The effects of cognitive load on investigative interviewers' performance

准确和可靠的证人证词对于确保刑事司法系统对所有人的公平至关重要。国际心理学研究探索了信息是如何被目击者编码、保留和回忆的。本研究为进行最佳证人访谈提供了最佳实践指导。然而，尽管有这些建议，警察没有，或者可能不能遵守指导。这可能对刑事司法产生严重后果，因为糟糕的面谈可能被视为法庭上不可采信，或可能对证人的可信度产生负面影响。在面试过程中，对面试官的注意力有许多要求，例如，仔细倾听，评估信息，决定问题，并坚持严格的指导。从心理学的角度来看，面试官的处理能力有限，无法同时完成这些困难的任务。进行访谈所需的努力和注意力可能会导致认知负荷，减少可用于其他心理过程的认知资源。因此，面试官可能会出现记忆力减退、易受偏见影响和提问不力的问题。调查性采访者可能只是有太多的事情要应付，认知负荷可能导致他们不遵守指导。以前的研究已经探索了认知负荷在不同环境下的影响，尽管迄今为止，它如何影响法医环境中的采访者一直被忽视。这项研究计划的目的是研究认知能力的限制及其对采访者表现的影响。将探讨采访者所面临的挑战，这些挑战可能会损害他们的表现并对证人证据的质量产生负面影响。

Accurate and reliable witness testimony is essential to ensure fairness for all in the criminal justice system. International psychological research has explored how information is encoded, retained and recalled by witnesses. This research has provided guidance regarding best practice for conducting optimum witness interviews. However, despite the advice police officers do not, or perhaps cannot, comply with the guidance. This can have serious consequences for criminal justice, as poor interviews may be deemed inadmissible in court or may negatively impact upon perceived witness credibility. During an interview there are numerous attentional demands imposed upon interviewers, for example, listening carefully, evaluating information, deciding on questions to ask, and adhering to the strict guidance. From a psychological perspective, interviewers have limited processing capacity to simultaneously perform these difficult tasks. The effort and attention required to conduct interviews may result in cognitive load and fewer cognitive resources being available for other mental processes. As such, memory failure, susceptibility to bias and poor questioning could arise for interviewers. Investigative interviewers may simply have too much to contend with and cognitive load could contribute to their lack of compliance with guidance. Previous research has explored the effects of cognitive load in diverse settings although how it affects interviewers in forensic settings has, to date, been overlooked. This research programme has been designed to examine cognitive capacity limitations and their impact upon interviewers' performance. The challenges faced by interviewers that may impair their performance and negatively impact upon the quality of witness evidence will be explored.