Language crimes and the cognitive interview: testing its efficacy in retrieving a conversational event

Frightened by the perpetrator's voice: Startle responsivity and cognitive processing predict earwitness speaker identification

This study was inspired by the case of a robbery victim who was startled and reminded of the crime upon hearing a stranger's voice, while not clearly recognizing the speaker. To investigate whether specific voices can modulate startle reactions and thereby predict speaker identification, we presented an audio hijack scenario to 84 participants and afterwards asked them to identify the perpetrator among neutral and negative speech fragments, while measuring flash-evoked eye-blink startle responses. Furthermore, we addressed data-driven cognitive processing during the audio scenario as a potential moderator in voice discrimination. Negative speech and the perpetrator's voice led to potentiated startle. Enhanced startle was positively associated with voice discrimination, but only in neutral speech fragments. In negative fragments, this association was weakened as a function of self-reported levels of data-driven processing during encoding. Thus, startle responses can generally predict accurate voice recognition, but speech emotionality and cognitive processing moderate this relationship.

The Enhanced Cognitive Interview: Towards a Better Use and Understanding of This Procedure

The Enhanced Cognitive Interview is accepted as one of the most successful techniques for enhancing witness recollection. This type of interview has been studied all over the world (eg, Europe or the USA) and is used by police officers in many different countries (eg, the UK and New Zealand). Nonetheless, it is essential for police officers to understand how, and when, to properly apply this interview. Therefore, we examined the underlying psychological processes involved in this interview, and what research can tells us about the situations and purposes that can benefit from applying it.

How effective is the cognitive interview when used with adults with intellectual disabilities specifically with conversation recall?

BACKGROUND

The cognitive interview (CI) has been shown to increase correct memory recall of a diverse range of participant types, without an increase in the number of incorrect or confabulated details. However, it has rarely been examined for use with adults with intellectual disability.

MEASURES AND METHOD

This study compared the memory recall of twenty-one adults with a mild intellectual disability (ID) (IQ 70-50) and twenty-one adults from the general population (GP). Participants viewed a film of a staged distraction theft and were interviewed using either the CI or the structured interview (SI).

RESULTS

The CI, when compared to the SI, enhanced the correct recall of person, action and conversation (gist) detail for both participant types, without increasing the number of incorrect or confabulated details reported. The ID group reported significantly less correct information than the GP regardless of the interview used.

CONCLUSION

The findings suggest that the CI can enable adults with intellectual disability to provide a fuller picture about an experienced event. Implications of this research are discussed.