COGNITIVE INTERVIEW

• What is the cognitive interview based on?

  psychological understanding of memory
• What are the four techniques of the cognitive interview?

  Report Everything

  Reinstate the Context

  Reverse the Order

  Change Perspective
• What does report everything involve?

  witnesses are encouraged to include every detail, even if it seems irrelevant or if they are not confident. These details could be important and may trigger other memories
• what is reinstate the context?

  returns to the original crime scene in their mind and imagines the environment and their emotions
• what is reinstate the context based upon?

  context dependent forgetting, cues may trigger recall
• what is reverse the order?

  recalling events in a different order, prevents people from basing their descriptions on their expectations of the event rather than the actual event. prevents dishonesty
• what is change perspective?


  recall the incident from others perspective, prevents the influence of expectations and schema on recall
• what is the enhanced cognitive interview?

  focusing on the social dynamics of the interaction eg eye contact.

  asking open ended questions, getting witness to speak slowly, minimising distractions to reduce anxiety
• advantages of cognitive interview?

  designed to increase quantity without compromising quality

  Research supporting effectiveness - Kohnken on average the CI generates 34% more information
• disadvantages of cognitive interview?

  very time consuming and requires special training

  does not guarantee accuracy - research found CI led to an 81% increase in correct information but 61% increase in incorrect information

  Different police forces use different components eg Thames Valley don’t use ”changing perspectives” which makes comparisons difficult