Cognitive Interview (CI)

Cognitive Interview (CI)

1. Four distinct components

   • Report everything
     • Report every little detail of the event, even if it seems irrelevant
   • Mental reinstatement of original context
     • Mentally recreate the environment and conacts of the original event
   • Changing the order
     • Alternate ways through the timeline of the event, for example starting at the end and working backwards
   • Changing the perspective
     • Recall the incident from multiple perspectives, for examples how it would appear to a different witness at the time
   • Report everything & Mental reinstatement are based on the assumption that if there is consistency between the actual enviroments and reinstated one it would improve recall
     • Changing the order and changing the perspective is based on the assumption that information can be achieved from different 'routes'

2. Evaluation

   • Köhnken et al. (1999)
     • Meta analysis of 53 studies
       • 34% increase in the correct information found compared to standard interview techniques
   • Milne and Bull (2002)
     • Recall was the same for every component when used alone
       • Combination of report everything and mental reinstatement gave the highest recall compared to the other components
   • Kebbell and Wagstaff (1996)
     • CI is not one procedure but a collection of related techniques
       • Thames Valley is trained in almost the same technique as Fisher and Geiselman first described but they do not use changing perspective
         • Other police forces only use report everything and reinstate context
     • Often takes more time than is available
   • The enhanced CI
     • Has additional cognitive techniques
       • Quantity and quality of training for interviewers has become a critical issue
     • Stein and Memon
       • This has significantly improved the accuracy of eye witness testimony

3. Proposed by Fisher and Geiselman in 1992

4. Real life application

   • Stein and Memon (2006)
     • Tested the effectiveness of CI in Brazil
       • Current model of police questioning is interrogative, torture and other forms of ill treatment
     • CI increased the amount of correct information obtained from the witnesses
       • CI was far superior than the previous methods used by the police