The cognitive interview - improving EWT Flashcards
What are the 4 parts of the cognitive interview?
1: mental reinstatement of original context
2: report everything
3: change order
4: change perspective
What is (1) mental reinstatement of original context?
• witness needs to recreate the original context of the event
e.g
‘think about the day’
‘think about what you had been doing that day’
‘what was the weather like’
- contextual and emotional cues may trigger memories
What is (2) report everything?
• witness needs to report every single detail they remember, even if it seems irrelevant
e.g
‘please don’t leave anything out’
‘i want to know everything’
‘anything that pops into your head’
memories are connected to each other (encoding during learning links) remembering one thing might trigger the memory of another
what is (3) change order
• witness needs to try to tell the story in alternative ways, in different orders. perhaps retell it backwards
e.g
‘tell me what happened backwards’
‘what is the very last thing you remember’
Recollections are linked to schemes. e.g when remembering an event at a restaurant, schema (expectation) influences what we remember = having a waitress take your order
What is (4) Change perspective
Witness needs to imagine themselves from someone else’s perspective and how it may have appeared to other witnesses
e.g
‘was anybody stood at the door? imagine you were stood where they were. what would you see?’
Evaluation of the cognitive interview
(+) research support - Köknken at al found that using the cognitive interview led to more more recall/more info
(+) Wright and Holliday found that the older the age, the less complete and accurate recall in EWT, but Mellow and Fisher showed that by using the cognitive interview there was significant improvements
(-) although it leads to more recall, the info isn’t necessarily more accurate. EWT still needs to treated with caution Also: (-) time consuming
