Cognitive interviews

• Stages of cognitive interview

  • Report everything
  • Reinstate context
  • Reverse order
  • Change perspective
• Why are eyewitnesses asked to report everything?

  • acts as a cue for other information
  • seemingly "irrelevant" information could aid the investigation
• Why are eyewitnesses asked to reinstate the context?

  Prevents cue-dependent forgetting as external and internal cues are present when context is reinstated
• Why are eyewitnesses asked to reverse the order of events?

  • stops schema from altering memories
  • catches out liars as it is harder to make a coherent story in a different order when it happened
• Why are eyewitnesses asked to change perspectives?

  • stops schema from altering memories
• What extra steps were included in the enhanced cognitive interview?

  • alter eye contact depending on situation
  • minimise distractions
  • use open-ended questions
  • make eyewitness speak slowly
• What is the purpose of the enhanced cognitive interview?

  focuses on social dynamic of interaction to reduce anxiety and build rapport so that the eyewitness is not intimidated and has better recall of the event
• Cognitive interview evaluation

  + Kohnken et al. meta analysis:

  • 41% increase in accurate information compared with standard interview
  • COUNTERPOINT: also found increase in inaccurate information: suggests only increases amount of information given

  + Milne et al. :

  • all aspects used increase amount of information given by eyewitness
  • found that report everything and reinstate context worked best

  - time consuming: takes more training for police officers and spends more time interviewing each eyewitness, which puts public at risk by not capturing offender quick enough