THE COGNITIVE INTERVIEW

THE COGNITIVE INTERVIEW

1. In 1970s police received little training in interviewing people - in 1980s Geiselman & Fisher designed set of procedures that would enhance quality of evidence given by witnesses

   • Geiselman argued that successful technique for improving testimony should have 3 characteristics: 1) it should reliably increase accurate recall, 2) when technique is used, confidence should be related to accuracy, 3) should have practical, applied value; can train police officers in it

2. Forensic Interviewing: ACCURACY

   • Increase in accurate recall is increase in correct responses without a disproportionate increase in errors.

3. Geiselman & Fisher's approach included 4 features: reviewing relevant cognitive literature, looking at real life forensic interviewing conditions, conducting experiments, & reporting results back to police & other professionals

4. Cognitive LIterature

   • Context Reinstatement
     • Based on Tulving & Thomson's (1973) encoding specificity principle - items are encoded together with features of the context within which they occurred - memory can be improved by physically reinstating context - Teasdale & Fogerty found that emote or mood cues were also useful
   • Mental Context Reinstatement
     • Malpass & Devine (1981) devised 'guided imagery' procedure - in 1980s some investigators found that physical reinstatement of context had little effect on face recognition- but others have found it to be successful (Cutler, Hammond, Wagstaff & Cole, Ohman, Eriksson & Granhag etc.)
   • Report Everything
     • Memory stored as a series of coded representations, with numerous interconnected codes that may trigger cues (Bower, 1967) - in practice, witnesses may hold back info they believe to be irrelevant - to overcome this, Geiselman suggested that witnesses should report everything and not leave anything out
   • Recall in Different Orders
     • Episodic memories can be stored in the form of scripts that fit preconceptions about what should happen in a particular situation - they limit recall by filtering out info inconsistent with the script and fill in gaps with errors (Schank & Abelson, 1977) - can be asked to recall in reverse order (Whitten & Leonard, 1981)
   • Change Perspectives
     • Anderson & Pitchers (1978) - ppts could remember additional details of a narrative if they had to recall it from the perspective of another person - Geiselman & Fisher added it, however it is often based on a change of spatial perspective (think of it where she was standing) - not how it was originally conceived

5. Elements went on to form GEISELMAN AND FISHER'S original cognitive interview - 4 mnemonics

   • Reinstate the context, report everything, recall in different orders & change perspectives