6.1.3 Cognitive interview Flashcards
What do Geiselman and Fisher (2014) say the typical police interview involves?
- Leading questions
- Interruptions
- Interviewer dominating interview
What has that cognitive interview been designed to do?
Created to improve accuracy of EWT & assist police interviewing techniques
What 4 memory models can be used to explain poor recall for the cognitive interview?
1) Multi-store model
2) Working memory model
3) Tulving’s theory
4) Reconstructive memory
When looking at the multi-store model, what factors may cause unreliable witness testimony?
- If attention isn’t paid to the event it may never encode in the short-term memory
- Length between crime and interview may lead to decay
If not rehearsed may lead to decay in long-term memory
When looking at the working memory model, what factors may cause and unreliable witness testimony?
- May be too many things for the central executive to focus on when witnessing a crime eg too much focus on weapon rather than attackers face
e.g. too many visuals that displace each other before going to LTM
When looking at Tulving’s theory, what factors may cause and unreliable witness testimony?
- Not being interviewed at scene of crime may reduce what is remembered due to lack of cues to trigger episodic memories
- Episodic memories are less resilient than semantic and so may be forgotten
When looking at reconstructive memory, what factors may cause and unreliable witness testimony?
- Everyone’s schemas are different
- They may remember, rationalise, or confabulate different things
What are the 4 main elements of a cognitive interview?
1) Contextual reinstatement
2) Reporting every detail even if trivial
3) Reporting event from different perspectives
4) Report event in different orders
State what the first element of the cognitive interview involves.
> Mentally recreate context (int + ext) of event being recalled (cues help- questions about objects & smells in the environment )
State what the second element of the cognitive interview involves.
> Recall everything possible abt event incl trivial details- may trigger more info, open q’s to decr demand characteristics/ response bias
They’re not interrupted
State what the third element of the cognitive interview involves.
> Recall events from diff POVs eg offender’s viewpoint (disortion + schemas)
However this could lead to the witnesses making up what they think another person might have seen
State what the fourth element that the cognitive interview involves.
> Witness recalls events in reverse order/ from most memorable poit (recency effect)
- Bc schema organises events in order that makes sense for us, so EW may add untrue details from past links to those crimes
List 3 other elements which are important to consider in a cognitive interview.
1) Open questions
2) No leading questions
3) Using focused questions only on things the witness has mentioned to get more detail
How does the enhanced cognitive interview differ from the original?
- It includes ways of improving communication between the interviewer and the interviewee
- Avoiding distractions
- Gaps between questions
EACH-Evidence
- P - Geiselman et al (1985) support
E - They found the average of correctly recalled facts about two films of violent crimes was significantly higher when using the cognitive interview compared to the standard interview
E - This demonstrates the effectiveness of the cognitive interview compared to standard interviewing techniques - P - Fisher, Geiselman, and Amador (1989) support
E - They found detectives who were trained in the cognitive interview, they produced the most accurate recall than those trained in normal standard interviewing
E - Therefore showing the cognitive interview’s effectiveness for memory recall due to being applied in other clinical settings as well as being used by the UK police force.
