Cognitive Interview

• Fisher and Geiselman


  developed the cognitive interview - based on the idea that we can retrieve memories through 4 techniques
• 1. Recreate the context of the original incident

  witnesses should return to the crime scene 'in their mind' and imagine the environment (weather, what they could see) and their emotions

  HOW: recreating the context may act as cues to trigger improved/further recall. Relates to research on context/state dependent forgetting
• 2. Report every detail

  witnesses are encouraged to include every single detail of the event, even if it may seem irrelevant

  HOW: may highlight something that has been overlooked. Unimportant detail might act as a trigger for key info about the event
• 3. Recall the event in different orders

  events should be recalled in a different order to the original sequence

  HOW: should verify the accuracy. This prevents dishonesty (harder to produce an untruthful account if they have to reverse it)
• 4. Recall the event from a changed/different perspective

  witnesses should recall the incident from other people's perspective

  HOW: promotes a more holistic view of the event which may enhance recall. Done to disrupt the effect of expectations on recall. It may also provide different retrieval cues
• Enhanced cognitive interview: Fisher et al

  additional features of enhanced cognitive interview:

  - focuses on building a trusted relationship between the interviewer and witness

  - encourage the witness to relax and speak slowly (reduction in anxiety may enhance recall)

  - offer comments to help clarify witness statements (may improve detail of statement)

  - ask open ended questions on neutral topics

  - minimise distractions

  - use focused memory techniques that involve asking the witness to concentrate on mental images of the memory such as person's face (details are most retrievable when they're perceptually related to the witnesses mental image and so interviewers should time their questions accordingly)
• Strength - research support

  Kohnken et al conducted a meta-analysis and found an increase of 34% in the amount of correct info generated by the cognitive interview
• Strength - practical applications

  Geiselman et al

  tested ppts by showing them video of a simulated crime scene and tested ppts in one of 3 conditions:

  1. cognitive interview

  2. standard interview

  3. interview under hypnosis

  ppts under the cognitive interview condition were able to recall the most correct info
• Weakness - Geiselman and Fisher identified 3 weaknesses of the cognitive interview which must be acknowledged

  the cognitive interview is time consuming

  you need to build a rapport with the witness and allow them time to relax.

  also need to be highly trained in conducting the interview

  this means it's highly unlikely that the proper cognitive interview is used often