Psychology and Aging
Dornburg & McDaniel (2006) seeks to find out whether cognitive interview with older adult using the mnemonic technique would be effective in improving the ability to recall instructions. Categorically, the article states that, the researchers prepares and gives a set of instructions to the respondents before the actual cognitive interview starts. In essence, the respondent should be able to the contextual reinstatement technique to remember some of the instructions, which were given prior to the commencement of the interview. In his study, he finds out that indeed the procedure is effective as a tool for reminding the old about past memories or events. It is important to note that, the results are based on the fact that aged people have episodic memory impairment problems, which can be alleviated by standardized cognitive interview technique.
Methodology
The sample selected for the study is representative and not bias in terms of selection because the sampling units were identified using two methods: through the newspaper advertisement and through the a study of the aged persons that took place in Mexico. The procedure adopted the mentioned technique where the researchers gives a set of instructions before the interview and later collects the same information and reactions of the story using a questionnaire. To emphasis on the effectiveness of the method, the researchers conducted the cognitive interview severally. This is the only way he or she could establish whether the respondents were able to recall the same story at least three times. One should consider that, the researchers were not only interested in using cognitive interview technique to improve in the ability to remember, but he was also out to test the confidence level of respondents in terms of what they were writing. It was a good idea to rate the confidence level to scale nine, because from this, one could tell whether the respondents were giving correct results or not. Considering that the respondents could influence the results by including their own feelings, the researchers cautioned them against sharing their personal views on what they were recalling.
Results
The accuracy of the results observed dependent on the ability of the researchers to use effective tools of data analysis. Notably, the researchers have used analysis of variance to establish how the dependent variables vary with the independent variable. In this case, the correct recall, incorrect recall, and accuracy rates were considered during analysis. Considering that the researchers were conducting three sessions, he has to have a cumulative recall, where results from all the sessions would be recorded.
After the analysis, the researchers found out that, cognitive interview led to more cumulative recalls as opposed to the controlled condition. However, control condition technique elicited accurate results as opposed to cognitive interview. This is a show that when using cognitive interview, respondents ability to give correct recalls declined for each successive session. It means as time went, respondents forgot some of the instructions or past events they encountered before the interview. After the study, it was also noted that the recall confidence did not change with successive sessions; an indication that, it did not influence the results collected from the respondents.
Conclusion
As Sternberg (2012) reports in his work, Cognition is adaptive and should be learnt using many methods; however, the longer one learns, the higher the ability of recalling the same information. From the analysis of the article, the two methods of recall did not elicit the same result as cognitive interview led to the realization of many cumulative recalls compared to the control condition. However, to the aged, the former was effective and helped respondents in improving their ability to recall instructions and past events.
References
Dornburg, C., & McDaniel, M. (2006). The Cognitive Interview Enhances Long-Term Free Recall of Older Adults. American Psychology Association, 21(1), 196-200
Sternberg, R. J. (2012). Cognitive psychology (6th ed). Publisher: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning. ISBN 10: 1-111-34476-0; ISBN 13: 978-1-111-34476-4
