Cognitive interview

Cognitive interview

Four parts

Context reinstatement = recreate internal state of witness and environmental context of the crime

Report everything = tell everything they remember even if it seems irrelevant this could trigger other memories

Change perspective = provide details from a different perspective or viewpoint

Reverse order = give detail but in the wrong order

Evidence 1 = Gieselman (s)

-Showed participants video of stimulated crime

most info was retrieved when using the cognitive interview

Evidence 2 = Fisher et al (s)

Worked with Miami police, 46% more info was gained from cognitive interview and over 90% of it was accurate

Evidence 3 = Kohken et al (s)

Meta-analysis of 53 studies, cognitive interview gets 34% more correct info

Evidence 4 = Geiselman

Less useful with children especially under 6 because they don't understand the instructions

Additional things to note:

You should minimise distractions, ask open questions, pause after each response and adapt language to suit the witness