cognitive interview

• P: a criticism of the CI is that its effectiveness has largely been in terms of quantity of information, rather than quality

  E: the procedure is designed to enhance the quantity of correct recall without compromising the quality of that information. Kohnken found an 81% increase of correct information but also a 61% increase of incorrect information when the enhanced CI was compared to a standard interview

  L: this means that police need to treat all information collected from CIs with caution. it does not guarantee accuracy
• P: another criticism of the CIs is the amount of time and training needed to implement it

  E: from their interviews with police, kebbell and wagstaff report a problem with the CI in practice. police officers suggest that this technique requires more time than is often available and that instead they prefer to use deliberate strategies aimed to limit an eyewitness report to the minimum amount of information that the officers feel is necessary.

  L: these limitations have meant that the use of the CI in police interviews has not been widespread
• P: one of the problems with evaluating the effectiveness of the CI when it is used in the real world is that it is not really just one 'procedure', but a collection of related techniques

  E: Thames valley police use a version that does not include the 'changing perspectives' component. other police forces that describe themselves as using the CI technique have tended to use only the 'reinstate context' and 'report everything' components of the CI

  L: this means that it is hard to establish the overall effectiveness of the technique when using all components