COGNITIVE INTERVIEW

• WHO DEVELOPED THE COGNITIVE INTERVIEW?

  Fisher and Geiselman
• WHY WERE COGNITIVE INTERVIEWS DEVELOPED?

  to improve EWT testimony
• FOUR MAIN STEPS OF COGNITIVE INTERVIEWS?

  1. Report everything
  2. Reinstate the context
  3. Change the order
  4. Change the perspective
• WHAT TAKES PLACE WHEN THE WITNESS REPORTS EVERYTHING?

  witness encouraged to recall every single thing that happened during the event even if irrelevant
• WHAT TAKES PLACE WHEN THE WITNESS REINSTATES THE CONTEXT?

  witness mentally recreates the surroundings and personal context of the event (sights, sounds, weather, emotions)
• WHAT TAKES PLACE WHEN THE WITNESS CHANGES THE ORDER?

  alternative method of recalling (e.g. starts with final point before working way back to beginning)
• WHAT TAKES PLACE WHEN THE WITNESS CHANGES THE PERSPECTIVE?

  witness recalls event from another person's point of view describing what they would have seen
• WHY DOES REPORTING EVERYTHING IMPROVE THE ACCURACY OF EWT?

  • avoids response bias from specific questions
  • enables trivial details to potentially trigger other memories
• WHY DOES REINSTATING THE CONTEXT IMPROVE THE ACCURACY OF EWT?

  prevents retrieval failure as imaging the environment and emotions can trigger cues
• WHY DOES CHANGING THE ORDER/ PERSPECTIVE IMPROVE THE ACCURACY OF EWT?

  disrupts effect of expectations and schema on recall
• WHAT OTHER SOCIAL ASPECTS ARE DONE BY THE INTERVIEWER IN THE ENHANCED VERSION OF THE COGNITIVE INTERVIEW?

  • encourage witness to relax
  • speak slowly
  • helps witness clarify statement
  • adapts questions to suit understanding of individual witnesses
• WHAT CAN IMPROVE MEMORY IN A COGNITIVE INTERVIEW?

  retrieval cues
• WHAT ARE COGNITIVE INTERVIEWS BASED ON THE IDEA OF?

  there are many retrieval paths to memory
• WHAT IS THE WITNESS GIVEN IN A COGNITIVE INTERVIEW?

  time to recall
• WHAT IS THE WITNESSES ENCOURAGED TO DO AND HOW IN A COGNITIVE INTERVIEW?

  recreate original context using open questions
• WHAT SHOULD THE INTERVIEW TECHNIQUE IN COGNITIVE INTERVIEWS DO?

  maximise amount of recalled detail (is based on psychological research)
• WHAT OFTEN HAPPENS IN A STANDARD INTERVIEW?

  • interrupted which can break concentration
  • bombarded with brief questions to elicit facts
• WHAT TYPE OF QUESTIONS ARE ASKED IN A STANDARD INTERVIEW?

  closed questions
• WHAT DOES THE STANDARD INTERVIEW TECHNIQUE FAIL TO DO?

  maximise recall (not based on psychological research)
• WHAT TYPE OF ANSWERS ARE USUALLY GIVEN IN A STANDARD INTERVIEW BY THE WITNESS?

  short answers
• RESEARCH SUPPORT?

  • Kohnken
  • Mello and Fisher
• KOHNKEN RESEARCH METHOD USED?

  meta-analysis
• PROCEDURE OF KOHNKENS EXPERIMENT?

  analysed 50 studies that compared standard and cognitive interviews
• FINDINGS OF KOHNKENS STUDY?

  81% increase in correct information recalled with cognitive interviews compared to standard interviews
• CONCLUSION OF KOHNKENS STUDY?

  indicates CI is effective at improving the accuracy of EWT and there are real practical benefits to the police from using CI
• OTHER FINDINGS OF KOHNKENS STUDY?

  61% increase in incorrect information with CI compared to SI, which may waste time as detectives will have to distinguish between a vast amount of accurate and inaccurate information
• RESEARCH METHOD OF MELLO AND FISHERS EXPERIMENT?

  laboratory experiment
• HOW MANY PARTICIPANTS WERE THERE IN MELLO AND FISHERS EXPERIMENT?

  50
• TWO CONDITIONS OF MELLO AND FISHERS EXPERIMENT?

  30 older (average age of 72), 20 younger (average age of 22)
• WHAT OCCURED IN MELLO AND FISHERS EXPERIMENT?

  shown film of a crime and interviewed in either a SI/CI
• FINDINGS OF MELLO AND FISHERS EXPERIMENT?

  CI generated more accurate information than SI for both groups, but effect was greater for older participants
• CONCLUSION OF MELLO AND FISHERS EXPERIMENT?

  CI is an effective method for improving accuracy of EWT especially in older witnesses
• REAL WORLD APPLICATION OF MELLO AND FISHERS EXPERIMENT?

  • negative stereotypes of older people struggling to remember
  • older witnesses can be overly cautious when reporting information
  • CI can overcome this problem
  • give older witnesses confidence in reporting accurate testimonies
• STRENGTHS OF COGNITIVE INTERVIEWS?

  research support
• WEAKNESSES OF COGNITIVE INTERVIEWS?

  • time consuming
  • requires specialist training (expensive)
  • overcomplicated
  • complexity
• WHO PROVIDED EVIDENCE TO SUGGEST THE COGNITIVE INTERVIEW IS TOO OVERCOMPLICATED?

  Milne and Bull
• WHAT DID MILNE AND BULL DISCOVER?

  some elements of CI more useful than others, and not all are required to improve EWT
• WHAT DOES THE COMPLEXITY OF CI CAUSE?

  difficult to use on children as their cognitive function is not as sophisticated
• WHO PROVIDED EVIDENCE THAT CI IS STILL USEFUL ON CHILDREN?

  Holliday
• WHAT DID HOLLIDAY DISCOVER?

  CI gained more accurate details from children aged 5 to 9 who had witnessed a video of a birthday party than a SI