cognitive interview + eval

Question 1

what is the cognitive interview?

Answer 1

a method of INTERVIEWING ewt to help them retrive more ACCURATE memories.

Question 2

what are the 4 main techniques?

Answer 2

1. Report everything: witnesses encouraged to recall EVERY DETAIL even if it is meaningless as it may TRIGGER other memories.
2. Reinstate context: witnesses IMAGINE they are back at the crime scene, asked to give detail on ENVIRONMENT as this links to context-dependant forgetting and cues.
3. Reverse the order: events recalled from a DIFFERENT order in order to prevent reporting EXPECTATIONS of how an event happened rather than the actual event.
4. Change persepcctive: recall event from ANOTHER person’s pov, to disrupt effect of EXPECTATION and schemas on recall.

Question 3

one strength of the CI is that there is reliable research support showing the VALUE of the CI improving accuracy of ewt.

Answer 3

Kohnken used a meta-analysis and found that the CI consistently provided MORE correct info than a standard interview.

As it was consistent across the studies, this suggests that it is a RELIABLE finding and provides SUPPORT.

strength as studies like this indicate there are REAL practical benefits to the police in using the CI as a way of improving ACCURACY of ewt, increasing chance of CATCHING criminals.

Question 4

However Kohnken also found that 81% increases in correct info, but 61% increased in incorrect info, so the CI may not be an EFFECTIVE way of improving accuracy of ewt.

Answer 4

however when you take the increase of correct and incorrect info into account, the OVERALL effect is the INCREASED accuracy of the ewt.

Therefore, they should look to IMPROVE the CI even further, to decrease the incorrect info rather than abandoning the CI and going back to the standard interview which is LESS accurate overall for ewt.

Question 5

one limitation of the CI is that it is not always used by the police

Answer 5

As it is more TIME CONSUMING than a standard interview, time is needed to build a RAPPORT with the witness and allow them to RELAX.

CI also requires special TRAINING, many forces haven’t been able to provide more than a few hours making it HARD to achieve.

Therefore, it’s likely that when used it’s not the ‘proper’ version as intended as officers may not have had correct training or they may not use ALL the steps.

Therefore, the CI may not be an effective way of improving ewt if it’s time consuming and creates negative implications to the ECONOMY as we may be using money better spent elsewhere, which is a WASTE if accuracy of ewt is NOT improved.

Question 6

one strength is that some elements from the CI are more valuable than others. When studied individually, it was found that each element was better than the standard interview at producing info, This means that…

Answer 6

This is a strength as it shows superiority of the CI over a standard interview.

best combo was ‘report everything’ and ‘context reinstatement.’ which proves that if we can’t use ALL elements, then at least using 2 will produce a more ACCURATE ewt.

This also overcomes previous issue of it being too TIME CONSUMING, and so the use of the CI in this format could improve the accuracy quicker.