the cognitive interview

Question 1

define cognitive interview

Answer 1

GEISELMAN ET AL 1984. it is a procedure for police questioning of witnesses that promotes accurate, detailed recall of events. because our memory is made up of a network of associations, memories are accessed using multiple retrieval strategies.

Question 2

the main influence behind the development of CI

Answer 2

improve the effectiveness of police questioning as standard police interviews often involve interruption with questions which makes it hard for the witness to fully focus on recalling the event.

Question 3

the standard police interview

Answer 3

fisher and geiselman 1992 identified the error. it revolves around the interviewer rather than the witness. questions are often predetermined and may unconsciously ask leading questions. such practices tend to increase the amount of inaccurate information collected in the interview.

Question 4

the four different stages of the CI

Answer 4

1. reinstatement of context
2. report everything
3. reverse the order
4. change perspective

Question 5

reinstatement of context

Answer 5

the witness revisits the crime scene in their minds and is encouraged to mentally recreate both the physical and psychological environment of the original incident.

Question 6

the aim of reinstatement of context

Answer 6

to make memories accessible. some people need appropriate contextual and emotional cues to retrieve memories.

Question 7

report everything

Answer 7

the witness reports every single detail of the event even if they believe it to be insignificant.

Question 8

the aim of report everything

Answer 8

memories are interconnected with one another so that recollection of one item may then cue more memories. remembering small details could trigger to cues to other important information.

Question 9

reverse the order

Answer 9

this strategy reduces the use of schemas influencing our recall of an event. by recalling the events in a different chronological order, this helps with recall.

Question 10

change perspective

Answer 10

the witness is asked to recall the incident from multiple perspectives. this is again done to disrupt the effect that schemas have on recall.

Question 11

STRENGTH: individual differences

Answer 11

the CI may be particularly useful when interviewing older witnesses. negative stereotypes about older adults ‘declining’ memory can make such witnesses overly cautious about reporting information.

the CI overcomes this as it stresses the importance of reporting any detail regardless of its perceived insignificance.

Question 12

study to support individual differences

Answer 12

MELLO AND FISHER 1996 compare older (c72) and younger (c22) adults memory of a filmed simulated crime using a CI or SI. the CI produced more information than the SI, but the strength of the CI over the SI was greater for the older.

this suggests that individual differences matter and that CI is more effective when interviewing older people.

Question 13

LIMITATION: quality may suffer

Answer 13

its effectiveness has largely been in terms of quantity of information, rather than quality.

the procedure is designed to enhance the quantity of correct recall without compromising the quality of that information.

Question 14

study to support quality may suffer

Answer 14

kohnken et al 1999 found an 81% increase of correct information but also a 61% increase of incorrect information when the enhanced CI was compared to a standard interview.

this means that police need to treat all information collected from CIs with caution. it does not guarantee accuracy.