Memon and Higham

• 4 retrieval cues - Context reinstatement


  Research suggests that context reinstatement can obtain as much information on its own as the complete cognitive interview procedure by asking witnesses to form an image of the environment what they sensed and how they felt at the time
• 4 retrieval cues - Report everything


  Asking a witness to recall everything may lead to more information being gathered as witnesses do not filter out any information they think is irrelevant or which they are not sure about
• 4 retrieval cues - Recalling from a different perspective


  Aim of the technique is to use different pathways to retrieving the information such as confusing the witness or them potentially fabricating details about the event by trying to imagine what someone else would have seen. Does not seem to increase the amount of info recalled compared to other techniques.
• 4 retrieval cues - recalling in a different order


  Mixed results found. One study found more info was produced when witnesses were asked to recall when the event in reverse order after an initial attempt in forwards rather than two attempts to recall everything from the beginning
• CI vs other interview techniques

  • Suggests there are difficulties with comparing against standard interviews because there is not a standard method used by officers
  • Issues with guided memory interviews are it does not establish a rapport with the witness which is why the structured interview may be the best comparison
• Memory issues

  • Most studies have used fairly simplistic measures of recall such as the percentage of correct interview statements or the absolute number of correct or incorrect statements made. This does not take account of the amount of unreported information or how important that information reported (as opposed to just accuracy)
  • The standard interview tends to encourage witness to give info if its 100% accurate and that they withhold information they are not sue about whereas the instruction to report everything may elicit more information
• The affect of training

  • Training given to police officers in using the CI is inconsistent and the affairs may be resistant to the training
  • The cognitive interview and enhanced cognitive interview place more demands on the interview and can lead to more interviewer errors than the structured interview
  • The small number of hours of training means interviewers do not use the CCI techniques effectively
• The effect of training pt 2

  • Attitude, motivation and prior experience of using the CI are factors that could influence the effectiveness of techniques and that some interviewers are naturally better than others
  • They suggested that more in-depth training should be given in how to use the CI techniques (a 2 day course rather than 4 hours)