Cognitive interview

Question 1

What is the cognitive interview?

Answer 1

Technique for interviewing that encourages eye witnesses to recreate the original context in order to increase the accessibility of stored information.

Question 2

What did Fisher and Geiselman do to improve the accuracy of EWT?

Answer 2

Reviewed memory literature - people remember better when they are given retrieval cues.

Question 3

What are the 4 steps to the cognitive interview?

Answer 3

1) Report everything
2) Reinstate the context
3) Reverse the order
4) Changing the perspective

Question 4

What is a strength of the cognitive interview? - Evidence of effectiveness

Answer 4

• Kohnken et al: Meta-analysis of 55 studies.
• CI gave 41% increase in accurate information.
• Shows it’s effective in recalling details that are available but not accessible.

Question 5

What is a limitation of the CI? - Some elements of it are more useful than others

Answer 5

• Milne and Bull (2002)
• The 4 elements produced more information than the standard police interview.
• Report everything and Reinstate the context gave better results than any other element.
• Shows some elements are better than others.
• Questions credibility.

Question 6

What is a limitation of the CI? - Time consuming

Answer 6

• Takes longer to complete: building rapport with witnesses.
• More training needed: many forces unable to provide more than a few hours.
• Complete CI may be unrealistic.