Cognitive Interview Flashcards
What does cognitive interview do?
Improves the accuracy of eyewitness testimony
What is Cognitive interview?
A method of interviewing eyewitnesses to help them retrieve more accurate
memories. It uses four main techniques, all based on well-established
psychological knowledge of human memory.
What impact did the standard police interview have on eyewitness testimony?
Geiselman and colleagues (1985) identified several ways that standard police interview methodology (just asking questions
that appeared relevant) could negatively impact the accuracy of eyewitnesses’ recall of crimes.
What did police questioning in cognitive interview lead to?
• Regular jumps between memory modalities (such as
describing physical appearances and recalling dialogue).
• Event recall in a non-chronological order.
• False memories due to leading questions.
Therefore decreasing validity.
What did Geiseleman et Al do?
Geiselman et al., integrated effective memory recall techniques into a new questioning methodology, the CI, to achieve more detailed and accurate EWT.
What are the four techniques of the cognitive interview?
- report everything
-reinstate the context - reverse the order
-change perspective
Provide a description of report everything.
Witnesses are encouraged to include
every single detail of the event, even
though it may seem irrelevant, or the
witness does not feel confident about
it.
Provide a reason for report everything .
Seemingly trivial details may
highlight something that has been
overlooked that may be important. It
may also trigger other important
memories.
Provide a description for reinstating the context.
The witness should return to the
original crime scene ‘in their mind’ and
imagine the environment and their
emotions. This links to context- and
state-dependent forgetting.
Provide a reason for reinstating the context.
Reinstating the physical and mental
context may act as cues to trigger
recall.
Provide a description for reversing the order.
Events should be recalled in a
different chronological order to the
original sequence e.g., from the end to
the beginning, from the middle to the
beginning.
Provide a reason for reversing the order.
This helps to verify accuracy. It
prevents people reporting their
expectations of how the event must
have happened rather than the actual
event. It also reveals dishonesty as it is
more difficult to produce an untruthful
account in reverse order.
Provide a description for changing the perspective.
Witnesses should recall the incident
from other people’s perspectives e.g.,
from another witness, or the
perpetrator.
Provide a reason for changing the perspective.
This promotes a more ‘holistic’ view of
the event which may enhance recall. It
also disrupts the effect of expectations
and schema on recall.
What was the enhanced cognitive interview?
Fisher et al., (1987) developed some additional elements of the CI to focus on the social dynamics of the interaction. For example, the interviewer needs to know when to establish eye contact and when
to relinquish it. The ECI also includes ideas such as reducing eyewitness anxiety, minimizing distractions, getting the witness to speak slowly, and asking open-ended questions. Holliday (2003) produced a modified cognitive interview (MCI) suitable for use with children as it removes the ‘change perspective’ component since children are seen as being too young to empathise with others and see from another’s perspective.
