Improving accuracy of EWT : The cognitive interview Flashcards
(13 cards)
Cognitive Interview
This is a police technique for interviewing
witnesses to a crime
It encourages them to recreate the original context in
order to increase the accessibility of stored
information.
Why is it important?
Improving effectiveness of questioning witnesses in
police interviews
Who made the cognitive interview
Fisher and Geiselman
Reviewed memory literature and found that people are better at remembering things if they are provided with retrieval cues
What are the 4 stages of the cognitive interview
PROD
Perspective of someone else
Reinstate the context
Order differently
Detail (report everything)
Why do you use the perspective of someone else
To stop the effects of schemas on our recall (expectations of what should of happend)
Why do you reinstate the context
To discourage context dependant forgtting
Why do you order the events differently
To prevent people from reporting their expectations of the event
Why do you detail / report everything
To trigger other memories
What must police also do in the cognitive interview
-build a rapport with the witness to reduce anxiety and facillitate recall
-ask open ended questions to reduce the likelihood of leading qquestions
Supporting research
Geiselman
-Ppts viewed a violent crime and were interviewed 48h later using either CI, a standard interview or hypnosis
-Correctly recalled facts
CI = 41
Hypnosis = 38
Standard = 29
Skill dependant
-It doesn’t take large amount of time and resources to train someone to do the cognitive interview
-It may not be appropriate at all times and there often aren’t the resources for it
-Interviewer needs to be skilled enough to not use leading questions
Not always accurate with time delays
-Longer delays = worse recall
-Could be difficult to conduct due to circumstances
Improves recognition, not recall
-Can lead to an accurate recall but not an accurate representation of the perpetrator
-Height, gender, hair but not much else
-Only leads towards suspect
