Investigative Interviewing and Memory: How Accurate Are Interviewers’ Recollections of Investigative Interviews?

Gregory, Amy Hyman

doi:10.25148/etd.fi10022523

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…We demonstrated the predicted superiority of note taking as an external memory aid. This finding corresponds to prior studies that compared the quality of written records performed based on internal and external memory aids (Hope et al, ; Hyman Gregory, ; Hyman Gregory, Schreiber Compo, Vertefeuille, & Zambruski, ; Rosenhan et al, ). The amount of correctly recalled information was about 65% when participants took notes during the video.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

“…We also predicted that the usage of technical devices or note taking during the witness statement should improve the accuracy of the officer reports compared with reports that are based on a free recall of witness statements (cf. Hyman Gregory, ; Thorley, Baxter, & Lorek, ). Moreover, the quality of written records should be higher when (self‐administered) strategies of the cognitive interview are applied while performing the written record of an eyewitness testimony compared with records that are produced based on a free recall of witness statements.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Quality of written record following mock eyewitness testimony: Note taking should be a minimum standard!

Meise¹,

Leue²

2019

Journal Invest Psychology

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By using a video‐based narrative (unidirectional) eyewitness statement of an alleged victim, participants were asked to imagine they were police officers. We compared the quality of mock police officer written records in a between‐subjects design comprising three conditions: (a) a free recall (n = 27), (b) a free recall by using recall strategies of the cognitive interview (n = 27), or (c) note taking while watching the video (n = 26). The quality of the reports was determined by the amount of correctly recalled details, omitted details, added details (commission errors), and changed details (confabulations). As predicted, the number of correct details was higher in the “Note Taking” condition whereas performance in the “Free Recall” and in the “Cognitive Interview” conditions did not differ. Higher verbal memory ability resulted in a better quality of the written records. Our results suggest that note taking facilitates the quality of written records.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quality of written record following mock eyewitness testimony: Note taking should be a minimum standard!

Meise¹,

Leue²

2019

Journal Invest Psychology

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“…Though this is changing, currently, not all witness interviews are recorded; therefore, investigators' accurate representation of what a witness said is critical. Hyman Gregory [79] found that those who took notes during investigative interviews included more information and had a greater percentage of accurate information in their post-interview report (written two weeks after the interview). While taking notes is better than not, other research reminds us that notes are necessarily incomplete; in one study, 25% of incident-relevant details were not recorded in interviewers' notes [80].…”

Section: Courtroommentioning

confidence: 98%

Technology and note-taking in the classroom, boardroom, hospital room, and courtroom

Mueller

Oppenheimer

2016

Trends in Neuroscience and Education

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“…Hence, asking open questions is an important feature of an investigative interview (Danby et al, 2017). Interviewers must then accurately remember the often-numerous details provided by interviewees but interviewers' recall of information may be limited and inaccurate (Hyman- Gregory, 2009).The interviewer may introduce this erroneous information to the witness, which may have an impact on the subsequent accuracy and reliability of the witness's testimony (Gudjonsson, 2010;Loftus & Pickrell, 1995). In doing this, interviewers can affect the amount and quality of evidence provided by witnesses (Brown & Lamb, 2015;Gudjonsson, 2010).…”

Section: Cognitive Load In Investigative Interviewsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effects of cognitive load during an investigative interviewing task on mock interviewers’ recall of information

Hanway

Akehurst

Vernham

et al. 2020

Legal Criminol Psychol

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Purpose. Although investigative interviewers receive training in interviewing techniques, they often fail to comply with recommended practices. Interviewers are required to actively listen, accurately remember information, think of questions to ask, make judgements, and seek clarification, whilst conducting interviews with witnesses, victims, or suspects. The current study examined the impact of increased cognitive load on mock interviewers' recall of a witness's account. Method. Participants took the role of an investigative interviewer in one of three conditions, high cognitive load (HCL), moderate cognitive load (MCL), or no cognitive load (NCL). Participants watched a video-recorded free narrative of a child witness during which they followed condition-relevant task instructions. Each participant rated their perceived cognitive load during their task and then recalled (free and cued recall) the content of the witness's account. Results. Participants in the HCL and MCL conditions perceived higher cognitive load and demonstrated poorer performance on the free recall task than those in the NCL condition. Participants in the HCL condition demonstrated poorer performance on the cued recall task compared to participants in the NCL condition. Conclusions. The cognitive demands required to complete an investigative interview task led to an increased perceived cognitive load and had a negative impact on recall performance for mock interviewers. Accurately recalling what has been reported by a witness is vital during an investigation. Inaccurate recall can impact on interviewers' questioning and their compliance with recommended interviewing practices. Developing and practising interview techniques may help interviewers to better cope with the high cognitive demands of investigative interviewing. Despite having knowledge of, and receiving training in, recommended interviewing techniques, interviewers in real-world settings do not always follow best practice guidelines (Criminal Justice Joint Inspectorate, 2014; Powell & Barnett, 2015; Schreiber-Compo et al., 2012). Such guidelines generally recommend a range of interviewing techniques that have been developed from decades of international research for use in This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Investigative Interviewing and Memory: How Accurate Are Interviewers’ Recollections of Investigative Interviews?

Abstract: DEDICATIONThis dissertation is dedicated to the loving memory of my grandfather, Bernard Hyman.Though he did not live to see me accomplish this goal, I never would have made it this far without his spirit heartening me to want and seek more out of life.iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Cited by 5 publications

References 13 publications

Quality of written record following mock eyewitness testimony: Note taking should be a minimum standard!

Quality of written record following mock eyewitness testimony: Note taking should be a minimum standard!

Technology and note-taking in the classroom, boardroom, hospital room, and courtroom

The effects of cognitive load during an investigative interviewing task on mock interviewers’ recall of information

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