Cognitive interview (CI)

Cognitive interview

A method of interviewing eyewitness to help them retrieve more accurate memories

• uses 4 main techniques

4 main techniques on cognitive interview

1. Report everything

2. Reinstate the context

3. Reverse the order

4. Change perspective

Who created the cognitive interview?

Fisher and Geiselman 1992

Findings of cognitive interview

• claimed that EWT could be improved if he police used techniques based on cognitive insight into how memory works

• the interviewer establishes rapport with the interviewee by using a friendly an relaxed manner

1. Report everything

• Witnesses are encouraged to include every detail of an event even if it seems irrelevant or the witness is not confident about it.

Trivial details could be important and may trigger other memories.

2. Reinstate the context

The witness should return to the original crime sene I their mind and imagine the environment and their emotions

• This is based on the concept of context dependant forgetting

• Cues from context may prompt recall

3. Reverse the order

Events are recalled in a different order

• This prevents people basing their descriptions on their expectations of how the event must have happened rather than the actual event

• It also prevents dishonesty (it is harder to produce and untruthful account if it has been reversed)

4. Change the perspective

Witness recall the incident from other peoples perspectives, ho could it appear from another persons witness

• This prevents the influence of expectations and schema on recall

Schema

• The schema generates expectations of what have happened and it is the schema that is recalled rather than what actually happened.

Enhanced cognitive interview - Fisher et al

developed the ECI which includes a focus on the social dynamics of the interaction

The ECI also includes ideas such as reducing eyewitness anxiety, minimising distractions, getting the witness to speaj slowly and asking open ended questions

Strength of cognitive interview

Research support for the effectiveness of the CI

• A meta analysis by Kohnken et al combined data from 55 studies comparing CI and ECI with the standard police interview

• The CI produced an average of 41% more correct information than the standard police interview. Only 4 studies showed no difference.

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• This shows that the CI is effective in helping the witness recall information that is available but not accessible.

Limitation of the cognitive interview

Some elements of CI are not useful

• Psychologists found in 2002 that each individual technique of the CI alone produced more information than the standard police interview

• But they also found combining everything and reinstate context produced better recall than any other technique individually or combined.

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