Eliciting information from cooperative sources about single and repeated multi-actor events

Successful investigations in forensic and security contexts depend on eliciting reliable and detailed information from sources. However, memory for past experiences is malleable and often prone to errors of distortion, confabulation and omission.

Although cooperative sources are positively oriented towards reporting what they know, the use of ineffective communication practices and failure to support the retrieval of information from memory can impede the elicitation of a detailed account.

The overarching aim of Feni's research was to examine the effectiveness of information elicitation techniques. In particular, elicitation techniques designed to enhance reports concerning multi-actor single and repeated events provided by cooperative sources.

Across four experiments, Feni tested the use of a self-generated cue mnemonic in conjunction with the timeline technique and follow-up open-ended questions to facilitate recall and reporting of complex events.

Download Feni’s 'Doctoral Thesis Overview' to read a summary of her experiments as well as the key findings.