Memory: Lesson 12 - Cognitive Interview Flashcards
Which experiment studied police interviews?
Fisher et al. (1987)
What is Fisher et al. (1987)?
- Fisher et al. (1987) studied real police interviews overa four-month period and found that questions were brief, direct, fact based and closed
- Witnesses were often interrupted and not allowed to expand upon their answers
- This was referred to as the standard interview
- Fisher et al. (1987)argued that this might be contributing to the failure of eyewitnesses to accurately recall the event they had witnessed.
Who developed the cognitive interview?
- Geiselman et al. (1985) developed thecognitive interview to improve police interview techniques and obtain more accurate information from eyewitnesses
- It consists of four main stages
What are the four main stages of the cognitive interview?
- Context Reinstatement
- Report everything
- Recall from changed perspective
- Recall in reverse order
What is context reinstatement?
- Context Reinstatement= The witness tries to mentally recreate an image of the situation, including details of the environment, such as the weatherconditions and theiremotional state,including their feelings at the time of the incident
- These may act as retrieval cues(context-dependent cues) to improve recall.
What is report everything?
- Report Everything= The interviewer encourages the witness to recallall details about the event, even though these details may seem to be unimportant
- This may highlight details which have been overlooked and trigger other memories
What is Recall from changed perspective?
- Recall From Changed Perspective= The witness tries to mentally recreate the situation from different points of view, e.g. describing what another witness present at the scene would have seen
- This promotes amore holistic viewof the event which might enhance recall andreduce the influence of schemas
- Schemas are mental structures of preconceived ideas
What us recall in reverse order?
- Recall in Reverse Order= The witness is asked to recall the scene in a different chronological order, e.g. from the end to the beginning
- This should verify the accuracy of the witnesses’ account and reduce the possibility that recall may be influenced by schemas/expectations.
What guidelines did Fisher et al 1987 add to the cognitive interview and call it the enhanced cognitive interview?
- Encourage the witness to relax and speak slowly (this will reduce anxiety and may enhance recall).
- Avoid distractions
- Use open-ended questions
- Offer comments to help clarify witness statements (may improve detailof the statement)
Evaluation of the cognitive interview (Police officers in Miami) (+)
+ 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 theinformation that could be verified was accurate
Evaluation of the cognitive interview (Geiselman et al.)
+ 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
Evaluation of the cognitive interview (more incorrect info with the cognitive interview) (-)
- 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 chanceof making a mistake
Evaluation of the cognitive interview (time consuming) (-)
-The cognitive interview is time consuming to implement and police officers often do not have the time, trainingand resources to use it
Evaluation of the cognitive interview (recall from changed perspective, misleading) (-)
- Memon et al. (1993) reported thatpolice officers believed that Recall From Changed Perspectivestage 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
