cognitive interviews

Question 1

intro

Answer 1

cognitive interviews aim to provide a more reliable and accurate recall of information than other interview techniques which may use closed questions, interupt, standard and not personalised questions, leading questions this is likely to cause inacurate recall distorted by schemas

features of a cog interview
- no interuppting
-open ended questions
- quiet room
-limited equiptment - tape recorder used to recall , and inaccuracys, video recorder should be hidden and unobstrutive, 2 way mirror to reduce intimidation
- trained on cognition
-60-90 mins
- non judgemental

Question 2

A01.1

Answer 2

report everything-
involves asking the witness to state everything that they rememeber even if they think its not relevant
e.g.’ think back to the bank, recall eveything thyat you remeber’
bartlett suggests that we simplify out memories and ignore details that dont fit in with our schema therefore telling witness to recall eveything prevents this

Question 3

A03.1

Answer 3

geilsman 51 ppts shown video clip of crime and found 41.2% accurate details recalled in CI compared to 29.5 in standard interview

weakness: lacks mundane realism, video clip not real life with stress and anxiety and responsibility

Question 4

A01.2

Answer 4

context reinstatment, this is where witness is asked about e.g. how they were feeling. weather, temperature, time of day, smell, e.g.’ close your eyes and think back to the bank, how did you feel ?
this puts the witness back into the scene, episodic memories are context dependant therefore e.g. smell and feelings may act as retrieval cues to improve memory recall.

Question 5

A03.2

Answer 5

strength- fisher found in real life crimes in florida , CI was 47% more detailed recall of crime witnesses compared to standard police interviews

weakness- geilsman cog interviews not effective for children ages 8 or below, found that they recalled less comapred to stndard interviees, therefore not effective for all

strength: although holliday found that cognitive interviews are effective for all ages and there memory recall is much better, ages 5-9 study showing video of birthday party , recalled next day and children recalled very well using CI compared to standard

Question 6

A01.3

Answer 6

reverse order- recalling from middle or from the end to the start, prevents recalling according to schemas, promotes memory from a different memmory path
preventd trying to mske sense of it and rationalising info
more accurate recall
‘ start from when yoi enetered the bank and saw the robber’

Question 7

A03.3

Answer 7

• takes a long time compared to other interviews which police often dont have as th elonger the criminal is out in society thr more risk society is at, memory is also likely to deterioate the longer it takes.
• milne and bull suggest that ‘ report everything’ and ‘ context reinstatment’ are they key and most important aspects of cognitive interviews and allow for accurate and reliable and more detialed recall of events

Question 8

A01.4

Answer 8

change perspective-asking witness to chnage persective and describe event from another witnesses persepctive again prevents recalling based on schemas and ehat makes sense and using another memory path to gather extra details, e.g. ‘ destibe what happened from the bankers persepctive’

Question 9

A03.4

Answer 9

• weakness requires highly trained staff, difficult to avoid using leading questions and using open ended qurstions when already know stuff about the event, requires lots of practice to become automatic and training based on cognition and interviewing techniques not always accessable

Answer 9

• very effective compared to other techniques
• new and improved CI by fisher involves social aspects to improve communication and relationship between witness and interviewer to build trust , minimise distraction and breaks inbetween questions