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中所有人的公正性至关重要。国际心理学研究探讨了证人如何编码、保留和回忆信息。这项研究为进行最佳证人面谈的最佳做法提供了指导。然而，尽管提出了这些建议，但警官们没有或可能无法遵守这些指导。这可能会对刑事司法产生严重后果，因为糟糕的面谈可能会被法院视为不可接受，或可能对证人的可信度产生负面影响。在面试过程中，有许多注意力的要求强加给面试官，例如，仔细倾听，评估信息，决定要问的问题，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。进行面试所需的努力和注意力可能会导致认知负荷，并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当等问题。调查访谈者可能只是有太多的东西要应付，认知负荷可能导致他们不遵守指导。以前的研究探讨了认知负荷在不同环境中的影响，尽管它如何影响法医环境中的面试官，到目前为止，被忽视了。这项研究计划旨在研究认知能力的局限性及其对面试官表现的影响。将探讨面谈人员面临的可能影响其工作表现和对证人证据质量产生负面影响的挑战。

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.