Cognitive Interview

• What is the aim of the Cognitive Interview (CI)?

  to increase the quantity and quality of information gathered from witnesses during police questioning
• What techniques are used in the CI?

  1. context reinstatement
  2. report everything
  3. reverse temporal order
  4. change perspective
• What is meant by context reinstatement?

  mentally recreate the scene of a crime (based on encoding specificity principle)
• Why might the police not take a victim back to the scene of a crime?

  • could contaminate the scene
  • could be too traumatising
• What is meant by report everything?

  mention everything you can remember about an event because small details may trigger further information.

  even mention:

  • things you're not sure about
  • things you think may be insignificant
  • things you think the police already know
• What is meant by 'reverse the temporal order'?

  retell the sequence of events backwards to prevent witness from filling in details they think should have happened (based on the fact we all have scripts of what normally happens in certain situations)
• What is meant by change perspective/spotlighting?

  retell the story from another pov and report everything
• What are the adaptations of the CI?

  enhanced CI, Modified CI, Self administered interview
• What changes did the enhanced CI make?

  -> encourage the use of imagery

  -> minimise distractions

  -> no leading Q's
• What changes did the modified CI make?

  removed the 'change perspective' technique to be suitable for children because children's minds are egotistic
• What changes did the self administered interview make?

  written version of the CI to give to witnesses if there are many
• Who investigated the effectiveness of the CI and when?

  Kohnken et al (1999) - meta analysis
• Describe the investigation on the effectiveness of the CI

  meta analysis of 55 studies comparing CI with SI (standard interview)
• What were the findings from Kohnken et al's investigation?

  41% more details could be recalled on average in the CI
• What is the evaluation for the CI?

  :) Research Evidence - Kohnken et al (1999)

  :( requires special training -> expensive/time consuming

  :( time consuming to administer