Memory: Improving The Accuracy Of EWT

Question 1

Who developed the cognitive interview?

Answer 1

Fisher and Gieselman (1985) - saw it as a more effective tool for police investigations

Question 2

What was the first component for the interview schedule?

Answer 2

1. Report everything - every single detail of the event even it it seems trivial

Question 3

What is the 2nd component of the interview?

Answer 3

2. Context reinstatement (CR)- mentally recreate the environment and contacts form the original incident. Recall the scene, the weather, what you were thinking and feeling at the time and the preceding events (related to context dependant forgetting)

Question 4

What is the 3rd component of the interview?

Answer 4

3. Reverse the Order (RO) - report the episode in several different temporal orders, moving backwards and forwards in time (harder to lie if you have to reverse what you just said)

Question 5

What is the 4th component of the interview?

Answer 5

4. Change the perspective (CP) - recall the incident from multiple different perspectives, e.g. imagining how it would have appeared to other witnesses.

Question 6

What other details did Fisher add?

Answer 6

• minimise distractions
• actively listen
• ask open ended questions
• pause after each response
• avoid interruption
• encourage use of imagery

Question 7

What is some research into the effectiveness of cognitive interview?

Answer 7

• Kohnken - meta analysis of 53 studies - found average of 34% increase in amount of correct info generated in cognitive interview. But sample was uni students and in a lab.
• Milne and Ball - when used a combination of ‘report everything’ and ‘mental reinstatement’, ptps recall was significantly higher. Recall was similar across all 4 individual components and no different to control. Tested in a lab (artificial).

Question 8

What was a real life study testing the effectiveness?

Answer 8

• Stein and Memon - compared normal interviewing technique and CI in Brazil.
  CI increased the amount of correct info obtained and the richness (detail) of info.

Question 9

What was a real life study in the UK?

Answer 9

• Kebbel did a survey of Police officers and found a widespread use of CI. although officers found it useful, concerns about amount of incorrect recall and time taken to interview.
• Seemed officers were using Report Everything and Context reinstatement, but rarely used the other 2

Question 10

What’s a study on individual differences?

Answer 10

• Mello and Fisher - when CI and normal interview techniques were tested on older adults (72 years) and younger adults (22 years) memory, cognitive interview was better for both.
• but was significantly more an advantage for the elderly.

Question 11

What is some evaluation of the cognitive interview?

Answer 11

• time consuming to train inexperienced staff —> costly.
  —> Mermon - detectives who had a brief training session on CI (4 hours) did not produce any significant increases in info from witnesses. Suggests effectiveness of approach cannot conclusively support CI
• hard to evaluate as many versions of CI - some police forces use some or all of the techniques and so difficult to control all the variables
• CI takes up too much time in interviews