Cognitive interviews and ethical interview techniques (pack 3)

Question 1

What is a cognitive interview?

Answer 1

a method of interviewing eye witnesses. The aim is to help witnesses produce more accurate recall of a crime scene using techniques based on psychological research

Question 2

what is an ethical interview?

Answer 2

acknowledges that suspects are human beings and are more likely to cooperate with police if rapport is established and they are treated with respect

Question 3

in percent how much time does the police spend interviewing people?

Answer 3

70-80 percent

Question 4

What are the four stages of the standard police interview and what do they do in each stage?

Answer 4

1. orientation- purpose of interview is stated, legal requirements such as informing of rights
2. listening- free recall with minimal questions
3. questions and answers- ask specific questions based on prev. stage to fill in any gaps. Statement read through then signed
4. advice- interviewee informed of any further action

Question 5

What did the report by Baldwin (1993) reveal about standard police interviews?

Answer 5

used coercion and oppressive interviewing procedures, which leads to false confessions and miscarriages of justice

Question 6

What was the PACE ACT (1984)?

Answer 6

provides police with legal framework that they must follow in order to protect human rights of those being interviewed

Question 7

what is the five principles of the PEACE MODEL?

Answer 7

P- planning and preparation (criticism of S.I, must have clear objectives)

E- engage and explain (establish rapport, purpose of interview should be explained, encourage questions if unsure

A- account, clarification, challenge (good questioning and listening skills for reliable account)

C- closure (interviewee must understand what happened and what will happen next and questions can be asked)

E- evaluate (reflection on interviewer’s performance and reflection on info gathered)

Question 8

Two strengths of the PEACE model?

Answer 8

evidence that PEACE model built rapport and used ethical techniques when compared to non-PEACE interviews (Walsh and Milne, 2010)

builds public confidence (fewer miscarriages of justice)

Question 9

two weaknesses of the PEACE model?

Answer 9

though national college of policing advocate for the PEACE model, it is not always used consistently and limits effectiveness

expensive to retrain police in this technique

Question 10

which psychologist(s) originally developed the cognitive interview?

Answer 10

GEISELMAN ET AL

Question 11

What two cognitive principles is the cognitive interview based upon?

Answer 11

1. TULVINGS SPECIFICITY PRINCIPLE
2. SCHEMA THEORY

Question 12

What is Tulving’s specificity principle?

Answer 12

the idea that when an event occurs it is first encoded, other important cues are stored alongside it.

These might include sensory details as well as the persons emotional state at the time.

It is assumed that being reminded of these details may facilitate a more accurate recall

Question 13

What 4 things does Bartlett suggest memory is prone to?

Answer 13

distortion
rationalisation
transformation
simplification

Question 14

Why is trying to inhibit someone’s schema in the cognitive interview important?

Answer 14

To stop people recalling what they think should have happened and instead what actually happened

Question 15

What are the four main techniques used in the cognitive interview?

Answer 15

context reinstatement
report everything
change the order in which the event is recalled
change perspective

Question 16

what is context reinstatement based upon?

Answer 16

encoding specificity hypothesis by Tulving, which states that the accessibility of info is stored in the memory

Question 17

why do we change the order in which the event is recalled in the cognitive interview?

Answer 17

helps a person avoid skipping over info taken for granted, as it interrupts schema activation

Question 18

what assumption is changing perspective based upon?

Answer 18

that in order to provide recall from a different physical perspective witnesses will use different retrieval cues and be able to recall new info

Question 19

what did Geiselman study?

Answer 19

the effectiveness of three interview techniques

Question 20

what was some of the procedure of Geiselman’s study?

Answer 20

lab experiment
used 89 undergrad students randomly assigned to one of the 3 interview methods
ppts then watched a violent film and were then asked a set of questions about it

Question 21

some results from Geiselman’s study?

Answer 21

a significant increase in the number of correct items recalled using the cognitive interview

Question 22

A conclusion made from Geiselman’s study?

Answer 22

concluded that the increased retrieval using the cognitive interview was due to the guided approach to interviewing, which encouraged ppts to remember the crime

Question 23

3 strengths of the cognitive interview?

Answer 23

supporting evidence- Fisher et al produced a 46% recall with 90% accuracy. Increased ecological validity of the interview model, as it was effective in real life situations

interview uses a framework that can be easily followed so it is high in reliability- enables training

Mine and Bull found that when used in combo, cognitive reinstatement was particularly effective for eliciting information

Question 24

Two weaknesses of the cognitive interview?

Answer 24

time consuming, requires specialist training and this can be costly (but it is necessary as without training there would be too many errors)

GEISELMAN found that it is not effective for children under 6 as young children find the instructions confusing

Kohnken recorded an increase of 81% in correct info using CI techniques BUT was offset by a 61% increase in incorrect info