The Cognitive Interview

The Cognitive Interview

1. Problems with the Standard Interview

   • Fisher et al (1987) looked at police interviewing in Florida and found 4 main problems.
   • Interruption = during the 3 open ended questions they were interrupted 11 times, typically after 7.5 seconds. This can cause the person to lose focus on what they were saying which will interfere with recall and also if they think they are going to be interrupted then they may shorten responses.
   • Excessive use of question answer format = most questions are closed and don't given opportunity to elaborate. If witness is passive makes it harder to retrieve details and in this case if a question is forgotten then there is no information on that question.
   • Inappropriate sequencing of questions = switching from one memory domain to another (auditory to visual) may impair eyewitness performance. Other problems also with general knowledge questions that don't help the investigation.
     • Fisher & Price-Rouch (1986) 19% decrease in performance when altering retrieval.
   • Failure to establish rapport = interviewers didn't establish rapport so witnesses felt less inclined to reveal sensitive information. Judgemental comments also made.
   • Other problems = negative phrasing, leading questions, inappropriate language and auditory clues underemphasised.
   • George (1991) replicated in the UK and found similar problems.

2. The Enhanced Cognitive Interview

   • Problems of standard interviews led to enhance cognitive interview which still includes context reinstatement, report everything, recall in different orders and change perspectives.
   • Build rapport with witnesses.
   • Use witness compatible questioning.
   • Focus witnesses attention by encouraging to concentrate.
   • Tell them it's okay to say "I don't know" or to ask to repeat the question.

3. Cognitive Interview Experiments - Adults.

   • Geiselman et al (1984) CI was better than SI with no increase in errors.
   • Milne, Clare & Bull (1999) CI was better for adults with learning difficulties than SI with no increase in errors.
   • Dornburg & McDaniel (2006) CI was better for the elderly than SI with no increase in errors.

4. Cognitive Interview Experiments - Children.

   • Studies look at different ages but all show CI to be better with no increase in errors.
   • Geiselman & Padilla (1988) 7-12 year olds.
   • Dietz & Thomson (1993) 6 and 11 year olds.
   • Verkampt & Ginet (2010) 4-9 year olds.

5. Field Studies for the Cognitive Interview

   • Difficult to do field studies.
   • Fisher, Geiselman & Amador (1989) 16 robbery division detectives in USA. Those who were trained in CI gained 63% more information from witnesses.
   • George (1991) 28 police officers trained to use CI and gained 14% more information than the SI did. Only used context reinstatement, the rest were hardly used. CI officers asked fewer questions but were more likely to be open.