Cognitive Interview

Cognitive Interview

1. The cognitive interview was based largely on the work of Elizabeth Loftus and other psychologists following theoretical work into memory and eyewitness testimony. Forensic psychologists combined their work to produce a more effective way of questioning witnesses shown to produce a more reliable recall of events.

   • Research has found the Cognitive Interview to be highly effective for example meta-analysis of 53 studies found the CI could elicit 34% more detail than the standard interview. Fisher et al also found 63% more information was obtained by the detectives trained in the CI.

2. 1. REPORT EVERYTHING: it encourages witnesses to report all detail that they can remember regardless of how trivial it may appear 2. CONTEXT REINSTATEMENT: It tries to recreate the scene of the incident in the mind of the witness, this includes the sights, sounds, smells but also crucially it attempts to model the emotions and feelings of the person at the time. This is based on the concept of cue memory.

   • WHY THIS MIGHT WORK: Points one and two are designed to reinstate context, they get the witness to mentally revisit the scene and mentally reconstruct the incident in their mind. Evidence suggests that we are more likely to recall information if it is in a similar context to when it was first experienced or learnt, so putting ourselves in a similar state of mind should aid recall.

3. 3. RECALL IN REVERSE ORDER: It encourages witnesses to recall events in different orders for example, starting halfway through a sequence of events and then working backwards. 4. RECALL FROM A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE: it encourages witnesses to view the scene as others present may have seen it, for example, the victim or the perpetrator may have seen the incident.

   • WHY THIS MIGHT WORK: Points three and four are based on the idea that once memory has been stored there is more than one way of getting at it or retrieving it. If one route fails then try another, so if working through from start to finish hasn't worked try to access the memory by sneaking up on it from a different angle.