Cognitive Interview Techniques

Cognitive Interview Technique on Detecting Deception

The inability to recognize fabricated statements can greatly damage the investigation process of a crime. Standard police interviews were often ineffective and most police officers never received formal training. In 1975, the RAND Corporation completed a survey of law-enforcement professionals and discovered that only 2% of the officers had received any formal training on how to interview people (Geiselman & Fisher, 2014). The memory of a witness or victim of a crime can be susceptible to contamination by an interview if conducted incorrectly.

This was evident within the McMartin Preschool case which consisted of children accusing their caretakers of sexually abusing them. The false accusations

Cognitive Interviewing is a technique that meets the goals of efficient investigative interviewing. The core elements of Cognitive Interviewing are based on three psychological processes such as memory and cognition, social dynamics, and communications (Geiselman & Fisher, 2014). The memory enhancing components of CI attempts to maximize the amount of retrieval by exploring multiple retrieval routes within the interviewee’s memory. The social dynamics element of the technique consists of rapport building and encouraging interviewee participation. Without the social dynamics, the interviewer is unable to gather truthful and quality information from the interviewee. The communication element of Cognitive Interviewing consists of promoting extensive, detailed responses. In addition, the utilization of non-verbal and verbal communication is included (Geiselman & Fisher,

During the introduction phase, the interviewer’s goal is to develop rapport. Building rapport is essential at the beginning of the interview since the interviewee will be questioned by complete strangers such as police officers, detectives, and psychologists. In addition, the appearances of the interviewer (badge, uniform, police gear, etc.) may create a psychological barrier between the interviewer and the interviewee (Geiselman & Fisher, 2014). To alleviate the barrier of anxiety and mistrust, the interviewer can ask general questions such as. “Before we begin, I would like to get to know you a little better. What do you do on a typical day?” (Geiselman & Fisher, 2014) The alleviation of anxiety enables the interviewee to use cognitive resources on retrieving the relevant