The Cognitive Interview

Question 1

Where does the cognitive interview take place and why?

Answer 1

The police station (Ao3- links to inverted-U theory)

Question 2

Who does most of the talking in the cognitive interview and why?

Answer 2

The interviewee to prevent leading questions from causing false information/memories (ao3 leading question effects accuracy of recall).

Question 3

What are the 4 main components of the cognitive interview?

Answer 3

Report everything (Free recall), mental reinstatement, change order, change perspective

Question 4

Report everything (free recall)

Answer 4

• “Report every detail no matter how small or irrelevant you think it is”
• the interviewer is not to interrupt as that stops the train of thought.
  (AO3- links to lotus and palmer, effects of leading question/misleading info in recall)

Question 5

Mental reinstatement

Answer 5

• visualise the the scene of the incident, place yourself back there and describe everything you see. (Recreates state/context cues)
• AO3: links to retrieval failure (recall is best if you are in the same state/environment as when you obtained the information)

Question 6

Change order

Answer 6

-Starting at a different point e.g the end or at a key detail and work your way back.

Question 7

Change perspective

Answer 7

-Put yourself in the shoes of someone else present (e.g “what would the lady across the road see?”
-unlocks more cues and memories

Question 8

What is the standard interview?

Answer 8

Revolves around the interviewer. Witnesses are bombarded with brief questions to cilicit facts, witnesses are frequently interrupted, witnesses can be repeat interviewed.

Question 9

• Kohnken et al (1999) AO3

Answer 9

Kohnken (1999) found an 81% 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 - doesn’t guarantee accuracy.

Question 10

+ Milne and Bull (2002) AO3

Answer 10

tested each of the four components of the CI. They found that no real difference individually, but when used together (report everything and mental reinstatement together was the best) significantly higher recall.

Question 11

• Time problems with the cognitive interview AO3

Answer 11

Kebbnell and Wagstaff (1996) say officers say it takes more time than is available - prefer to use deliberate strategies aimed to limit an eyewitnesses report to the minimum amount of information that the officer feels is necessary.