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Updated: Jun 12, 2026
08:53
Using a Classroom-Based Deese Roediger McDermott Paradigm to Assess the Effects of Imagery on False Memories
Published on: November 14, 2018
Extreme cognitive interviewing: a blueprint for false memories through imagination inflation
Wayne G Whitehouse1, Emily Carota Orne, David F Dinges
1Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA. wayne.whitehouse@temple.edu
Summary
This case study highlights how prolonged, imaginative cognitive interviews with a child eyewitness can corrupt memory, yielding unreliable testimony in a 3-decades-old homicide investigation.
Area of Science:
- Forensic Psychology
- Legal Psychology
- Memory Research
Background:
- Examines a 33-year-old unsolved homicide case (State of Nebraska v. Donald J. Sykora, 2008).
- Focuses on the sole eyewitness: the victim's young daughter, aged 4 years and 9 months at the time of the murder.
Observation:
- Critiques 33 years of investigative methods, particularly a lengthy cognitive interview (31 hours).
- The interview employed imaginative techniques, repetition, and fantasy, potentially influencing the child's memory.
- Notes adverse factors: witness's young age, memory's vulnerability to suggestion, and possible prior hypnosis.
Findings:
- The extended cognitive interview resembled hypnotic techniques.
- The resulting testimony is considered a product of imagination inflation.
- Evidence obtained is deemed defective for sustaining veridical testimony.
Implications:
- Highlights risks of suggestive and prolonged interviewing techniques with child witnesses.
- Underscores the need for rigorous documentation and ethical considerations in forensic interviews.
- Raises questions about the admissibility and reliability of memory-based evidence in legal proceedings.
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