.uk/~am/mceb1996.html 
<LI>Memon, A., Cronin, O., Eaves, R., & Bull, R. (1993) The cognitive interview and child witnesses. In G.M. Stephenson, & N.K. Clark, (Eds.). Children, Evidence, and Procedure. Issues in Crimological and Legal Psychology. No. 20. British Psychological Soeicty, Leicester, UK. 
<LI>Memon, A., & Koehnken, G. (1992) Helping the witness to remember more: The cognitive Interview. Expert Evidence: the International Digest of Human Behaviour, Science and Law 1, 39-48. 
<LI>Memon, A., Milne, R., Holley, A., Bull, R., & Koehnken, G. (1994) Towards understanding the effects of interviewer training in evaluating the cognitive interview. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 8, 641-659. 
<LI>Memon, A., Wark, L., Bull, R., & Koehnken, G. (in press a) Isolating the effects of the cognitive interview. British Journal of Psychology. http://www.soton.ac.uk/~am/mwbk-in-press.html 
<LI>Memon, A., Wark, L., Holley, A., Koehnken, G. & Bull, R. (in press b) Context effects and event memory: How powerful are the effects: In D. Payne & F. Conrad (Eds.). Intersections in Basic and Applied Memory Research. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. http://www.soton.ac.uk/~am/context-in-press.html 
<LI>Memon, A., Wark, L., Holley, A., Koehnken, G. & Bull, R. (in press c) Reducing suggestibility in witness interviews. Applied Cognitive Psychology. http://www.soton.ac.uk/~am/mwhbk1995.html 
<LI>Milne, R., & Bull, R. (1995, September) Interviewing children with mild learning difficulty with the cognitive interview. Paper presented at the Division of Criminological and Legal Psychology Annual Conference, Rugby. 
<LI>Milne, R., Bull, R., Koehnken, G., & Memon, A. (1995) The cognitive interview and suggestibility. In G.M. Stephenson, & N.K. Clark, (Eds.). Criminal Behaviour: Perceptions, Attributions and Rationality. Division of Criminological and Legal Psychology, Occasional Papers, No. 22. British Psychological Society, Leicester, UK. 
<LI>Morton, J., Hammersley, R.H., & Bekerian, D.A. (1985) Headed records: A model of memory and its failures. Cognition, 20, 1-23. 
<LI>Norman, D., & Bobrow, D. (1978) Descriptions: An intermediate stage in memory retrieval. Cognitive Psychology, 11, 107-123. 
<LI>Orne, M.T., Soskis, D.A., Dinges, D.F., & Orne, E.C. (1984) Hypnotically induced testimony. In G.L. Wells, & E.F. Loftus, (Eds.). Eyewitness Testimony: Psychological Perspectives. pp 171-215. New York: Cambridge University Press. 
<LI>Paivio, A. (1971) Imagery and Verbal Processes. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. 
<LI>Payne, D.G. (1987) Hypermnesia and reminiscence in recall: A historical and empirical review. Psychological Bulletin, 101, 5-27. 
<LI>Pennebaker, J.W., & Memon, A. (in press) Recovered memories in context: Thoughts and elaborations on Bowers and Farvolden. Psychological Bulletin. http://www.soton.ac.uk/~am/sub1995.html 
<LI>Pezdek, K. (1995) What types of childhood event are not likely to be suggestively planted? Paper presented at the Annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society. Los Angeles. 
<LI>Rice, S.A. (1929) Interviewer bias as a contagion. American Journal of Sociology, 35, 421-423. 
<LI>Rosenthal, R., & Rubin, D.B. (1978) Interpersonal expectancy effects: The first 345 studies. Behavioural and Brain Sciences, 3, 377-415. 
<LI>Saywitz, K.J., Geiselman, R.E. & Bornstein, G.K. (1992) Effects of cognitive interviewing and practice on children's recall performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 77, 744-756. 
<LI>Schank & Abelson, (1977) Scripts, plans, goals and understanding. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. 
<LI>Scrivner, E., & Safer, M.A. (1988) Eyewitnesses show hypermnesia for details about a violent event. Journal of Applied Psychology, 73, 371-377. 
<LI>Smith, S. (1995) Mood is a component of mental context: Comment on Eich. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. 124(3), 309-310. 
<LI>Terr, L. (1990) Too scared to cry: How trauma affects children and ultimately us all. New York: Basic Books. 
<LI>Tulving, E., & Thomson, D.M. (1973) Encoding specificity and retrieval processes in episodic memory. Psychological Review, 80, 353-370. 
<LI>Turtle, J. (1995, July) Officers: What do they want? What have we got? Paper presented at the 1st biennial meeting of the Society for Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, University of British Columbia. 
<LI>Turtle, J., & Yuille, J. (1994) Lost but not forgotten details. Repeated eyewitness recall leads to reminiscence but not hypermnesia. Journal of Applied Psychology, 79, 260-271. 
<LI>Wagenaar, W.A. (1988) Identifying Ivan: A case study in legal psychology. Hertfordshire England: Harvester Wheatsheaf. 
<LI>Yuille, J.C. & Tollestrup, P. (1992) A model of the diverse effects of emotion on eyewitness memory. In S-A. Christianson (Ed.), The handbook of emotion and memory: Research and theory. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. 
<LI>Zaragoza, M., Graham, J.R., Hall, G.C.N., Hirschman, R. & Ben-Porath, Y.S. (1995) (Eds.), Memory and testimony in the child witness Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. 
</UL>