The Cognitive Interview

Question 1

Why did Lord Devlin conduct a report in 1976?

Answer 1

Conducted to see why innocent people were commonly being found guilty based on the evidence of EWT alone.

Question 2

What did Lord Devlin investigate?

Answer 2

Investigated the reliability of EWT on behalf of the government as concerns over incorrect carriages of justice is court cases became evident.

Question 3

Why were SPIs seen as negative?

Answer 3

Eye witness accounts to police were interrupted repeatedly by the interviewer and questions were designed to find truth often.

This caused lapses in concentration and caused memory blending or false memories to occur.

Question 4

What did the Home Office suggest about SPIs?

Answer 4

They should proceed from free recall to open ended questions concluding with more specific questions.

Question 5

What did Geiselman and Fisher state in 1984?

(The Cognitive Interview)

Answer 5

Stated that interview techniques should take account of some basic characteristics of human memory:

Effectiveness of a retrieval cue depends on the extent to which the information it contains is similar to the info stored in the memory trace.

Various retrieval cues may permit access to any given memory.

Question 6

The basic characteristics of human memory that were outlined by Geiselman and Fisher in 1984 were compiled into what?

(The Cognitive Interview)

Answer 6

4 stages/ the 4 R’s.

Question 7

What are the 4 stages/ the 4 R’s?

(The Cognitive Interview)

Answer 7

1.) Context reinstatement (CR).

2.) Report everything (RE).

3.) Recall from a changed perspective (CP).

4.) Recall in reverse order (RO).

Question 8

Outline ‘context reinstatement’ as a stage in the 4 R’s.

(The Cognitive Interview)

Answer 8

Recall the scene, the weather, what you were thinking and feeling.

Acts as a person, for the person to ‘go back’.

Question 9

Outline ‘report everything’ as a stage in the 4 R’s.

(The Cognitive Interview)

Answer 9

Report every detail you can even if they seem irrelevant or trivial.

May not realise everything is important.

Lots of freedom, lacks restriction.

Question 10

Outline ‘recall from a changed perspective’ as a stage in the 4 R’s.

(The Cognitive Interview)

Answer 10

Describe the event as it would have been seen from different viewpoints.

May have to fill in gaps.

Less accurate.

Encourages more retrieval pathways.

Question 11

Outline ‘recall in reverse order’ as a stage in the 4 R’s.

(The Cognitive Interview)

Answer 11

Describe the event in reverse order.

Prevents reliance on schemas.

Question 12

Why was the cognitive interview created?

(The Cognitive Interview)

Answer 12

To improve the effectiveness of interviewers when questioning witnesses.

Question 13

What was the procedure of Geiselman and Fisher’s 1984 study?

(Procedure)
(The Cognitive Interview)

Answer 13

Showed police training videos of violent crimes to a group of 89 students.

48 hours later the students were interviewed individually by American Law Enforcement Officers.

They were either interviewed by cognitive interview technique or standard interview.

Question 14

What was the average number of correct statements produced by eyewitnesses using the standard police interview, in Geiselman and Fisher’s 1984 study?

(Findings)
(The Cognitive Interview)

Answer 14

29.9.

Question 15

What was the average number of correct statements produced by eyewitnesses using the cognitive interview, in Geiselman and Fisher’s 1984 study?

(Findings)
(The Cognitive Interview)

Answer 15

41.1.

Question 16

What two things were concluded from Geiselman and Fisher’s 1984 study?

(Conclusion)
(The Cognitive Interview)

Answer 16

CI is more reliable and more accurate than SPI.

CI is more effective at producing accurate statements than the SPI.

Question 17

Who proposed the ECI? When?

Answer 17

Fisher and Geiselman, 1987.

Question 18

What does the ECI hope to do?

Answer 18

Seeks to build a trusting relationshipand improve the quality of communication between interviewer and witness.

Question 19

State 3 important features of the ECI.

Answer 19

Investigations should minimise distractions.

Encourage witnesses to speak slowly.

Asking open-ended questions.

Allow pauses for recollection.

Tailor language to suit the witness, (e.g. a child).

Follow up with interpretive comments in order to verify

Reduce anxiety.

Avoid judgemental or personal comments.

Question 20

Outline the process of the ECI.

Answer 20

1.) Getting the witness to control the flow of information (e.g. open-ended questions on neutral topics).

2.) Context reinstatement, followed by the witness’s free recall of events. During this time the interviewer stresses the importance of not guessing if details are unknown.

3.) The interviewer then moves on to asking about the information recalled using focused memory techniques that involve asking the witness to concentrate on mental images of the memory, (e.g a person’s face and using these to guide recall).

Question 21

Which is more effective, ECI or CI?

(Findings and comparisons between the CI and ECI results)

Answer 21

ECI.

Question 21

Eyewitnesses in the ECI average how many correct statements?

Answer 21

57.5 correct statements.

Question 21

Eyewitnesses in the CI average how many correct statements?

Answer 21

39.6 correct statements.

Question 22

The ECI produced more correct statements than the CI. Why may this have been?

Answer 22

Schematic influence.

Social desirability bias.

Relaxation causing incorrect statements.

False memory (confabulation).

Question 23

Outline Geiselman et al’s 1985 study.

(Supports the procedure of the CI)
(Evaluation of the Cognitive Interview)

Answer 23

Supports the procedure of the CI.

This is because they found accurate, detailed memories were produced.

This suggests that the CI is much more advanced than SPIs.

Question 24

Outline Geiselman and Fisher’s 1997 study.

(Supports and challenges the CI)
(Evaluation of the Cognitive Interview)

Answer 24

Supports and challenges the CI.

This is because they state that it works better when used within a short time period after the crime.

This shows that the technique can be advantageous and non-advantageous depending on the time interval that it is used within.

Question 25

Outline Kohken et al’s 1999 study.

(Supports and challenges the CI)
(Evaluation of the Cognitive Interview)

Answer 25

Supports and challenges the CI.

This is because it produced more accurate detail than SPIs.

However, it could also challenge the CI, as more inaccurate detail was also found.

Question 26

Outline Memon et al’s 1993 study.

Answer 26

Challenges ‘recall from a changed perspective’ as a stage in the cognitive interview.

This is because eyewitnesses ended up at a conclusion that was misleading.

This suggests that ‘filling in information’ is not always helpful.

However, Memon did support the other 3 stages.

Question 27

Outline Coker’s study from 2013.

(Supports the enchanted cognitive interview over the cognitive interview)
(Evaluation of the Enhanced Cognitive Interview)

Answer 27

Supports the enchanted cognitive interview over the cognitive interview.

This is because mental imagery produced an increase in accurate detail.

This was especially seen in the recall of personal details.

This suggests that the accuracy and the importance of the ECI is applicable to the real-world.

Question 28

Outline Holliday’s study from 2003.

(Supports the MCI over SPI)
(Evaluation of the Enhanced Cognitive Interview)

Answer 28

Supports the MCI over SPI.

This is because young children recalled more accurate detail from a video when the modified cognitive interview was used, than when SPI was used.

This shows that interview methods must consider the fragility of the eyewitnesses.

Question 29

Who produced the MCI? When?

(Modified cognitive interview)

Answer 29

Holliday in 2003.

Question 30

State 3 ways in which the MCI is different from other interview techniques.

Answer 30

Suitable for use with children.

Stresses building a trusting relationship between interviewer and witness.

Gives control to the witness.

Removes the ‘change perspective’ component, as children are seen as being too young to effectively empathise with others.