Memory - cognitive interview Flashcards
What is the cognitive interview?
The cognitive interview is a technique which is designed to help the eyewitness to re-create the original context of the event in order to increase the accessibility of stored information.
What is the cognitive interview?
The cognitive interview is a technique which is designed to help the eyewitness to re-create the original context of the event in order to increase the accessibility of stored information.
What did Fisher and Geiselman argue?
The eyewitness testimony could be improved if the police use better techniques when interviewing witnesses the techniques are based on psychological insights into how memory works.
What were Fisher and Geiselman for techniques for the cognitive interview?
Report everything.
Reinstate the context.
Reverse the order.
Change the perspective.
What is report everything?
Witnesses are encouraged to report every single detail of the event, even if they think it is insignificant.
This is because the details actors queues which may trigger important memories.
What is reinstate the context?
Witnesses return to crime scene in their mind and imagine the environment.
It can help overcome the encoding specificity principal (context and state dependent forgetting) as the queues at the time of encoding are present at the time of retrieval.
What is reverse the order?
The events are recorded in a different chronological order, e.g. end to start.
Prevent schemas from filling in gaps in memory based on peoples expectations of the event must have happened rather than the actual event. It also prevents dishonesty. (it is hard produce untruthful accounts in a reverse order).
What is a schema?
Bartlett:
Our memory is great into categories called schemas.
A mental framework to organise things into categories.
For example, we have an idea for a criminal is like for what counts as food and how to behave at the service counter in a fast food restaurant.
Schemas will fill in the gaps in our memory and put pressure on our mind to remember things.
What is change the perspective?
Witness should recall the incident from the other persons perspectives who were present at the time of the incident.
It also disrupts the effect of expectations and schemas on a recall.
What was Fisher et al enhanced cognitive interview?
Fisher developed additional elements to add to the cognitive interview known as the enhanced cognitive interview.
It involves interviewers ensuring the social dynamics are considered.
In the enhanced cognitive interview, what are the social dynamics that the interviewer has to consider?
- Went to establish/relinquish eye contact.
- Ensure the room is free from distractions.
- Take steps to reduce anxiety.
- Have the witness speak slowly.
- Ask open-ended questions.
What is the strength of the cognitive interview?
There is supportive empirical evidence suggesting that it effectively improves eyewitness testimony - Kohnken et al conducted a meta-analysis which combined data from 55 studies and the cognitive interview consistently provided more correct information than the standard interview done by the police - increasing the validity of the theory as there is research evidence to support its predictions. It is also beneficial for practical use for charging criminals - the cognitive interview therefore is a benefit to society and can have an impact on the criminal justice system.
There is contradictory research about the cognitive interview evaluate this limitation.
There is contradictory evidence - Kohnken find 81% increase of correct information but also a 61% increase of incorrect information (false positives) where the enhanced cognitive interview was used to compare to a standard interview - showing that whilst the cognitive interview may produce more information it cannot ensure that the information is accurate - showing police need to treat all information collected from cognitive interviews with caution as they are higher risk of collecting in accurate information.
There is contradictory research about the cognitive interview evaluate this limitation.
There is contradictory evidence - Kohnken find 81% increase of correct information but also a 61% increase of incorrect information (false positives) where the enhanced cognitive interview was used to compare to a standard interview - showing that whilst the cognitive interview may produce more information it cannot ensure that the information is accurate - showing police need to treat all information collected from cognitive interviews with caution as they are higher risk of collecting in accurate information.
What is another limitation of the cognitive interview?
Evidence suggest that some elements are more valuable than others - Milne and Bull found whilst each element was independently better than a standard police interview using a combination of report. Everything and context reinstatement Produced butter recall than any conditions - findings could be used to improve the cognitive interview within the police force - also improve the credibility of the cognitive by not using elements the police do not find useful.
