Cognitive Interview

• What is the Cognitive Interview used for?

  Interviewing eyewitnesses for accurate memories
• What does the 'Report Everything' technique encourage witnesses to do?

  Include every detail, even if irrelevant
• Why are trivial details important in eyewitness testimony?

  They may trigger other important memories
• What does 'Reinstate the Context' involve?

  Imagining the original crime scene and emotions
• What is the purpose of 'Reverse the Order' in cognitive interviews?

  To prevent reporting expectations instead of events
• How does 'Change Perspective' aid in recall?

  It disrupts expectations and schemas on recall
• Who claimed the importance of social dynamics in cognitive interviews?

  Fisher (1987)
• What are some elements included in the Enhanced Cognitive Interview?

  Eye contact, reducing anxiety, open-ended questions
• What did Kohnken et al (1999) find about the cognitive interview's effectiveness?

  41% increase in accurate information
• What was a downside found by Kohnken et al (1999) regarding cognitive interviews?

  Increased amount of inaccurate information recalled
• What does the increase in inaccurate information suggest about cognitive interviews?

  They may sacrifice accuracy for detail
• What did Milne & Bull (2002) discover about the techniques of cognitive interviews?

  Each technique alone produced more information
• Which combination of techniques produced the best recall according to Milne & Bull (2002)?

  Reporting everything and reinstating context
• What is a limitation of the Cognitive Interview regarding time?

  It is time-consuming to establish rapport
• Why might police forces struggle to implement the complete cognitive interview?

  They lack resources for extensive training
• What are the key techniques used in the Cognitive Interview?

  • Report Everything
  • Reinstate the Context
  • Reverse the Order
  • Change Perspective
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the Cognitive Interview?

  Strengths:

  • Increases accurate recall
  • Encourages detailed reporting

  
  

  Weaknesses:

  • May increase inaccuracies
  • Time-consuming and resource-intensive
• What is a strength for the Cognitive Interview?

  Research Support

  • Kohnken et al (1999) conducted a meta-analysis, combining data from 55 studies comparing the cognitive interview with the standard police interview
  • The cognitive interview gave an average 41% increase in accurate information compared with the standard interview and only 4 studies in the analysis showed no difference between the types of interview
  • This shows that the cognitive interview is an effective technique in helping witnesses to recall information that is stored in the memory but not immediately accessible
• What is a limitation for the Cognitive Interview?

  Lack of Accuracy

  • Kohnken et al (1999) also found an increase in the amount of inaccurate information recalled by the participants, which was particularly an issue with the enhanced cognitive interview
  • Cognitive interviews may sacrifice the accuracy of eyewitness testimony in favour of amount of details
  • This means that police officers should treat eyewitness evidence from cognitive interviews with caution
• What is a limitation for the Cognitive Interview?

  Some Elements May Be More Useful

  • Milne & Bull (2002) found that each of the 4 techniques used alone produced more information than standard police interview
  • They also found that using a combination of reporting everything and reinstating context produced better recall than any of the other elements, which confirmed that some aspects of cognitive interviews are more useful than others
  • This casts some doubt on the credibility of the overall cognitive interview
• What is a limitation of the Cognitive Interview?

  The Cognitive Interview is Time-Consuming

  • More time is needed to establish a rapport with the witness and allow them to relax
  • The cognitive interview also requires special training and many forces do not have the resources to provide more than a few hours
  • This suggests that the complete cognitive interview as it exists is not a realistic method for police officers to use and it might be better to focus on just a few key elements