improving ewt with cognitive interview

Question 1

key features of cognitive interview (fisher and gieselman)

Answer 1

reinstate the context- put yourself back at the scene eg how they felt what they were thinking etc
report everything- recall all the details even if they think its irrelevent
recall in a different order- end to beginning or specific place eg middle
recall from a changed perspective- imagine yourself in someone elses shoes eg criminal or victim or another witness

Question 2

differences between standard and cognitive interviews.

Answer 2

standard uses repetition and free recall followed by specific questions.

Question 3

research thats investigated cognitive interview

Answer 3

kohnken et al- conducted a meta analysis of 53 studies and found a 34% increase in correct recall using CI compared with standard

milne and bull- conducted a lab experiment using college students and children where using report everything and reinstate gave better recall then when using just one component. they also found just using one component was no better then an instruction to ‘try again’.

stein and memon- tested female cleaning staff in brazil and found an increased recall especially for details that would be useful eg description of man holding a gun.

geiselman- tested the effectiveness of the CI technique by comparing to the standard. 89 students were shown police training videos. they were then interviewed 48 hrs later by police using standard or CI. they measured the amount of correct answers that were given, number of incorrect, and confabulated(made up) answers.
for the standard interview there was 29.4 accurate info 6.1 incorrect and 0.4 made up. for the CI there was 41.5 accurate info, 7.3 incorrect and 0.7 confabulated. however they used uni students so lacks population validity.

Question 4

evaluate cognitive interview

Answer 4

research methods- many of the studies tested volunteer witnesses, often college students, in a lab which may not generalise to everyday life
hard to evaluate- because theres so many variations of CI used by different police forces.
more time consuming- then standard interview, po’s tend to want to get the job done as quick as they can as time valuable.