A01

• What is the cognitive interview?

  A method of interviewing witnesses for a crime to help them retrieve more accurate memories
• State the four components of the CI

  1. Recall everything

  2. Context reinstatement

  3. Reverse the order

  4. Change perspective
• Which researchers developed the CI?

  Geiselman et al. (1984)
• Describe recall everything

  Witness asked to report all details of event, even irrelevant ones
• How does recall everything improve accuracy of memory?

  Memories are interconnected and such recollection of trivial details may cue other important memories
• Describe context reinstatement

  Involves the witness mentally re-creating the situation in their mind, such as details of environment (e.g. weather, time etc.) and emotions (e.g. what they were feeling)
• How does context reinstatement improve accuracy of memory?

  Makes memories accessible through contextual and emotional cues - helps to retrieve memories.
• Describe reverse the order

  Witnesses are asked to describe the event in a different chronological order (e.g from end to beginning)
• How does reverse the order improve accuracy of memory?

  Prevents people from reporting expectations of how event happened rather than the actual event and prevents dishonesty as it's harder to produce untruthful account if have to reverse it.
• Describe change perspective

  Witness is asked to mentally recreate the situation from another person's point of view
• How does change perspective improve accuracy of memory?

  Disrupts effects of schemas on recall as schemas generate expectations of what would have happened and therefore it could be the schema that is recalled rather than what actually happened