A method of interviewing eye-witnesses to help them produce more accurate recall of a crime scene using techniques based on psychological research
Eye-witness accounts are often unreliable and easily distorted by the way questions are asked
The police have developed new methods of interviewing which try to address some of these issues
Cognitive interview
Designed to improve witness' recall by using research into how memory works
Cognitive interview
Developed by Fisher & Geiselman (1992)
Includes 4 main techniques: Reporteverything, Reinstate the context, Reverse the order, Changeperspective
Report everything
The witness is encouraged to report every single detail of the event, even information that might seem unimportant or irrelevant
Reinstate the context
The witness is asked to imagine allaspects of the crime scene, such as what the weather was like, the time of day and how they felt during the event
Reverse the order
The witness describes what they saw in a differentchronologicalorder, eg from the end to the beginning, or from a midway point in the account
Change perspective
The witness is asked to 'tell the story' of the event from someone else's perspective, such as a differentwitness or someone who was directlyinvolved
Enhanced cognitive interview
Pays more attention to aspects of the interaction between interviewer and interviewee, such as maintaining eye contact, reducing distractions, asking open-ended questions, and getting the witness to speak slowly
The first 2 techniques in the cognitive interview (report everything and reinstate the context) are based on the encoding specificity principle, first proposed by Tulving (1983)
The other 2 cognitive interview techniques (reverse the order and change perspective) are related to the concept of a schema
Encoding specificity principle
The idea that when a memory for an event is first encoded, other importantcues are stored alongside it, such as details of the context and the person's emotionalstate
Schema
Having a schema for certain events, eg a bank robbery, means that our memory for events may be based more on what we expected to happen, rather than what actually did happen
The cognitive interview techniques make it harder for witnesses to rely on schema when recounting the sequence of events, and also makes it harder to lie
Cognitive interview
Evidence suggests it is more effective than standard interview techniques
Geiselman et al (1985) showed the average number of correctly recalled facts was higher for the cognitive interview compared to standard interview and hypnosis
A weakness of the cognitive interview is that it may also lead to an increase in the recall of inaccurate information
Kohnkenetal (1999) found an 85% increase in correct information using cognitive interview techniques but this was offset by a 61% increase in incorrect information, compared with standard interview methods
The real strength of the cognitive interview is that more information is produced overall but a lot of it may be inaccurate
Cognitive interview
Milne and Bull (2002) observed that a combination of 'reporteverything' and 'context reinstatement' was most effective in eliciting accurate information
The cognitive interview is time-consuming and the police can use abridged versions in some circumstances
Kohnkenetal (1999) meta-analysis found a 34% increase in correct information generated using the cognitive interview compared with standard interview techniques, but also an increase in incorrect information
The studies in the Kohnken et al (1999) meta-analysis which used a staged offence with actors elicited more accurate recall compared to those studies which assessed recall of a video
Milne and Bull (2002) found that recall was significantly more correct when participants were interviewed using a combination of the 'reporteverything' and 'mentalreinstatement' components of the cognitive interview, compared to the other components used individually or a control group
Kebbell and Wagstaff (1999) found that police officers report the cognitive interview requires more time than is often available, and they prefer to use strategies to limit an eyewitness' report to the minimum amount of information necessary
Loftus and Palmer's research into the effect of misleading questions on the accuracy of eyewitness testimony supports the cognitive interview's assumption that memories are actively reconstructed to fit individual's schemas and expectations