“Training is everything.”

1. “Training is everything.” Can provision of investigation-specific training information improve initial eyewitness online recall? Gabrielle Gower, MSc and Dr. Anne Ridley Division of Psychology School of Applied Sciences

2. First Responders

3. Background • Psychologicaltheory of memory (Tulving, 1985; Baddeley, 1986). • Cognitive Interview (Geiselman et al., 1984). • Enhanced Cognitive Interview (Fisher et al., 1987). • Sketch Reinstatement of Context (Dando, Wilcock, Milne & Henry, 2009). • Self-Administered Interview (Gabbert, Hope & Fisher, 2009).

4. Theory vs. Practice • CI poorly implemented due to factors such as time pressures in real-life investigations. (Dando, Wilcock & Milne, 2009). • SAI an excellent solution for mass interviews. May not always be time for witnesses to fill in full. (Gabbert, Hope, Fisher & Jamieson, 2012). • In practice, most police interviews begin with “Tell me everything…” instruction. (English & English, 2003).

5. Other Issues • Suggestibility (Loftus, 1979), often caused by misleading information (LaPaglia et al., 2014). Difficult to avoid, particularly in situations with multiple witnesses who confer (Ridley, Gabbert & LaRooy, 2013). • Incidental versus intentional learning (Naveh-Benjamin et al., 2009): does it matter whether witnesses were consciously encoding the information during the crime event or not?

6. Training • Some studies shown that police perform better in recall tests of crime events than civilians (Yuille, 1984). But does this mean police have better memories or have they just been trained? • Pre-interview training of witnesses has been shown to improve subsequent performance in questioning, particularly in children (e.g. Gee, Gregory & Pipe, 1999), in line-up identifications (e.g. Storozuk & Dupius, 2013) and when requesting a verbal description of the perpetrator (Demarchi & Py, 2009). • So can we train civilians to think like police officers and so improve their recall of a crime event?

7. Online Context • Most crimes still reported in person. As a result, there are currently limited means to report a crime online. • Advent of digital age means this likely to have to change. • Study into effectiveness of online crime reporting conducted last year but further research yet to be done (e.g. Open Policy UK, 2015 ). • Mass terrorist incidents and multiple witnesses mean methods for obtaining evidence quickly and in bulk are essential. • Prevalence of social media means consideration should be given to ways to collect detailed multiple online statements as effectively as possible.

8. Hypotheses • Provision of training information would significantly improve the quality of initial witness recall. • It was predicted that those who received the training information before viewing the crime event would perform better than those who did not due to greater levels of intentional encoding. • An interaction between timing of information provided and presence or absence of training information was predicted. While training information would improve the quality of witness statements, it was hypothesised that those who received the training information before witnessing the event would show greater improvements than those who received it afterwards.

9. Method • 95 adult participants from non-law enforcement backgrounds. • 2x2 between subjects design. Interview training: training/basic instructions only; Timing of training: before/after viewing simulated crime video. • Online survey with an embedded short (2 minutes 13 seconds) video of simulated crime event. • Online free recall task; three forced choice (yes/no) misleading questions plus one forced choice filler question (not analysed). • Participants’ free recall scored for the number of bits of correct and incorrect information and the number of correct responses to misleading questions. • High inter-rater reliability: Pearson’s correlations varied from 0.87-0.98 on the different measures with the significance levels (all at p < 0.001).

10. Method Cont. • Training information: “You are about to watch a short film. After the film, you will be asked to state everything you can remember about what happened. Please read carefully the following information taken from a police training manual on how to achieve best evidence from witnesses before continuing to the next page: A witness statement is a written record of a person's first-hand knowledge of an incident. In order for it to be as helpful as possible for the police investigation, it should ideally contain the following: - As many details as possible about what was seen, heard or felt; - As much detail as possible about any individuals involved; - As many details as possible about what actually happened. If a witness is not sure about a particular detail, they should state so clearly.” • Basic instructions: “You are about to watch a short film. After the film, you will be asked to state everything you can remember about what happened.”

11. Results Table 1: Means and standard deviations (in parentheses) of dependent variables by condition (training or basic instructions only provided and whether the information was provided before or after watching the video).

12. Results • Multivariate analysis of variance conducted on correct and incorrect responses with training condition and timing of training as independent variables: • Free Recall: Significant multivariate effect of training on information recalled, F(2, 88) = 26.38, p < 0.001, partial η2 = 0.38; no significant effect of timing on amount of information recalled (p = 0.90) and no significant interaction effect (p = 0.64). • Univariate effects showed significant main effects of training on number of bits of correct information, F(1, 89) = 37.64, p < 0.001, partial η2 = 0.30 with more recalled in the training (M = 37.75, SD = 11.16) than brief information condition (M = 24.96, SD = 8.36)and on number of bits of incorrect information, F(1, 89) = 6.04, p < 0.05, partial η2 = 0.06, with fewer errors in the training (M = 0.95, SD = 0.90) than brief information condition (M = 1.68, SD = 1.52). • No significant univariate effects of timing (p ≥ 0.69) and no significant interactions (p ≥ 0.37).

13. Results • Univariate ANOVAs carried out on Accuracy (number of correct responses/total bits of information recalled) and number of correct responses to misleading questions with training and timing of instructions as dependent variables: • Univariate effects showed significant main effects of training on accuracy of free recall answers, F(1, 89) = 13.36, p < 0.001, partial η2 = 0.13 with greater accuracy in the training (M = 97%, SD = 0.02) than brief information condition (M = 94%, SD = 0.05). • No significant univariate effects found on accuracy of misleading questions (p ≥ 0.57).

