cognitive interview Flashcards
what did typical police interviews involve?
- leading questions
- interruptions
- interviewer dominating interview
- standardised list of questions
- asking questions out of sequence
- if witness did not provide correct details, interviewer did little to assist, meaning they sat passively waiting
- police officer dominated
what was the purpose of the cognitive interview?
maximise accuracy of information obtained during eye witness interviews without compromising accuracy
what memory models explain poor recall during cognitive interview?
- multi store
- working
- reconstructive
- tulving long term
multi store memory model;
what factors may cause an unreliable witness testimony?
- attention isn’t paid to the event it may never encode in the short-term memory
- Can be displaced in STM by other things
- Length between crime and interview may lead to decay
- If not rehearsed may lead to decay in long-term memory
working memory model;
what factors may cause an unreliable witness testimony?
- too many things for the central executive to focus on
eg too many visuals that displace each other before going to LTM
tulving;
what factors may cause an 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
reconstructive memory;
what factors may cause an unreliable witness testimony?
Everyone’s schemas are different
What are the 4 main elements of a cognitive interview?
- contextual reinstatement
- recall every detail
- recall in different order
- recall from different perspectives
describe contextual reinstatement
- Witness is asked to form image of the event in their mind and to retell the event
- Asking about objects and smells in the environment uses Tulving’s theory of cues from the environment to prompt the witness into remembering other details
- episodic memories are context dependent so creates context cues
describe recalling every detail
- encouraged to recall everything about the event even if they think it is unimportant
- unimportant detail may trigger key information that the witness had previously gotten wrong or forgotten
- not interrupted
- prevents simplification and using schemas to create a story
describe recalling in different order
- asked to recall the event from different points
- working backwards or starting from a particular detail previously mentioned
- Geiselman and Callot (1990) found that working backwards was more effective than working from the start twice
- prevents influence of schemas causing them to create a story that makes sense to them
describe recalling from different perspectives
- include the offender or another witness in a different position
- however this could lead to the witnesses making up what they think another person might have seen
3 other elements which are important to consider in a cognitive interview
- open questions
- no leading questions
- focused questions only on things the witness has mentioned to get more detail
How does the enhanced cognitive interview differ from the original?
- includes ways of improving communication between the interviewer and the interviewee
- Avoiding distractions
- gaps between questions
who developed the cognitive interview?
geiselman
