EWT: Cognitive Interview

Question 1

who came up with the cognitive interview?

Answer 1

Fisher and Geiselman

Question 2

What are the techniques used (in order)

Answer 2

1. Report everything
2. reinstate in context
3. reverse the order
4. Change perspective

Question 3

why are they told to Report everything?

Answer 3

seemingly trivial details may be important/ trigger other memories

Question 4

why are they told to reinstate in context?

Answer 4

this is related to context-dependent forgetting

Question 5

why are they told to reverse order?

Answer 5

to prevent people reporting expectations of how event should’ve happened, and prevents dishonesty

Question 6

why are they told to change perspective?

Answer 6

disrupt the effects of schema on recall and prevent recalling what shouldve happened

Question 7

what is ECI?

Answer 7

enchanced cognitive interview

Question 8

who developed it?

Answer 8

Fisher (1987)

Question 9

what did he add?

Answer 9

More focus on the social interaction itself, eg. when to establish eye contact and when to withdraw it

Question 10

what is the strenght of this?

Answer 10

-a meta-analysis by Kohnken (1999) combined data from 55 studies comparing CI and police interview. Ci gave a 41% increase, only 4 studies showed no difference

Question 11

whats a limitation of this?

Answer 11

• Kohnken (1999) found an increase of inaccurate info recalled, ECI produced more than CI, so they may sacrifice quality of EWT.
• Not all elements are useful, Mline and Bull (2002) found each element alone produced more info than standard interview but combo of “report eveything” and “reinstate the context” produced better recall than most.
• Takes time training, and requires special training, many forces cant provide more than a few hours.
• ‘pick and mix’ is more of a flexible fit but means we cant speak of CI as a whole.