Cognitive Interview

Created by

Khads <3

Cards (20)

What is the cognitive interview?
+ method of interviewing eyewitnesses to help them retrieve more accurate memories
+ uses four main techniques based on well-established psychological knowledge of memory
What are the four main techniques of the cognitive interview?
+ report everything
+ reinstate context
+ reverse order
+ change perspective
What did Fisher and Geiselman say in 1992?
+ EWT could be improved if police used better techniques when interviewing eyewitnesses
Describe the report everything stage of the cognitive interview.
+ witnesses are encouraged to report every single detail of the event
+ even if it seems irrelevant or the witness is not confident about it
+ Details eyewitnesses do not see as important can trigger further memories so eyewitnesses are encouraged to report all
What is reinstating the context in the cognitive interview?
+ interviewer encourages witnesses to mentally recreate image of incident, including details of environment (weather conditions)
+ individual emotional state and feelings at time of incident also reported
+ related to context-dependent forgetting
What is reversing the order during the cognitive interview?
+ witnesses asked to recall incident in different chronological order to original sequence
+ more difficult to do and prevents reporting expectations of how event must have happened instead of actual events
+ prevents dishonesty (harder to produce untruthful account in reverse)
Describe the 'Change The Perspective' stage of the cognitive interview. 
+ witness should recall incident from others' perspective
+ witness asked to try and mentally recreate situation from different points of view
+ disrupts effect of expectations and schema on recall
+ scheme can generate expectations of what may have happened rather than what really happened
Who developed the enhanced cognitive interview and why?
+ Fisher et al. (1987) - added additional elements
+ focus on social dynamics of interaction between witness and interviewer
What is the enhanced cognitive interview?
+ interviewer needs to know when to establish eye contact
+ interviewer should not distract witness with unnecessary interruptions
+ witness controls flow of information and interviewer asked open-ended questions
+ ask witness to speak slowly
+ remind witnesses not to guess and use 'don't know' option when needed
+ try to make witnesses comfortable/ relaxed
Why is the cognitive interview still not used in all police interviews?
+ takes too long to train officers to conduct it and carry out cognitive interviews itself
+ CI requires time to establish rapport with witness and requires special training that forces find difficult to provide
+ CI rarely going to be used by police
What was Geiselman et al's procedure regarding testing the CI vs standard interview and when?
+ 1985
+ tested participants by showing videos of stimulated crime
+ tested different groups with CI, standard police interview or interview under influence of hypnosis
+ cognitive interview found to elicit more information from participants
When Koehnken et al researched the cognitive interview, which year was it, and what did they find?
+ in 1999
+ found that witnesses questioned using cognitive interview also recalled more incorrect information than using standard technique
+ cognitive interview elicits more information overall than other procedures
Who researched the cognitive interview technique in real life police settings in Miami and what did they find?
+ Fisher et al (1990)
+ trained detectives to use enhanced cognitive interview techniques
+ genuine crime witnesses used
+ significantly increased amount of information recalled
Which research did Kebbel et al perform in regards to the cognitive interview and when?
+ 1999
+ carried out survey of police officers in UK
+ found widespread use of cognitive interview and officers generally found it useful
+ officers concerned about amount of incorrect recall generated and amount of time it took to complete
+ RE and CO steps seemed to be the only ones used
How did Milne and Bull (2002) test the cognitive interview and what did they find?
+ tested all cognitive interview procedures singly or in combination
+ found all four procedures used singly produced more recall from witnesses than standard interview technique
+ most effective combination appeared to be use of CR and RE instructions
When did Geiselman et al review studies involving the questioning of younger children and what was found?
+ in 1999
+ under ages of six, children reported events slightly less accurately in response to cognitive interview
+ may be due to finding instructions difficult to follow
+ CI mostly effective for children 8+
What did Bekerian and Dennet do in terms of research into the cognitive interview and when?
+ 1993
+ reviewed 27 studies investigating effectiveness of cognitive interview
+ found in all cases that cognitive interview provided more accurate information than other interview procedures
Which two researchers investigated the effectiveness of the cognitive interview as a collection of related techniques and when? 
+ Kebbel and Wagstaff (1996)
+ example: cognitive interview in which Merseyside and Thames valley are trained using same technique as Fisher and Geiselman
+ Thames Valley Police do not use 'Change the Perspective' component
+ other police forces that describe themselves as using CI tended to only use 'Context Reinstatement' and 'Report Everything'
What problem did Kebbell and Wagstaff find?
+ police officers say CI requires more time than available
+ still aim to limit, using CI, eyewitness report to a minimum
What research did Memon et al (1994) carry out in regards to the cognitive interview and what did they find?
+ studied effectiveness of ECI and greater demands placed on interviewer
+ quantity and quality of training CI interviewers has become a critical issue
+ found that experienced detectives only received 4 hours of training
+ did not improve accuracy of EWT compared to standard interview