the cognitive interview

Question 1

define the cognitive interview

Answer 1

The cognitive interview (CI) is a range of techniques that Fisher and Geiselman (1992) suggested police interviewers could use in order to improve the accuracy of EWT, based on the psychological understanding of memory

Question 2

what criticism did the traditional police interview techniques face:

Answer 2

Focus on interviewer
Specific questions - closed
Forced choice answers
Predetermined questions

Question 3

the 4 stages of the cognitive interview

Answer 3

● Reinstate the context - returning to the scene of the crime, including physical environment and emotional state → this is based on the concept of context-dependent forgetting and to act as cues

● Report everything - include all details, even if they seem irrelevant → this is done to trigger other memories

● Change perspective - witnesses recall the incident from other people’s perspectives → this prevents the influence of expectations and schema on recall

● Reverse the order - events are recalled in a different chronological order → this is done to prevent people using their expectations and prevents dishonesty

Question 4

how does the cognitive interview help improve retrieval failure and the schema?

Answer 4

1. Retrieval failure = forgetting occurs to the absence of the necessary cues = CI aims to provide cues to aid recall
2. Schema = a framework that helps us interpret lots of information quickly
   - Helps us to predict what is going to happen
   - CI prevents people from reporting their expectations

Question 5

Fisher et al (1987) into the enhanced cognitive interview (ECI)

Answer 5

• Reducing the eyewitness’s anxiety
• Minimising distractions
• Getting the witness to speak slowly
• Asking open-ended questions
• Focus on the social dynamics of the interaction e.g. knowing when to establish and give up eye contact