cognitive interview

• what is the cognitive interview

  a method of interviewing eyewitness sot help them retrieve more accurate memories
• who proposed the cognitive interview

  Fisher and Geiselman 1992
• what did Fisher and Geiselman argue about EWT

  it could be improved if the police used better techniques

  recommend that such techniques should be based on psychological insights into how memory works
• 4 techniques of the cognitive interview

  report everything

  reinstate the context

  reverse the order

  change perspective
• report everything stage

  witnesses are encouraged to include all details of the event even if they seem irrelevant

  'trivial' details be be important and trigger other memories that are important to the case
• reinstate the context stage

  witnesses should return the the original crime scene 'in their mind'

  told to imagine the environment and their emotion
• what does reinstate the context relate to

  context-dependent forgetting
• reverse the order stage

  events should be recalled in a different order e.g. from final point to the beginning
• what does reverse the order prevent

  prevents people reporting expectations how the events should have happened

  prevents dishonesty
• change perspective stage

  witnesses should recall the incident from other people's perspective

  e.g. from the perpetrators perspective
• what does change perspective prevent

  does to disrupt the effect of expectations and the effect of schema on recall
• what is schema

  a cognitive framework or mental structure that helps organize and interpret information, experiences, and knowledge
• who propose the enchanted cognitive interview

  fisher et al 1987
• what is the enchanted cognitive interview

  a developed cognitive interview that also focuses on the social dynamics of the interactions

  includes ideas such as reducing eyewitness anxiety, minimising distractions, speaking slowly and asking open ended questions
• strengths of the cognitive interview

  research support (Kohnken et al)
• Kohken et al (1999) procedure

  meta analysis

  combined data from 55 studies comparing CI and the standard police interview
• findings of Kohnken et al

  cognitive interview = 41% increased accuracy to standard interview

  4 studies= showed no difference

  shows the CI is effective in helping EWT
• limitations of the cognitive interview

  not all elements are equally useful (Milne and Bull)

  takes more training and time for police
• Milne and Bull (2002) findings

  found that each of the CI techniques alone procedure more info than standard interviews

  but found and combination of report everything and reinstate the context produced the best recall than any combinations

  conformed police suspicions that some aspect are more useful than others

  doubts creditability of overall CI