Psych: Cognitive Interview

• Cognitive Interview


  A procedure designed for use in police interviews that involve a witness
• Cognitive Interview


  • Characterised by 4 distinct components
  • Much of this is based on the Encoding Specificity Principle - cues
• Cognitive Interview


  1. Recreate the content of the original incident

  2. Report every detail

  3. Recall the event in different orders

  4. Change perspectives
• Cognitive Interview requires specific training that police forces don't have time to invest in
• Cognitive Interview techniques are not all appropriate for kids (change perspective)
• Not all aspects of the Cognitive Interview are useful (Memon & Bull, 2002)
• The amount of inaccurate information increased (Chöhten, 1999)
• Cognitive interview


  A method of interviewing eyewitnesses, which is thought to be particularly effective in increasing the rates of accurate recall
• Stages of the cognitive interview

  1. Report everything

  2. Reinstate the context

  3. Change the perspective

  4. Reverse the order
• Report everything


  Even seemingly insignificant details may be important or trigger the recall of larger events, by acting as a 'cue'
• Reinstate the context


  Recalling the weather, location and mood of the day prevents context-dependent forgetting by reminding the eyewitness of their external cues at the time
• Change the perspective


  Recalling events from the perspective of the victim or persecutor prevents the eyewitness' account from being affected by their own schemas or pre-conceived perceptions of how the crime, in their opinion, happened
• Reverse the order


  Recalling events in a different order, other than chronological, reduces the ability of the eyewitness to lie (as it is simply difficult) and also reduces the impact of schemas on their perception of events
• Enhanced cognitive interview


  Focuses on the social dynamics of the interactions between the eyewitness and the interviewer e.g. knowing when to make eye contact and when to diminish it (increases the likelihood that the eyewitness will be calm and comfortable) as well as increasing rapport with the eyewitness (increases the likelihood that they will answer truthfully about personal or sensitive topics)
• The cognitive interview may have little practical value, due to being too time-consuming and requiring specialist skills
• Only a few hours of training, as is possible for many police forces, is insufficient to adequately train interviewers, especially for the enhanced social understanding required for the enhanced cognitive interview
• This lack of time for training may explain why some forces may be unimpressed with the CI
• The CI does not only increase the recall of correct information by 81%, but also increases the recall of incorrect information by 61%
• This appears counterintuitive when considering that the chief aim of the CI was to improve the accuracy of recall of correct information and so increase the reliability of eyewitness testimonies as a whole
• The entire CI need not be used to reap the benefits, as context reinstatement and report everything produced the greatest accuracy of recall of correct information as compared to any other combinations of steps
• Even gradual changes from the standard police interview can increase the accuracy and reliability of eyewitness testimony