Lesson 12: Cognitive interview

Question 1

After studying real life police interviews over a four month period, what did Fisher et al. find out?

Answer 1

the questions used in police interviews were:

-brief
-direct
-fact based + closed

-Witnesses were not allowed to EXPAND upon their answers

Question 2

What was the brief, direct nature of police interviews refered to as?

Answer 2

STANDARD interview

Question 3

Why did Fisher et al. dislike the idea of standard interviews?

Answer 3

bc it caused eyewitnesses to inaccurately recall the event they had witnessed

Question 4

What did Gieselman et al. come up with

Answer 4

COGNITIVE interview

Question 5

What are the TWO MAIN objectives of the COGNITIVE interview?

Answer 5

1. improve police interview techniques
2. obtain accurate information from eyewitnesses

Question 6

What are the FOUR main stages of the cognitive interview?
(Carl Reported Rebeccas Recall)

Answer 6

1. Context reinstatement
2. Report everything
3. Recall from changed perspective
4. Recall in REVERSE order

Question 7

What is Context reinstatement?

Answer 7

Witness tries to mentally RECREATE an image of the situation (including details of the environment, weather + emotional state)

AIM:
-This may act as RETRIEVAL CUES

Question 8

Report everything?

Answer 8

Witness is encouraged to recall ALL details about the event, even the ones that may seem unimportant.

AIM:
-highlights details which have been overlooked + trigger other memories

Question 9

Recall from changed perspective?

Answer 9

witness tries to mentally recreate the situation from a different POV e.g describing what another witness present at the scene would have seen

AIM:
-promotes a more HOLLISTIC view + reduces the influence of schemas (mental structures of preconceived ideas)

Question 10

Recall in reverse order?

Answer 10

Witness is asked to recall scene from END to BEGINNING

AIM:
verifies the ACCURACY of the witnesses’ account + reduce possibility that recall may be influenced by schemas

Question 11

What additional guidelines did Fisher add for police interviews?

Answer 11

-Encourage witness to relax + speak slowly

-Avoid distractions

-Use open-ended questions

-Offer comments to help clarify witness statements

Question 12

Positive evalaution of the Cognitive interview?
(Cognitive interview vs standard vs hypnosis)

Answer 12

+ Geiselman et al. (1985) showed participants a video of a SIMULATED crime and tested recall using the COGNITIVE interview, STANDARD interview or HYPNOSIS

The cognitive interview led to the most information being RECALLED by the eyewitnesses.

Question 13

Positive evalaution of the Cognitive interview?

Answer 13

+ Fisher et al. (1990) trained real police officers in Miami to use the enhanced cognitive interview when interviewing eyewitnesses. They found that on average there was a 46% increase in the amount of information witnesses gave. 90% of the information that could be verified was accurate.

Question 14

Negative evaluation of Cognitive interview?

Answer 14

• Koehnken et al. (1999) found that witnesses recalled more incorrect information when interviewed with the cognitive interview compared to the standard interview technique, perhaps because more detailed recall increases the chance of making a mistake.

Question 15

Negative evaluation of Cognitive interview?

Answer 15

• The cognitive interview is time consuming to implement and police officers often do not have the time, training and resources to use it.

Question 16

Negative evaluation of Cognitive interview?

Answer 16

• Memon et al. (1993) reported that police officers believed that Recall From Changed Perspective stage of the cognitive interview misleads witnesses into speculating about the event they witnessed rather than reporting what they actually saw. For this reason the police were reluctant to use it.