Cognitive Interveiw Flashcards
What is the cognitive interview?
A method of interviewing eyewitnesses to a crime to help them retrieve more accurate memories
Which researchers developed the Cognitive interview?
Fisher and Geiselman et al. (1992)
What are the four main techniques used in the cognitive interview?
- Report everything
- Context reinstatement
- Reverse the order
- Change perspective
What is ‘Recall everything’ and how does it improve accuracy?
The witness reports all the details of the event, even the details that seem irrelevant
It improves accuracy as memories are interconnected so recollection of seemingly irrelevant details may cue a whole lot of important memories
What is ‘context reinstatement’ and how does it improve accuracy?
The witness recreates a mental image of the situation such as the weather and time or their emotions
This improves accuracy as it makes the memories more accessible through contextual and emotional cues which helps to retrieve memories
What is ‘Reverse order’ and how does it improve accuracy?
The witness recalls the event backwards
This improves accuracy as it prevents people from reporting their expectations of how the event must have happened rather than the actual event. Also prevents dishonesty as it is harder to produce untruthful account if required to reverse it
What is ‘change perspective’ and how does it improve accuracy?
The witness mentally recreates the situation from another persons point of view
It improves accuracy as it disrupts the effect of schemas and expectations on recall. Schemas generate expectations of what would have happened and it could be the schemas that is recalled rather than what actually happened
What is the strength of the cognitive interview?
Supporting research evidence- An abundance of research has demonstrated the special benefits of the CI. A meta-analysis carried out by Kohnken et al. (1999) found an avatar increase of 41% in the amount of accurate information generated by using the CI compared to a standard interveiw.
Counter- Kohnken also found that the CI actually just increased the quantity information not the quality. There was a 61% increase of incorrect information when the CI was used compared to standard interview.
What are the two limitations of the cognitive interview?
Time consuming- the CI takes up a lot of time and training to implement it. Kebbell and Wagstaff (1999) found that it takes a lot more time than a standers interview as more time is needed to establish rapport with the witness to allow them to relax prior to direct questioning. It also requires special training and many forces have not been able to provide adequate training time to staff thoroughly
Comparisons are difficult- It is hard to evaluate the effectiveness of CI when it is sued in the real world as it is not just one procedure but a collective of related techniques. For example, Thames valley police use a version that doesn’t include the ‘changing perspective’ component and other forces tend to use ‘reinstate context’ and ‘report everything’
