cognitive interview Flashcards
what is the cognitive interview?
a method of interviewing eyewitnesses to help them retrieve more accurate memories
why did Fisher and Geisel man create the cognitive interview?
they believed that eyewitness testimony could be improved if the police used better techniques when interviewing witnesses. they recommended that such techniques be based on psychological insights into how memory works, and called these insights the cognitive interview to indicate its foundation in cognitive psychology
what are the 4 steps to the cognitive interview?
- report everything
- reinstate the context
- reverse the order
- change perspective
what is the step ‘report everything’?
when witnesses are encouraged to include every single detail of the event, even though it may seem irrelevant or the witness doesn’t feel confident about it. seemingly trivial details may be important and may trigger other important memories.
what is the step ‘reinstate the context’?
the witness should return to the original crime scene ‘in their mind’ and imagine the environment (e.g. the weather or what they could see) and emotions (what were they feeling at certain times). this is related to context-dependent forgetting
what is the step ‘reverse the order’?
events should be recalled in a different chronological order to the original sequence, for example, from the final point back to the beginning or from the middle to the beginning, this is done to prevent people from recalling their expectations of how the event must’ve happened rather than the actual events. it also prevents dishonesty as its harder fro people to provide an untruthful account if they have to reverse it.
what is the step ‘change the perspective’?
witnesses should recall the incident from other peoples perspectives. for example, how would it have appeared to other witnesses or to the perpetrator. this is done to disrupt the effect of expectations and schema on recall. the schema for a particular setting generates expectations of what would have happened and its schema that is recalled rather than what actually happened.
what is the enhanced cognitive interview?
Fisher developed some additional elements to the cognitive interview 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 enhanced cognitive interview also includes ideas such as reducing eye witness anxiety, minimising distractions, getting the witness to speak more slowly, asking open ended questions
AO3: how is ‘the cognitive interview is time consuming’ a limitation to the cognitive interview?
one limitation to the cognitive interview is that it is time consuming. for example, the police may be reluctant to use the cognitive interview as it takes much more time than the standard police interview. this is because it takes more time to build a rapport with the witness and allow them to relax. the cognitive interview also requires special training and many forces have not been able to provide more than a few hours. therefore, this means that it is unlikely that the proper version of the cognitive interview is actually used, which may explain why some police haven’t been impressed by it
AO3: how is ‘some elements are more valuble’ a strength to the cognitive interview?
one strength to the cognitive interview is that some elements are more valuable. for example, Milne and Bull (2002) found that each individual element was just as equally valuable. each technique used singly produced more information than the standard police interview. however, they found that using a combination of report everything and context reinstatement produced better recall than any other conditions. this finding is a strength as it suggests that at least these 2 elements should be used to improve the police interviewing of eyewitnesses even if the whole cognitive interview isn’t used. therefore, this increases is credibility of the cognitive interview amongst the police officers that use it.
AO3: how is ‘supporting evidence’ a strength to the cognitive interview?
one strength to the cognitive interview is that there is supporting evidence for the effectiveness of the enhanced cognitive interview. this is because research suggests that the enhanced cognitive interview may offer special benefits. for example, a meta-analysis combining over 50 studies showed that the enhanced cognitive interview consistently provided more correct information than the standard interview performed by police. this is a strength because studies such as this one indicate that there are real practical benefits to the police by using the enhanced version of the cognitive interview. therefore, this research shows that it gives police greater chance of catching and charging criminals which is beneficial to society as a whole.
AO3: how is ‘an increase in inaccurate information’ a limitation to the cognitive interview?
one limitation to the cognitive interview is that it provides an increase in inaccurate information. this is because the techniques of the cognitive interview aim to increase the amount of correct information remembered but the recall of incorrect information may also be increased. for example, Kohnken found an 81% increase of correct information but also a 61% increase of incorrect information, a false positive, when the enhanced cognitive interview was compared to a standard interview. therefore, should we use the cognitive interview for a slightly more detail even if provided with an increased amount of inaccurate information.
