COGNITIVE INTERVIEW

Question 1

who developed the cog interview

Answer 1

fisher and gielsman

Question 2

WHAT DO FISHER & GEISELMAN INTEND TO FOCUS ON

Answer 2

• basis of psychological research into how memory works.
• during the interview rapport and understanding is established with the interviewer and the interviewee.
• they are made to feel relaxed and are encouraged to first report everything.

Question 3

what are the four stages of a cognitive interview ?

Answer 3

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

Question 4

reporting everything

Answer 4

• is when the interviewer encourages the interviewee to report every single detail of the event regardless of how insignificant they may feel it is
• For example, ‘Please do not leave anything out‘.
• These both improve EWT’s because it makes memories more accessible, and recollection of one memory acts as a trigger for other more significant memories to be recalled

Question 5

reinstate the context

Answer 5

• is when the interviewer encourages the interviewee to mentally recreate-both the physical and psychological environment of the event,
• For example, ‘Try and think back to the day the event happened’.

Question 6

change of prespectives

Answer 6

• is when the interviewer encourages the interviewee to recall the incident from multiple points of view.
  For example, , ‘Try to recall the incident from the perspective of the victim’.
• These both improve EWTs because our recollections are influenced by schema- our expectations of what is likely to happen.
• Recalling in a different order/pov’s prevents the influence of pre-existing schema

Question 7

Change the order

Answer 7

• is when the interviewer encourages the interviewee to recall the incident, alternating the. order of the events,
• For example, ‘I would like you to tell me what happened backwards’.

Question 8

TIME-CONSUMING

Answer 8

• One disadvantage of CI is it’s time consuming. Witnesses need to be made comfortable to speak up.
• about what they saw, and the interview needs to build a rapport with them to allow them to relax.
• This suggests that the interview must spend time interviewing witnesses which slows down the process of conviction and the more time the perpetrator is a free man.
• This is a disadvantage as It wastes police resources, as well as valuable time when they can deal with other important cases.
• However, even though it takes time to gain this information it enhances witnesses recall and enables the cases to be solved more accurately.

Question 9

One advantage of CI is that there is real life application.

Answer 9

• The CI may be particularly useful when interviewing older witnesses– stereotypes about older people can make witnesses overly cautious when-reporting information, but the CI asks for recall of information regardless of its importance.
• This highlights that old people are hesitant to come forward because they think they may provide inaccurate information.
• This is an advantage as it helps build a rapport with the witnesses allowing them to open up about everything, which helps old people access information that is there but they can’t recall via cues

Question 10

One disadvantage of CI is that it requires special training.

Answer 10

• For example, Kebbell and Wagstaff found that the cognitive interview requires special training, forces have only been able to provide a few hours of training to staff.
• This suggests that most units do not provide good enough training, meaning interviewers fail to use CI to its proper function
• therefore resulting in the witnesses being unable to have maximum recall.
• This is a disadvantage because special training requires funding meaning huge-inconsistencies between police departments.
• This questions the reliability of research into findings of CI as not all departments have the same amount of training

Question 11

One advantage of CI is that it enhances recall.

Answer 11

• For example, Kohnken et al found that the CI improves
  recall of correct information (81%).
• This suggests that the CI is extremely effective in enhancing recall, allows the victim to identify the suspect quicker- speeds up the process of conviction, police to be more efficient.
• This is an advantage catch criminals quicker, making society a safer place.
• However, it also increases the recall of incorrect information (61%) meaning the CI is not good in all instances and thus is quite unreliable when using it.