7: Cognitive Interview Flashcards
what is meant by the cognitive interview
a method of interviewing eyewitnesses which aims to help them provide more accurate EWT
uses 4 main techniques:
- context reinstatement
- report everything
- change the perspective
- reverse the order
was later improved further to create the ‘enhanced cognitive interview’ by adding additional techniques to help improve accuracy of EWT
why was the cognitive interview developed?
during a standard police interview the weitnesses are often interrupted and not allowed to talk freely abt their experiences which breaks their concentration.
standard police interviews involve closed questions rather than open questions encouraging shorted answers with less detail.
it seems there was clearly a need to improve on this standard interview technique to help EWs to improve recall.
who developed the cognitive interview
Fisher and Geisleman
Outline the cognitive interview to improve the accuracy of EWT: introduction
Fisher and Geisleman developed the CI which was based on demonstrated psychological principles concerning effective recall - the aim is to encourage the eye witness to recall more information.
The CI uses four main techniques to achieve this improved accuracy and detail
Outline the cognitive interview to improve the accuracy of EWT: context reinstatement
CR involved asking the EW to imagine themselves back at the scene of the crime again.
To help them to do this they can be encouraged to try and imagine everything from how they were feeling at the time to recreate that feeling, as well as all aspects of the environment such as the scene, noises, and weather.
This provides retrieval cues to help them access their memory of the event.
Outline the cognitive interview to improve the accuracy of EWT: Report Everything
The report everything technique is where the interviewer encourages the EW to report every single detail of the event, even though it might seem irrelevant.
This is because what might seem irrelevant to the EW may actually be of importance to the investigation
also, irrelevant details amy serve as retrieval cues to help prompt more relevant details to be recalled
Outline the cognitive interview to improve the accuracy of EWT: Changing the perspective
the CP technique is where the EW is asked to recall the incident from multiple perspectives and not just from their own.
for example, by imagining how it would have appeared to other witnesses present at the time
this is done because psychological research has shown memories can be retrieved through a number of different routes and therefore it is more productive to vary these access routes during questioning, and it also reduces the influence of schema (bias viewpoint)
Outline the cognitive interview to improve the accuracy of EWT: Reverse the Order
The RO technique is where the interviewer may try to access alternative ways through the timeline of the incident.
for example, they may reverse the order and get the EW to recall the target event starting at the event and tracking backwards
again, this is to try and retrieve memories via a number of different routes to increase accuracy and detail of recall
Outline the cognitive interview to improve the accuracy of EWT: Enhanced Cognitive Interview
Fischer et al developed some additional elements to the CI to focus on the social dynamics of the interview
the ECI built on the four main techniques of the CI by ensuring the interviewer knows:
- when to establish eye contact and when not to
- how to reduce eyewitness anxiety
-how to minimise distractions
- to get the witness to speak slowly
- to ask open ended questions
Evaluate the cognitive interview to improve the accuracy of EWT:
Strengths
P: evidence to support f the effectiveness of the CI from Kohnken et al (1999)
E: meta-analysis if 53 studies, found CI generated on average 34% more correct info than standard interviewing techniques
E: co clouded that the CI was a more effective interview technique than the older interview methods
L: supports the view that the CI can improve EWT accuracy
P: may have a positive effect on the economy
E: by improving the accuracy of EWT, the CI may be helping to improve efficiency in the legal system
E: eg, may help police to identify criminals sooner by maximising the info EWs can give
L: helps to reduce waste and improve efficiency in the justice system
Evaluate the cognitive interview to improve the accuracy of EWT:
Limitations
P: conducting cognitive interviews may raise ethical issues
E: asking ppts to mentally ‘relive’ often very traumatic experiences (eg through context reinstatement) may lead to a lack of protection from harm
E: eg for someone who witnessed a particularly violent murder or sexual assault might find going through the event in such vivid detail too traumatic
L: may go against the ethical code of conduct
P: police have criticised the amount of time cognitive interviews take
E: in practice, it seemed that the officers felt unable to conduct a full cognitive interview due to the lack of time available and the need for the key details rather than great detail
E: eg it has been shown that officers often favoured using the RE and CR instructions but wouldn’t spend time using the CP and RO
L: suggests that not all techniques of the cognitive interview are useful
P: may increase inaccurate recall
E: some still tidied have shown that, as well as increasing the amount of correct info recalled, the CI also increases the amount of incorrect information recalled
E: evidence for this from Kohnken et al (1999) who found an 81% increase in correct info but also a 61% increase in incorrect info when the CI was compared to a standard interview
L: the CI may cause nearly as many problems as it solves
