2.9 Cognitive Interview

2.9 Cognitive Interview

1. Cognitive interview is a police technique for interviewing witnesses to a crime which encourages them to recreate the original context in order to increase the accessibility of stored information. 4 main techniques used

2. 1. Report everything

   • Witnesses encouraged to include every single detail of the event no matter its relevance.

3. 2. Reinstate the context

   • Witness should return to the original crime scene in their mind and imagine the environment and their emotions. Related to context dependent forgetting.

4. 3. Reverse the order

   • Events should be recalled in a different order than the original sequence to prevent people reporting their expectations of how the event must have happened.

5. 4. Change perspective

   • Witness should recall the incident from another person's perspective. This is done to disrupt the effect of expectations and schema on recall.

6. Enhanced Cognitive Interview

   • Fisher et al (1987)
     • ECI has additional features such as encouraging the witness to relax and speak slowly, offering comments to help clarify witness statements, and adapting questions.

7. Evaluation

   • Strengths:
     • Support for its effectiveness. A meta analysis found that the CI gave an average 41% increase in information accuracy compared to the standard interview. Shows that the CI is an effective technique in helping witnesses to recall information that is stored in memory but not directly accessible.
   • Weaknesses:
     • CI is time consuming. It is both time consuming to conduct and to train police officers to use this method. Meaning it is unlikely that the proper version of the CI is used.
     • Some elements may be more useful than others. Found that a combination of report everything and reinstate the context produced the best recall overall. Casts some doubt on the credibility of the overall cognitive interview.