Geiselman and colleagues

Geiselman and colleagues tested the effectiveness of the Cognitive Interview by comparing it with standard police interview techniques.

They conducted a study in which they showed police training videos of violent crimes to a group of 89 students, and roughly 48 hours later, the students were interviewed individually by interviewers who had either been trained in standard police interviewing, or trained in the new cognitive interview schedule.

All interviews were recorded on tape and then were analysed for the accuracy of recall. The results demonstrated that the students recalled considerably more information when the cognitive interview schedule was used in comparison to standard police interviewing.

However, it is important to note that the participants in this study were undergraduates who watched video tapes in an artificial setting. This means that this study lacks ecological validity.