9. the cognitive interview

Question 1

THE COGNITIVE INTERVIEW

Fisher and Geiselman argued that eyewitness testimony could be improved if the police used better techniques when interviewing witnesses.
Fisher and Geiselman recommended that such techniques should be based on psychological insights into how memory works and called these techniques collectively the cognitive interview (CI) to indicate its foundation in cognitive psychology.
There are four main techniques that are used:

Answer 1

1. report everything
2. reinstate the context
3. reverse the order
4. change perspective

Question 2

1 . REPORT EVERYTHING

description, why its done

Answer 2

Witnesses are encouraged to include every single detail of the event, even though it may seem irrelevant, or the witness doesn’t feel confident about it. Seemingly trivial details may be important and, moreover, they may trigger other important memories.

Question 3

2 . REINSTATE THE CONTEXT

description, why its done

Answer 3

The witness should return to the original crime scene ‘in their mind’ and imagine the environment (such as what the weather was like, what they could see) and their emotions (such as whether they were happy or bored).

Question 4

3 . REVERSE THE ORDER

description, why its done

Answer 4

Events should be recalled in a different order from the original sequence, for example, from the final point back to the beginning, or from the middle to the beginning.
This is done to prevent people reporting their expectations of how the event must have happened rather than reporting the actual events. It also prevents dishonesty (it’s harder for people to produce an untruthful account if they have to reverse it).

Question 5

AO3: strength of THE COGNITIVE INTERVIEW

research support - Kohnken (meta analysis)

Answer 5

One strength of the cognitive interview is evidence that it works.
For example, a meta-analysis by Kohnken et al.
combined data from 55 studies comparing the CI with the standard police interview. The Cl gave an average 41% increase in accurate information compared with the standard interview. Only four studies in the analysis showed no difference between the types of interviews.
This shows that the Cl is an effective technique in helping witnesses to recall information that is stored in memory (available) but not immediately accessible

Question 5

4 . CHANGE PERSPECTIVE

description, why its done

Answer 5

Witnesses should recall the incident from other people’s perspectives. For example, how it would have appeared to other witnesses or to the perpetrator. This again is done to disrupt the effect of expectations and also the effect of schema on recall. The schema you have for a particular setting (such as going into a shop) generate expectations of what would have happened, and it is the schema that is recalled rather than what actually happened.

Question 6

THE ENHANCED COGNITIVE INTERVIEW (ECI)
Fisher et al. developed some additional elements of the CI to focus on the social dynamics of the interaction. For example,

Answer 6

the interviewer needs to know when to establish eye contact and when to relinquish it. The enhanced Cl also includes ideas such as reducing eyewitness anxiety, minimising distractions, getting the witness to speak slowly, and asking open-ended questions,

Question 7

AO3: limitation of THE COGNITIVE INTERVIEW

not all elements useful - Milne and Bull

Answer 7

One limitation of the original CI is that not all of its elements are equally effective or useful.
Milne and Bull found that each of the four techniques used alone produced more information than the standard police interview. But they also found that using a combination of report everything and reinstate the context produced better recall than any of the other elements or combination of them. This confirmed police officers’ suspicions that some aspects of the Cl are more useful than others.
This casts some doubt on the credibility of the overall cognitive interview.

Question 8

AO3: limitation of THE COGNITIVE INTERVIEW

time consuming and expensive

Answer 8

Another limitation is that police officers may be reluctant to use the Cl because it takes more time and training than the standard police interview.
For example, more time is needed to establish rapport with a witness and allow them to relax. The Cl also requires special training and many forces do not have the resources to provide more than a few hours.
This suggests that the complete Cl as it exists is not a realistic method for police officers to use and (as in the point above) it might be better to focus on just a few key elements