Eyewtiness Testimony : The Cognitive Interview

Question 1

What are thee four step of the cognitive interview ?

Answer 1

1 - report everything
2 - reinstate context
3 - reverse the order
4 - change perspective

Question 2

What is the explanation of report everything ?

Answer 2

Witnesses are encouraged to include every detail of an event, even if it seems irrelevant or the. Witness is not confident about it.

Question 3

What is the explanation of the reinstate the context ?

Answer 3

The witness returns to the original crime scene ‘in the mind’ and imagines the environment and their emotions. This is based on the concept of context-dependent forgetting. Cue from the context may trigger recall

Question 4

What is the explanation for the reverse order ?

Answer 4

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.

Question 5

What is the explanation for the changed perspective ?

Answer 5

Witnesses recall the incident from other people’s perspectives. This prevents the influence of expectations and schema on recall.

Question 6

What is the enhanced cognitive interview?

Answer 6

Fisher et al developed additional elements of the CI. This includes a focus on the social dynamics of the interactionist. The enhanced CI also includes ideas such as reducing the eywitnesses’ anxiety, minimising distractions, getting the witness to speak slowly and asking open-ended questions.

Question 7

Name one strength of the cognitive interview ?

Answer 7

P - one strength is research support for the effectiveness of the CI
E - a meta-analysis combined data from 55 studies comparing CI with the standard police interview - the CI produced an average 41% more correct information than the standard interview
E - this shows that the CI is effective in helping witnesses recall information that is available but not accessible

Question 8

Name one limitation of the cognitive interview ?

Answer 8

P - one limitation is that some elements of the CI are more useful than others
E - Milne and Bull found that each individual technique of the CI produced better results than the standard interview - but they also found that combining report everything and reinstate the context produced better recall than any other technique
E - this casts doubt on the credibility of the overall CI because some of the techniques are less effective than the others

Question 9

Name another limitation of the cognitive interview ?

Answer 9

P - another limitation of the CI is that it is time-consuming
E - police are reluctant to use the CI because it takes more time than the standard police interview - the CI also requires special training but many forces do not have the resources to provide more than a few hours training
E - this suggests that the complete CI is not realistic for police officers to use and it might be better to focus on just a few key elements

Question 10

Name another strength of the cognitive interview ?

Answer 10

P - one strength is the variation of the CI
E - this approach makes the CI more flexible because police forces evolve their own approaches depending on what they think works best
E - this variation is a benefit of the CI because it can be adapted to different situations , increasing its credibility for officers, though not for empirical research