THE COGNITIVE INTERVIEW

Question 1

• who developed the cognitive interview
• outline it’s purpose

Answer 1

• Geiselman & Fischer
• procedure to improve effectiveness of interviews with witnesses
• applied psychological research to the area

Question 2

what are the 4 components in the cognitive interview

Answer 2

• report everything
• reinstate the context
• reverse the order
• change perspective

Question 3

outline the “report everything” stage

Answer 3

• encourage witnesses to recall every single detail
• details may trigger other memories

Question 4

outline the “reinstate context” stage

Answer 4

• witnesses told to re-visit original scene
• imagine environment
• imagine their emotions
• may trigger context or state-dependent cues

Question 5

outline the “reverse the order” stage

Answer 5

• events should be recalled in a different order
• prevents dishonestly and schemas

Question 6

outline the “change perspective” stage

Answer 6

• ask witnesses to recall from other people’s perspective
• reduces the effect of schemas

Question 7

what is meant by a schema

Answer 7

• a concept generated from expectations/assumptions of what would have happened
• is sometimes recalled instead of what actually happened

Question 8

outline Fisher et al’s “Enhanced Cognitive Interview”

Answer 8

• focuses on social dynamics
• minimise distractions
• allow witness to say “I don’t know” to reduce anxiety
• get witness to speak slowly
• ask open-ended questions

Question 9

how does the cognitive interview reduce effects of retrieval failure

Answer 9

• asking witnesses to remember environment
• to remember emotions
• could trigger state and context dependent cues

Question 10

how does the cognitive interview reduce effects of leading questions

Answer 10

• doesn’t involve list of questions out of context
• reduces tendancy to use leading questions

Question 11

how does the CI being time consuming act as a limitation

Answer 11

• time needed to train officers and build relationship with witness
• Kebbell & Wagstaff found many officers ignored CI in less serious crimes
• suggests that the CI is unrealistic

Question 12

how does the CI being unethical act as a limitation

Answer 12

• requires witnesses to re-live trauma in multiple ways
• may have high anxiety, resulting in more inaccurate recall

Question 13

how does the lack of standard procedure act as a limitation for the CI

Answer 13

• many officers approach CI with multiple techniques
• hard to compare effectiveness

Question 14

how does the difference in effectiveness of each part of the CI act as a limitation

Answer 14

• Milne and Bull found that “report everything” and “reinstate context” had better recall than all other conditions
• casts doubt on the credibility of the overall CI, as some aspects are more useful

Question 15

evaluate the CI using Koehnken’s analysis

Answer 15

• Koehnken et al found that witnesses were 41% more accurate during the CI
• also found more incorrect information during the ECI, due to overall increased detail of recall
• CI effective in recalling stored info
• evidence from CI witnesses should be treated with caution