Field Test of the Cognitive Interview to Enhance Witness Memory of Repeated Events in Intelligence Investigations of Terrorist Attacks

Crimes and terror acts often entail people engaging repeatedly in one type of act (e.g., buying and selling weapons). However, research shows that it is often difficult to remember specific instances of repeated, similar acts. We examined 35 real-world investigations of terrorist acts in Israel in which informants were interviewed about repeated events. The informants were interviewed several times (between 2 and 20) over a period of up to 5 years, with a standard interview (SI) protocol and then one final time with an interview protocol that was adapted from the cognitive interview (CI). Analyses showed that the CI elicited many newevents thatwere not elicited in any of the preceding SIs. Several of the recalled events were assessed for accuracy by comparing to independent evidence of the event; all of the recalled events were corroborated. The current results extend the database of support for the CI in real-world investigative cases of national security.