A Novel Approach to Source Monitoring in Digital Intelligence-Enhanced Witness Interviews for High-Stakes Investigations

Objective

"Modern digital technology provides unprecedented access to real-time intelligence: social media posts, CCTV footage, mobile phone data, geolocation information, and digital communications networks. Investigators increasingly share this digital intelligence with witnesses to enhance memory retrieval and gather critical information under severe time constraints. Given the abundance of PEI from external sources including investigator-shared digital intelligence, it is imperative for witnesses to monitor the sources of their memory during forensic interviews. To help witnesses with monitoring their memory sources when reporting, psychologists have been using source monitoring techniques, such as giving people an explicit source monitoring warning (e.g., ""please report only what you witnessed during the crime, not information from media reports or other post-event sources""). However, current source monitoring techniques assume PEI comes from external sources, not from investigators deliberately sharing digital intelligence during the interview. Memory Tracking in Crisis (MTC) addresses that critical gap head-on, developing and testing a groundbreaking memory mapping tool designed specifically to help witnesses navigate the complex digital landscape of modern terrorism investigations."