Cognitive Interviews Flashcards
What is the aim / purpose of the cognitive interview
-To improve eyewitness testimony
What are the 4 stages of cognitive interview
-Report everything
-Context reinstatement
-Recall from a changed perspective
-Recall in reverse order
What is context reinstatement
-Witnesses mentally recreate the environment and their emotions at the time of the event in their mind. For example, the weather, what they could see etc.
-This is based on context-dependent forgetting and this improves recall by using cues (e.g., sights, sounds, and feelings) to trigger memories.
What is context reinstatement based on
-Based on context-dependent forgetting, this improves recall by using cues (e.g., sights, sounds, and feelings) to trigger memories.
What is Report everything
-Witnesses are encouraged to recall all details of the event even those that seem irrelevant or are not confident about it in the hopes that small details may leap to trigger more important information (cues)
What is Recall in reverse order
-Events are recalled in a different order (E.G from the end to the beginning or middle to the beginning) to reduce reliance on schemas and prevent assumptions from filling in memory gaps rather than what actually happened.
-It also prevents dishonesty (harder to produce an unfaithful account if it is reversed)
How does Recall in reverse order help improve EWT
-Helps to reduce reliance on schemas and prevent assumptions from filling in memory gaps rather than what actually happened.
-It also prevents dishonesty (harder to produce an unfaithful account if it is reversed)
What is Recall from a changed perspective
-Witnesses recall incident from other peoples viewpoints. E.G ‘How would it have appeared to another witness or to the perpetrator?’
-This prevents the influence of expectations and schema on recall
How does recall from a changed perspective improve EWT
-This prevents the influence of expectations and schema on recall
How may report everything improve EWT
These small details may leap to trigger more important information (cues)
What stage does the prompt relate to?
‘Please do not edit anything out of your report, even if you think it is not relevant’
Report everything
What stage does the prompt relate to?
‘Think about how you were feeling at the time and thunk about your reactions to the incident’
Context reinstatement
What stage does the prompt relate to?
‘Think about the surrounding environment looked like at the scene, such as rooms the weather, any nearby people’
Context reinstatement
What stage does the prompt relate to?
‘Try to place yourself in the role of a prominent character in the incident and think about what he or she must have seen’
Recall from a changed perspective
What stage does the prompt relate to?
‘Try starting with the thing that impressed you the most in the incident and then go from there, going both forward in time and bacward’
Recall in reverse order
Evaluation for cognitive interviews
-Evidence for its effectiveness
-Some elements of cognitive interview are more useful than others
-Time consuming and requires specialist training
What did Kohnken find in his meta anaysis (support for cognitive interviews effectiveness)
-A meta analysis by Kohnken combined data from 55 studies comparing cognitive interview with the standard polic interview.
-The cognitive interview produced an average of 48% more correct information than the standard police interview did.
-Only 4 of these studies showed no difference
-This shows that cognitive interview is effective in helping witnesses recall information that’s available but not accessible
What did Milne and Bull find (effectiveness?)
-Milne and Bull found that each individual technique of the CI alone produced more information than the standard police interview.
-However, they as found that combining ‘report everything’ and ‘reinstate context’ produced better recall than any other technique individually or combined.
-This suggests that some techniques are less effective than the others,, casting doubt on the credibility of the overall CI
Why’s re some police reluctant to use the cognitive interview
-Police are reluctant to use the cognitive interview because it takes more time than the standard police interview. For example, you must establish rapport with the individual to low them to relax and feel more comfortable about opening up.
why can cognitive interview often be time consuming
-Police must establish rapport with the individual to low them to relax and feel more comfortable about opening up.
Why is it a problem that the cognitive interview requires specialist training
While, specialist training ensures the cognitive interview is done more effectively, many forces do not have the resources to provide more than a few hours of training
Why may it better for police to just focus on a few elements of the cognitive interview
-Because the CI is time consuming and requires specialist training and so it may be better to just focus on elements like ‘report everything’ and ‘content reinstate’ which are shown to be more effective than the others
