Throughout a police investigation, it is not uncommon for eyewitnesses to recall details about the crime repeatedly (e.g., talking to loved ones, interviews with police, deposition). Some research suggests that initial retrieval attempts have protective effects on memory, such that memory for the witnessed event is improved (Chevroulet et al., 2022; Hope et al., 2014). However, other research suggests that initial retrieval attempts can have detrimental effects on memory, such that participants’ susceptibility to later-presented misinformation increases due to enhanced learning of the misinformation (retrieval-enhanced suggestibility; Chan et al., 2009; Chan et al., 2017). The primary aims of this meta-analysis were to 1) establish an overall effect size to determine whether initial retrieval increases or decreases participants’ susceptibility to misinformation, and 2) explore factors that moderate the influence of initial retrieval on eyewitness suggestibility. Preliminary data suggests a moderate positive overall retrieval-enhanced suggestibility effect (g = .35, k = 65).

Adolescence is a period of increased lie-telling and secret-keeping, often to build or maintain trust in peer relationships. Given adolescents’ normative reluctance to disclose to adults, recent research has examined strategies to encourage more complete reporting. In the current study, we examined how two factors (rapport building, online vs. in-person) influenced the amount of information in adolescents’ reports of a time they lied. Specifically, adolescents were interviewed about a significant lie they had told, either in-person or online, with one of three rapport building approaches: closed-ended, open-ended, or enhanced (open-ended plus mutual disclosure). Preliminary analyses (n=101 of 244 transcripts) show participants provided more details about a previous lie in online settings (M=312 words) than in-person (M=178 words), [F(1,77) = 12.27, p < .001], with no rapport effects. Further analyses will explore how individual differences (e.g., shyness, everyday lying frequency) affect reporting, informing best practices for overcoming reluctance in adolescents.

Gathering detailed and reliable information from victims, witnesses, and suspects is essential for effective criminal investigations. However, research shows that training often fails to improve skills like effective questioning and rapport building (Akca et al., 2021). This study tested the benefits of two brief educational videos developed to present a clear and concise summary of the key psychological evidence-base underpinning these two core skills. A mixed design with 44 participants compared interviews before and after education, with practice as a between-participant variable. Results showed significant improvements in questioning and rapport-building competencies beyond baseline performance. Importantly, these improvements were not attributable to simple practice effects. These findings highlight the value of concise educational videos, which can be integrated into training without requiring trainers to be experts themselves, thus supporting the goal of translating research into best practice.

Getting information quickly is crucial in dynamic, time-sensitive operational contexts for assessing immediate threats, informing decision-making, and expediting intelligence transmission under hostile conditions. Research on science-based interviewing has overlooked this applied challenge, and current practices are not necessarily informed by psychological science or empirical data. In this presentation, I will examine the challenges in such contexts from an applied memory and communication perspective. I will discuss several empirical projects on the Time Critical Questioning (TCQ; Hope et al., 2023; Hope et al., under review) protocol which offers the first empirical evidence that a carefully-structured, rapport-based orienting instruction—focusing on aligning the roles, goals, and expectations of interviewer and interviewee at the outset of a brief interview—significantly and positively impacts the information reported by a cooperative interviewee under time-limited conditions. Further opportunities for developing effective time-sensitive elicitation methodologies, drawing on the metacognition literature, will also be discussed.