Using the Cognitive Interview with Adolescents

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Using the Cognitive Interview with Adolescents

• Julie Kenniston, LSW
• 513.604.6739
• juliehwk_at_aol.com

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Objectives

• Learn the steps of the Cognitive Interview as
  they relate to forensic interviews of adolescents
• Practice the Cognitive Interview
• Understand the use of the Cognitive Interview in
  assessing adolescents statements

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• The Cognitive Interview
• by not interrupting witnesses while they are
  attempting to recreate context, and by pausing
  between questions, the interviewer allows the
  witness time to form an image and to engage in a
  more exhaustive search, and this may induce more
  elaborate responses.
• Memon, A., Wark, L., Bull, R. and Koehnken, G.
  (1997) Isolating the effects of the Cognitive
  Interview techniques. British Journal of
  Psychology, 88 (2), 179-198.

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Greek Alphabet
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Memory and Reporting

• Experience
• Filter
• Encode
• Retain
• Retrieve

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You are interviewing a teen about a report you
received and she makes this statement

• He raped me.
• What are the important follow up questions?

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Follow Up Questions

• Who is he?
• What does raped mean?
• Where were you?
• When did this happen?
• What were you wearing?
• Who else was there?
• What did he say?
• Etc.

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The Importance of Narrative

• Focused follow up questions provide answers to
  only those questions asked, without context
• Tell me about that gives context without
  sending a message to the teen that you are
  seeking certain information
• Tell me about restated

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The Importance of Narrative

• Allows the teen to freely state what they
  remember without shaping
• Can be followed up with focused or detail-seeking
  questions
• Often gives spontaneous, unsolicited information
  that could be corroborated
• Will not give everything you need in the first
  question, but gives a basis from which to start
• Allows for credibility assessment

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Cognitive Interview

• Invite narrative about a topic previously
  discussed
• Reinstate the context and trigger
• Be complete
• Reverse order

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Inviting Narrative on a Topic(Part 1)

• This is not a way to get to the topic.
• This is a follow up after the teen has made a
  statement to you.
• Tell me about that.

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Reinstating the Context (Part 2)

• Provides triggers that access parts of the event
  that have not been discussed
• Should still be narrative inviting
• Should invite information about the people,
  place, event, conversations, senses, etc.
• Think about give time reference. Who was
  there? Tell me about ____. What was ____
  wearing? Etc.

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Additional Questions in Part 2

• Discuss people and descriptions of people. (How
  they looked, what they said)
• What did the place/environment look like?
• What was the weather like? Dark/light? Etc.
• Description of environment
• What did you see? Hear? Smell? Taste?
• How did you feel? (physically, emotionally)
• What happened?
• Follow topic lead of interviewee

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Be Complete (Part 3)

• Once triggers elicit additional information, it
  is important to get these details in context.
• Being complete allows you to get sequencing of
  the event.
• It puts the pieces together to create a big
  picture.
• Tell me everything from the beginning to the
  middle to the end even the little things that you
  think might not be important.

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Reverse Order (Part 4)

• IF you have done a good job getting the teen to
  narrate, AND, you have taken good notes, you can
  check for consistency in the narrative by
  inviting the teen to tell the event in reverse
  order.
• Transitioning to reverse (the sales pitch)
• Lets check it outA, B, C, D

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(No Transcript)
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Greek Alphabet Activity
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Greek Alphabet
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Practicing the Cognitive Interview

• In small groups, identify one person who will be
  interviewed and one person who will interview.
• The interviewee should have an event to discuss.
  (ex. a traffic stop, car accident, shorter moment
  in time, not the 24 hour birth of your child)
• The interviewer will use the four steps of the
  Cognitive Interview
• Everyone else take notes about the details given
  in each step of the Cognitive Interview. Note
  new details when given.

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Cognitive Interview

• Invite narrative about a topic previously
  discussed
• Tell me about your car accident.
• Reinstate the context
• Think about your car accident. Who was there?
  Tell me about ___.
• Be complete
• Tell me everything from the beginning to the
  middle to the end
• Reverse order
• Now start from when you got to the hospital and
  tell me what happened in reverse order. What
  happened right before that

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Assessing Credibility

• What things in this practice made your
  interviewee credible?
• Consistency?
• Logical sequencing?
• Contextual details?
• Spontaneous details?
• Self correction?
• A-ha moments for the interviewee?
• Quality of narrative?
• Other things?

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Assessing Teen Credibility

• Multiple hypotheses
• Motivation for fabricating
• Motivation for disclosing
• Peer influence (Has someone else disclosed
  recently? Has someone else prompted the
  disclosure?)
• Relationship to perp
• Cost/benefit analysis
• Other?

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Part 5 the One that Causes Concern

• Change of Perspective
• Not based in reality
• Fly on the wall
• Asking child to guess, project, assume
• Developmental considerations
• Not recommended (esp for children)
• Check this out with your prosecutor for teens or
  adults

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Thank you!Julie Kenniston, LSW513.604.6739juli
ehwk_at_aol.com