14. Discussion • In line with previous research (e.g. Demarchi & Py, 2009), provision of training information significantly improved performance on all free recall measures. No significant effect on misleading, forced-choice questions found. • Timing of provision of training also not found to have significant impact on recall, nor was there any significant interaction between being given training information and the time it was provided. • Reassuring in real-world scenarios where training cannot be provided before witnessing an incident. • Hypothesis therefore only partially supported.

15. Discussion Cont. • Brief, context-specific training significantly increases quantity and quality in online free recall context. • However: field testing required. Age group of sample potentially older than generation most confident using online methods of communication.

16. Options for the Future • Galvanising of social media to support the retrieval of accurate information has to be considered by the policing authorities. • User-friendly online application or link on a police website could be the next venture in the development of witness recall in contemporary times.

17. Questions?

18. References • Baddeley, A. D. (1986). Working memory. Oxford: Clarendon Press. • Dando, C. J., Wilcock, R. & Milne, R. (2009). The Cognitive Interview: Novice police officers’ witness/victim interviewing practices. Psychology, Crime & Law, 15, 679-696. doi: 10.1080/10683160802203963. • Dando, C, J., Wilcock, R., Milne, R. & Henry, L. (2009). A modified cognitive interview procedure for frontline police investigators. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 23, 698-716. doi: 10.1002/acp.1501. • Deffenbacher, K. A., Bornstein, B. H., Penrod, S. D. & McGorty, E. K. (2004). A meta-analytic review of the effects of high stress on eyewitness memory. Law & Human Behaviour, 28, 687-706. Retrieved from: http://www.unomaha.edu on 11/02/15. • Demarchi, S. & Py, J. (2009). A method to enhance person description: A field study. In R. Bull, T. Valentine & T. Williamson (Eds.), Handbook of psychology of investigative interviewing (pp. 514-517). Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell. • English, J. & English, B. (2003). Police Training Manual. Berkshire: McGraw-Hill Professional. • Fisher, R. P., Geiselman, R. E., Raymond, D. S., Jurkevich, L. & Warhaftig, M. M. (1987). Enhancing eyewitness memory: Refining the Cognitive Interview. Journal of Police Science & Administration, 15, 291-297. doi: 10.1037/0021-9010.74.5.722. • Gabbert, F., Hope, L. & Fisher, R. P. (2009). Protecting eyewitness evidence: Examining the efficacy of a self-administered interview tool. Law & Human Behaviour, 33, 298-307. Retrieved from: http://www.jstor.org on 03/12/15.

19. References Cont. • Gabbert, F., Hope, L., Fisher, R. P. & Jamieson, K. (2012). Protecting against misleading post-event information with a Self-Administered Interview. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 26, 568–575. doi: 10.1002/acp.2828. • Gee, S., Gregory, M. & Pipe, M-E. (1999). ‘What colour is your pet dinosaur?’ The impact of pre-interview training and question type on children's answers. Legal & Criminological Psychology, 4, 111-128. doi: 10.1348/135532599167716. • Geiselman, R. E., Fisher, R. P., Firstenberg, I., Hutton, L. A., Sullivan, S. J., Avetissian, I. V. & Prosk, A. L. (1984). Enhancement of eyewitness memory: An empirical evaluation of the cognitive interview. Journal of Police Science & Administration, 12, 74-80. Retrieved from: http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/1984-25081-001 on 03/12/15. • Krahenbuhl, S. & Blades, M. (2006). The effect of interviewing techniques on young children's responses to questions.Child: Care, Health & Development, 32, 321-331. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2214.2006.00608.x. • LaPaglia, J. A., Wilford, M. M., Rivard, J. R., Chan, J. C. K. & Fisher, R. P. (2014). Misleading suggestions can alter later memory reports even following a Cognitive Interview. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 28, 1-9. doi: 10/1002/acp.2950.

20. References Cont. • Loftus, E. F. (1979). Eyewitness testimony. 2nd ed. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. • Naveh-Benjamin, M., Shing, Y. L., Kilb, A., Werkle-Bergner, M., Lindenberger, U. & Li, S-C. (2009). Adult age differences in memory for name-face associations: The effects of intentional and incidental learning. Memory, 17, 220-232. doi: 10.1080/09658210802222183. • Open Policy UK (2015). Prototyping an online crime reporting service: A policy lab success story. Retrieved from: https://openpolicy.blog.gov.uk/2015/02/03/prototyping-an-online-crime-reporting-service-a-policy-lab-success- story/ on 10/01/16. • Ridley, A., Gabbert, F. & La Rooy, D. (2013). Suggestibility in legal contexts: Psychological research and forensic implications. London: Wiley-Blackwell. • Storozuk, M. & Dupuis, M. (2013). The impact of criminal code training on eyewitness identification accuracy. Psychology, 4, 1027-1029. doi: 10.4236/psych.2013.412149. • Tulving, E. (1985). How many memory systems are there? American Psychologist, 40, 385-398. Retrieved from: http://www.alicekim.ca on 24/04/15. • Vaughan, M. (2012). Does current police investigative interviewing practice assist the child witness to give their best possible evidence? Charles Sturt University. Retrieved from: https://www.vaughantraining.co.uk on 29/11/15. • Wilford, M. M., Chan, J. C. K., & Tuhn, S. J. (2014). Retrieval enhances eyewitness suggestibility to misinformation in free and cued recall. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 20, 81-93. doi: 10.1037/xap0000001. • Yuille, J. C. (1984). Research and teaching with police: a Canadian example. Applied Psychology, 33, 5-22. doi: 10.1111/j.1464-0597.1984.tb01412.x.