Cognitive Interview

Question 1

what is a cognitive interview

Answer 1

• The C.I. was designed to be used by police investigators
• Standard police interviews might result in important information being left out of a witness’ statement
• The C.I. aims to elicit as much information as possible from witnesses using superior memory retrieval techniques

Question 2

what are the 4 phases of the cognitive interview

Answer 2

1. Recreating the context:
   - In your mind, put yourself back into the scene of the crime.
   - Try to remember what it was like- the weather? The lighting? Any distinctive smells? Any people nearby? What were you feeling at the time?
2. Report every detail:
   - Tell me everything about the event that you can remember- no matter how small or insignificant it seems
3. Recall the event in different orders:
   - Try to describe the events in reverse order to me- starting at the end and working your way back to the beginning
4. Change Perspective:
   - Try to recall events from the standpoint of another person present at the scene of the crime.
   - What might they be able to report? - What could they tell me?

Question 3

what is the +ve AO3 research support

Answer 3

• Geiselman
• Fisher
• Holiday

Question 4

what was Geiselman’s research support

Answer 4

• Compared the C.I. to standard police interview techniques.
• They showed police training videos to a group of 89 students.
• 48 hours later the students were interviewed individually by the CIA, detectives and investigators
• These law enforcers had either been trained in the standard police interview or the cognitive interview
• Each interview was taped and analysed for accuracy of recall (number of correct items and number of errors)
• Results showed that the C.I. elicited considerably more correct items of recall than the standard interview, although the number of errors remained about the same

Question 5

what was Fisher’s research support

Answer 5

• Trained a group of detectives in Florida in the use of the C.I. then assessed their performance when interviewing genuine witnesses to crimes
• The information gain was found to be over 47%

Question 6

what was Holiday’s research support

Answer 6

• Developed a version of the CI for children
• Used it in a lab study where children were shown a video of a child’s birthday party and then questioned using either standard procedures or the CI.
• Results showed that the CI gained significantly more correct information from the children than standard procedures.
• Has good possibilities for real-life application.

Question 7

what was enhanced cognitive interview

Answer 7

• The CI was then enhanced to focus on the social dynamics between the officer and witness.
• Focus is on reducing anxiety in the witness and minimising distraction
  e.g. Eye contact- when to establish it, when to relinquish it

Question 8

what was the research for enhanced cognitive interview

Answer 8

Research in the form of a meta-analysis by Kohnken (1999) looked at data from 50 studies and found that the ECI significantly improved recall in comparison to standard police interviews (81% increase in recall of correct information).

Question 9

what was the -ve AO3 for Kohnken’s meta-analysis

Answer 9

there was also a 60% increase in FALSE RECALL so police need to be very careful to treat information from witnesses with caution!