How Effective is the Enhanced Cognitive Interview when Aiding Recall Retrieval of Older Adults including Memory for Conversation? (pages 257–270)

摘要

The percentage of older adults in the general population is growing. As a result, oldernadults are coming more frequently into contact with the Criminal Justice System asnwitnesses to and victims of crime. Older adults are also over-represented in crimes wherenconversation detail is of particular importance to an investigation (e.g. distractionnburglary). The present study therefore examined the efficacy of cognitive interview (CI)ncompared with structured interview in improving the recall of an event by older witnesses,nspecifically conversational detail. Young adults (19–54years old), young-old adults (60–n74 years old), and old-old adults (75+years old) were asked to watch a short film of anlaptop theft and were then, after a 1.5hour delay, randomly allocated to one of twoninterview conditions. It was found that the CI significantly increased recall of all agengroups, without increasing the amount of incorrect or confabulated information reported.nThe individuals in the young adult and the young-old adult conditions were found tonremember significantly more than the individuals from the old-old adult condition, withoutndecreasing the accuracy of the information. The CI enhanced memory for conversationngist, person and action detail. Results will be discussed in relation to interviewing andninvestigating practices. Copyright # 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.