ETW: The cognitive interview

Question 1

What is the cognitive interview?

Answer 1

Fisher and Geiselman (1992) claimed that EWT can be improved if police used techniques based on psychological insights into how memory works.

They called this the cognitive interview, an improvement to the standard police interview which reduced the use of schemas.

Question 2

What are the 4 stages of the Cognitive interview?

Answer 2

1. Report everything
2. Reinstate the context
3. Reverse order
4. Change perspective

Question 3

Outline the Report everything technique.

Answer 3

Witnesses are encouraged to include every detail of the event, even if it seems irrelevant or the witness isnt confident with it; trivial details may be crucial.

Question 4

Outline the Reinstate context technique.

Answer 4

The witness returns to the original crime scene in their mind and imagined the environment and their emotions.

This is based on the concept of context dependant cues, which may help trigger recall.

Question 5

Outline Reverse the order technique.

Answer 5

Events are recalled in a different order.

This prevents people basing their descriptions on their expectations of how the event must have happened rather than the actual events.

It also prevents dishonesty as it is hard to lie when reversing the order of events.

Question 6

Outline the change perspectiven technique.

Answer 6

Witnessees recall the incident from other peoples persepectives. How would it have appeared to another witness etc.

This prevents the influence of expectations and schema on recall. Schemas are packages of information developed through experience. They generate a framework for interpreting incoming information.

Question 7

What is the enhanced CI?

Answer 7

Fisher (1987) developed additional elements to the CI.

-Including focus on the dynamics of interaction.

• reducing anxiety, minimising distractions, getting the witness to speak slowly and asking open-ended questions.

Question 8

What is one strength of the CI?

Answer 8

One strength is research support for the effectiveness of CI

• A meta-analysis by Khonken (1999) combined data from 55 studies comparing CI and the standard police interview.
• The CI produced an average of 41% more correct information than the standard interview. Only 4 studies showed no difference.
• This shows that the CI is effective in helping witnesses recall information that is available but not accessible.

Question 9

What is a limitation of the CI?

Answer 9

One limitation is that some elements of the CI are more useful than others.

• Milne and Bull (2002) found that each individual technique of the CI alone produced more information than the standard police interview.
• But they also found that combining report everything and reinstate the context produced better recall than any other technique individually or combined.
• This casts doubt on the credibility of the overall CI because some of the techniques are less effective than others.

Question 10

What is another limitation of the CI?

Answer 10

Another limitation of the CI is that it is time consuming.

• Police are reluctant to use the CI because it takes more time than the standard interview.
• The CI also requires special training but many forces do not have the resources to provide these hours of training.
• This suggets that the complete CI is not realistic for the police officers to use and it might be better to focus on just a few key elements.