Cognitive Interview

• Cognitive Interview

  Developed in 1958 in response to criticism of the traditional police interview.

  
  

  It consists of 4 components that encourage the witness to talk more and reduce the amount of specific questions the police ask.
• Limitations with standard interview questioning techniques

  The standard interview questioning technique often led to regular jumps between memory modalities (such as describing physical appearances and recalling what they head being said)

  
  

  The police would often ask questions in a sequence which wasn't synchronised with the events that had taken place.

  
  

  Their question formatting didn't reflect how memories are encoded, stored, and retrieved in the LTM.
• Geiselman (1985) - what did he create?


  Geiselman as a result of these criticism, integrated effective memory recall techniques into a new questioning methodology - the cognitive interview - to achieve more detailed and accurate eyewitness testimonies.
• Fisher et al- enhanced cognitive interview


  Fisher et al improved the cognitive interview with an additional focus on the social dynamics of the interaction - to build a rapport with the eyewitness

  
  

  Examples of the features of ECI

  - getting the witness to speak slowly

  - knowing when to establish a nd relinquish eye contact
• 1st component

  Report everything

  
  

  Memories are interconnected with one another. Recalling a small, insignificant detail may cue memory of an important item.

  Little details can be pieced together from a number of witnesses to build a more complete version of events.
• 3rd component

  Change the order

  
  

  Recalling events backwards helps a person focus on the actual details they saw rather than following a pre-existing set of ideas about the situation or location where the event took place.

  
  

  It stops the witness running a 'script' of the incident as they have to think harder about the order in which events occurs
• A03 - supporting evidence (E)

  Geiselman - a sample of 89 students watched a video of a stimulated crime.

  
  

  2 days later, they were interviewed using the standard police interview or the cognitive interview.

  
  

  The students who were interviewed using the cognitive interview recalled significantly more correct information than those interviewed using the standard interview.

  
  

  The number of errors (incorrect items recalled) by both groups was similar.
• Fisher et al


  16 experienced detectives recorded a selection of their interviews using a standard interviewing technique.

  
  

  The detectives were then divided into 2 groups. One group was trained to use the cognitive interview.

  
  

  After training, their subsequent interviews were recorded and analysed.

  
  

  The trained detectives elicited 46% more information after their cognitive interview training in comparison with the control group - where possible to confirm, over 90% was found to be accurate.

  
  

  These findings support those of Geiselman, using real police interviews - support the effectiveness of the cognitive interview technique.
• A03 - time consuming (E)

  Kebbell and Wagstaff found that many police officers didn't use the CI technique in less serious crimes as they didn't have the time.