Cognitive Interview

Question 1

Cognitive Interview

Answer 1

A method of interviewing eyewitnesses to help them retrieve more accurate memories.

Question 2

Ronald Fisher and Edward Geiselman

Answer 2

1992
Argued that EWT could be improved if the police used better techniques when interviewing witnesses.

Question 3

Stages of the Cognitive Interview

Answer 3

Report everything (witnesses encouraged to recall every single detail of the event no matter how insignificant it may appear. These details may trigger other memories.)

Reinstatement of context (revisit the scene in vivo (in mind) or in vitro (physically). Witnesses encouraged to picture the environment, what they could see and how they were feeling)

Change/reverse order (recall the scene in a different chronological order. This is to prevent dishonesty and to prevent the expectant ion of what happened influencing their recall)

Change perspective (try to recall the sequence of events from another person’s point of view. This prevents expectation or ‘schema’ of events disrupting their recall)

Question 4

What were the additional elements of the cognitive interview that Fisher et al (1987) added?

Answer 4

• When the interviewer needs to establish eye contact and when to relinquish it.
• reducing eyewitness anxiety
• Minimising distractions
• Getting witnesses to speak slowly and concisely
• asked open-ended questions

Question 5

Support for effectiveness of the Cognitive Interview

Answer 5

Gunter Kohnken et al (1999)
- meta-analysis from 55 studies comparing the CI and the ECI with the standard police interview
- The CI gave an average 41% increase in accurate info compared to standard interview
- Only 4 studies showed no difference
- This shows that CI is an effective technique in helping witnesses to recall information that is stored in memory but not easily accessible.

Question 6

Counterpoint to Kohnken

Answer 6

• Kohnken et al also found an increase in the amount of inaccurate information recalled by the participants
• This was more common during ECI
• Cognitive interviews may sacrifice quality EWT (accuracy) in favour of quantity (amount of details)
• This means that police officers should treat eyewitnesses evidence from CI/ECI with caution.

Question 7

Rebecca Milne and Ray Bull

Answer 7

2002
- found that each of the 4 techniques used alone produced more information than the standard police interview
- They found that a combination of report everything and reinstate the context produced better recall than any of the other elements
- This confirms police officers suspicions that some aspects of the CI are more useful than others.

Question 8

Why may police officers be reluctant to use Cognitive Interviews?

Answer 8

They are time consuming.
Extra training is needed.
More time is needed to build rapport with the witnesses and allow them to relax.