Use of the enhanced cognitive interview and a modified cognitive interview to improve the eyewitness recall of older adults

As the proportion of older adults in the population grows it is expected that this group will be increasingly likely to witness criminal activity and report it to the police. To date, however, older adults and older adults who display, signs of cognitive impairment have received minimal attention in the eyewitness literature. The present thesis was concerned with addressing these limitations. Specifically, it reviewed the difficulties impaired and non-impaired older adults encounter when recalling an event, and aimed to enhance the quality and quantity of their recall using the Cognitive Interview (cf. Fisher & Geiselman, 1992) and a modified version of the Cognitive Interview, in which the change perspective mnemonic was omitted (cf. Holliday, 2003a, b). This mnemonic is often controversial (Boon & Noon, 1994) and may be challenging for older adults (Herman & Coyne, 1980). Before examining such issues, the thoughts and suggestions of those who actually interview older adults were considered. In Study 1, English police officers were asked to complete a questionnaire about the interviewing techniques they use with older witnesses, the challenges encountered with this group, and their attitudes about using a Cognitive Interview with older witnesses. Furthermore, because research about officers' perceptions about older witnesses is limited, officers' attitudes toward this -group were explored. Over half of the officers believed older witnesses to be less reliable and less thorough than younger adult witnesses. In addition, the number of officers who stated that the Cognitive Interview was helpful with older witnesses was equivalent to the number of officers who reported that the Cognitive Interview was unhelpful with this group. Study 2 compared the quality and quantity of older adults' recall for a video-taped event using a typical police interview (the Structured Interview; cf. K6hnken, 1993), a Cognitive Interview, and a modified Cognitive Interview. Old-old (75-95-years) adults' recall was found to be less complete and

less accurate than that of young-old (60-74-years) adults, which was less complete and less accurate than that of young (17-3 1 -years) adults. Contrary to the beliefs of many officers surveyed in Study 1, the Cognitive Interview and modified Cognitive Interview improved recall across every age group. Specifically, the Cognitive Interview and modified Cognitive Interview increased the number of correct Person, Action, Object and Surrounding details reported, without increasing the number of incorrect or confabulated details recalled. These age and interview effects remained when interviews were re-scored using a coding system that reflected police officers' decisions about the investigative relevance of details. Study 3 replicated the results of Study 2, using young (18-31 -years) and young-old (60-75-years) participants. Study 3 addressed some of the limitations inherent in Study 2, by incorporating information about participants' education level, screening depressed individuals from the sample, and altering the post-stimulus decision task. Study 4 examined whether a Cognitive Interview and a modified Cognitive Interview were also useful with older adults who show signs of cognitive impairment, as measured by the Mini-Mental State Exam (Folstein, Folstein & McHugh, 1975). Although the recall of impaired older adults (75-96-years) was found to be less complete and less accurate than that of nonimpaired older adults (75-95-years), the Cognitive Interview and modified Cognitive Interview increased the number of correct Action, Person, Object, and Surrounding details recalled by each group, with no increases in the number of incorrect or confabulated details. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.