The standard interview

• Fisher and Geiselman (1992) identified what is wrong with the techniques usually used by policemen when interviewing witnesses
• The standard interview revolves around the interviewer rather than the interviewer witness
• The interviewer does most of the talking, often asking specific questions that require forged choice answers and questions are often predetermined following a written checklist
• The interviewer does most of the talking, often asking specific questions that require forged choice answers and questions are often predetermined following a written checklist
• Witnesses are discouraged from adding any extra information
• The interviewer may unconsciously ask leading questions to confirm their beliefs About the crime
• discussions during these interviews may contaminate a witnesses’ memory so that what they later recall is inaccurate
• Such practices tend to increase the amount of inaccurate information collected in the interview
• Such predetermined practices encourage witnesses to withhold Information, give abbreviated answers and provide answers they are unsure of
• The standard techniques disrupt the natural process of searching through memory, thereby making memory retrieval inefficient