Cognitive Interview Flashcards
What is the cognitive interview?
A method of interviewing eyewitnesses to help them retrieve more accurate memories.
How many techniques does it use?
It uses four main techniques, all based on well established psychological knowledge of human memory.
What techniques does it use?
Report everything, reinstate the context, reverse the order, and change perspective.
What does report everything mean?
Include every single detail of the event, even though it may seem irrelevant as it may trigger other important memories.
What does reinstate the context mean? What is it related to?
The witness should return to the original crime scene ‘in their mind’ and imagine the environment - related to context-dependent forgetting.
What does reverse the order mean? What does this prevent?
Events should be recalled in a different chronological order to the original sequence - prevents people from reporting their expectations of how the event must have happened rather than the actual events.
What does change the perspective mean? What does this disrupt?
Witnesses should recall the incident from other people’s perspectives - disrupts the effects of expectations and schema on recall.
Who proposed the enhanced cognitive interview?
Fisher et al.
What was added?
5 extra techniques which focused on the social dynamics of the interaction including:
When to use/not use eye contact
Reducing eyewitness anxiety
Minimising distractions
Asking open-ended questions
Getting the witness to speak slowly
Evaluation of the CI - Weaknesses
It’s time-consuming to conduct and takes much longer than a standard police interview.
Some elements of the cognitive interview may be more valuable than others.
Evaluation of the CI - Strengths
The cognitive interview is useful when interviewing older witnesses.
Evidence shows it does improve recall and accuracy.
