Psychology: Memory - Eyewitness testimony: The cognitive interview

The cognitive interview (CI)

• Fisher and Geiselman (1992) claimed EWT could be improved if police used techniques based on psychological insights as to how memory works

• Based on cognitive psychology

• Has four main techniques to establish understanding

1. Report everything

Witnesses should say everything they remember, even if the detail seems irrelevant as it could actually mean something more

2. Reinstate the context

Witness should return to the original environment in their minds to help them recall better and also return to their emotions at the time, this is based on context-dependant forgetting

3. Reverse the order

Recalling the events in a different order prevents people basing descriptions on expectations of how they must say it rather than what actually happened. It also prevents dishonesty as humans tend to exxagerate.

4. Change the perspective

Recalling the event from another perspective prevents influence of expectations and schema on recall.

Enhanced cognitive interview (ECI)

• Fisher et al. (1987) developed additional elements

• Includes a focus on the social dynamics of the interaction e.g. knowing when to stop and start eye contact

• Includes ideas to reduce anxiety, minimising distractions, getting witness to talk slow, asking open-ended questions

Strength - Research support for effectiveness of CI

• Meta-analysis by Kohnken et al. combined data from 55 studies comparing CI to standard police interviews

• CI produced average of 41% more correct info. Only 4 showed no difference

• Shows that Ci is effective in helping witnesses recall info

• However Kohnken also found increases in amount of inaccurate info especially in ECI

• Therefore police officers need to be careful about how they treat EW evidence from CIs

Limitation - some elements of the CI are more useful than others

• Milne and Bull found that each individual technique of the CI alone produced more info than standard police interview

• But also found that combining technique 1 and 2 produced better recall than any other technique individually or combined

• Casts doubt on the credibility of the overall CI because some of the techniques are less effective than others

Limitation - CI is time-consuming

• Police reluctant to use because it takes more time than standard police interview

• Ci also requires special training that forces don’t have the resources to do

• Suggests that the complete CI isn’t realistic for police officers to use and it might be better to focus on just a few elements