Cognitive Interview

• who proposed the method of interviewing witnesses based on knowledge and of the human memory to help them retrieve more accurate information?

  Fisher & Geiselman
• what are the 4 processes of a cognitive interview?

  • report everything
  • reinstate the context
  • reverse the order
  • change the perspective
• Describe the technique of report everything

  report everything: police will ask an open question asking the witness to say every single detail they can remember, including the most irrelevant information because it can trigger more information
• Describe the technique of reinstate the context

  reinstate the context: witness should return to the scene of the crime 'in their mind' and imagine the environment (weather) and their emotions. This related to context dependent forgetting.
• describe the technique of Reverse the Order

  Reverse the Order: events are recalled in a different chronological order as it will minimize the assumptions of expectations and dishonesty
• Describe the technique of Changing the Perspective

  Change the Perspective: witnesses should recall the incident from another persons perspective, so it will disrupt expectation and schemas
• research support for Cognitive Interview

  research: Kohnken 1999

  • completed a meta analysis of 55 studies
  • compared the cognitive interview technique with the standard police evidence -> suggesting that the cognitive interview is more accurate

  this is a strength because it has external validity as it can be generalised to the world and in police interviews; it can say that the theory is credible; and there is an increasing in accuracy in reporting crimes
• Weakness of the Cognitive Interview

  increase of inaccurate information: Kohnken 1999

  • information from Cognitive Interview can give inaccurate information

  this is a weakness because there is a lack of external validity as it has to be used with caution in police interviews - to combat this you would triangulate the testimonies of witnesses to evidence and other statements from the investigation
• criticism of Cognitive Interview

  some elements are more important: Milne & Bull 2002

  • recall everything and reinstate the context are more important than the other techniques

  this is a weakness because some techniques aren't useful in gaining useful/accurate information (eg. reverse the order and change perspective), therefore suggesting that the techniques are a waste of time and police might not use them

  However, to ensure there is accuracy the other two techniques must be used
• another weakness of Cognitive Interview

  time consuming

  • the 4 techniques are like collecting 4 different witness statements from only one person
  • training the police officers

  this is a weakness because it detracts from other police matters within the station, it delays the criminal justice system and the Cognitive Interview may not be fully regarded/completed so it might not be fully adopted by the police
• discussion of the Cognitive Interview

  variations of the cognitive interview

  • reduces the time taken to complete - good
  • flexibility of the police in their method - bad

  this is a good thing because:

  • variation increases the accuracy
  • it can also counteract Milne and Bull's research

  this is a bad thing because:

  • there is an issue if the police wanted to compare their findings when they use different methods from solving a crime