Cognitive Interview

Cognitive interview

A method of interviewing eyewitnesses to help them retrieve more accurate memories. Uses 4 main techniques, all based on psychological knowledge techniques

Report everything

Witnesses are encouraged to include every single detail of the event even if it is irrelevant or the witness isn’t confident. Trivial details may be important and may trigger other memories

Reinstate the context

Witness should return to the original crime scene in their mind and imagine the environment and their emotions.

Related to context dependent forgetting

Reverse the order

Events should be a recalled in a different order from the original sequence.

Prevents people reporting their expectations of how the event must have happened rather than reporting the actual events.

Prevents dishonesty

Change perspective

Recalling the incident from other people’s perspectives.

Done to disrupt the effect of expectations and also the effect of schema on recall.

The schema you have for a particular setting generates expectations of what would have happened and it is the schema that is recalled rather than what actually happened

Enhanced Cognitive Interview

Developed by Fisher. Additional elements of the CI to focus on the social dynamics of the interaction.

The interviewer needs to know when to establish eye contact and when to relinquish it. The enhanced CI also includes ideas such as reducing eyewitness anxiety, minimising distractions, getting the witness to speak slowly and asking open-ended questions

Self-Administered Interview

A report that a witness can complete independently with instructions to guide them through the process.

Follows the same principles as the CI.

Can be given to multiple witnesses at the same time, straight after the incident occurs.

S Kohnken

Research support

Meta-analysis of 55 studies comparing CI with standard police interview. The CI gave an average 41% increase in the amount of accurate information compared with the standard police interview.

CI is an effective technique in helping witnesses to recall information that is available but not immediately accessible.

W Kohnken

Increase in the amount of inaccurate information recalled by participants. ECI produced more incorrect details than the CI.

CIs favour quantity over quality of EWT.

This means that police officers should treat eyewitness evidence from CIs/ECIs with caution

W Milne and Bull

Not all elements are equally effective or useful.

Each of the 4 techniques used alone produced more information than the standard police interview. Using a combination of “report everything” and “reinstate the context” produced better recall than any of the other elements or combinations.

Some doubt on the credibility of the overall interview

S Development

Led to the development of new interviewing techniques.

An objection to the CI is that it is complicated to administer and takes up time that police may not have.

It has led to the development of the self-administered interview.

Suggests that the CI can be adapted to reduce the burden on police forces

S Variations

Police forces have taken a ‘pick and mix’ approach to the various techniques used in the CI. So it is hard to compare the effectiveness of different approaches in research studies.

However, this pick and mix approach is more flexible. Police forces can develop their own approach to what they think works best for them