Earwitness Recall and Identification: Comparison of the Cognitive Interview and the Structured Interview

77 undergraduates instructed to act as kidnap victims heard taped instructions given by a mock abductor. Two days later witnesses' recall of the culprit's monologue was tested using either a Cognitive Interview or a Structured Interview. Participants then rated the abductor's voice for nine speech characteristics and attempted to identify his voice from an audiotaped lineup. No significant differences were found between the two interview conditions for accuracy or error rates in free recall, for ratings of descriptive voice characteristics, or for performance in voice identification. These earwitness results are consistent with eyewitness investigations which have yielded no positive influence of the cognitive interview on identification. It is concluded that the success of the cognitive interview is best explained through its influence on social components of interviewing.