Cognitive Interview Flashcards
What are the 4 stages of the cognitive interview?
- Free Recall
- Context Reinstatement
- Change in recall order
- Change in perspective
What is ‘Free Recall’, the first stage of the Cognitive Interview? (3 points)
Witnesses are encouraged to report everything that they remember regardless of whether or not they think it’s relevant
Leading and closed questions are avoided
What is ‘Context Reinstatement’, the second stage of the cognitive interview? (2 points)
Witnesses are encouraged to recall details of the scene, including:
+ The weather that day
+ Their mood & thoughts at the time
+ Who was there
+ What they were wearing
What feature of Tulving’s theory has been used in the Cognitive Interview? (2 points)
Tulving states that episodic memory is dependent on context and cues to aid recall and stop forgetting
One cue can trigger the next part of the episodic memory, thus aiding the recall of the event
What is ‘Change in recall order’, the third stage of the cognitive interview? (2 points)
Witnesses are asked to recall the event from the end, or from the middle
It is assumed that varying the order will reduce the eyewitness’s reliance on prior knowledge, expectations or schemas to recall what happened
What is ‘Change in perspective’, the fourth stage of the cognitive interview? (2 points)
Witnesses are asked to recall what other people may have seen
It is assumed that this reduces how much prior knowledge, expectations or schemas a person uses to recall events
What feature of Bartlett’s theory has been used in the Cognitive Interview? (2 points)
Bartlett states that episodic memories rely on semantic schemas to recall events that have happened
Therefore, to gain more accurate EWTs, police should use reverse order and change perspective to avoid the use of schemas (prior knowledge and expectations)
What are the supporting and refuting arguments for the Cognitive Interview?
Supporting:
Loftus & Palmer
Refuting:
Kebbell and Wagstaff (1999)
Milne and Bull (2002)
Both: Kohnken et al (1999)
How does Loftus and Palmer’s research support the cognitive interview? (5 points)
Supports the CI’s assumption that memories are actively reconstructed to fit schemas
Participants watched videos of different traffic accidents and they were asked a critical question: ‘How fast were the cars going when they contacted/bumped/hit/collid-ed/smashed each other?’
Average perceived speed:
‘Smashed’ - 40.5 mph
‘Contacted’ - 31.8 mph
The expectation of the incident induced by the verb had transformed the episodic memory - supports the CI feature of Free Recall that avoids using leading questions
However, the study lacks mundane realism - participants witnessed videos, which lack the emotional reaction a true crime would
How does Kohnken et al (1999) support the cognitive interview? (2 points)
They conducted a meta-analysis and found CIs collect more correct information compared with Standard Interview techniques
This supports the notion that CI should be used to collect EWT
How does Kohnken et al (1999) refute the cognitive interview? (3 points)
However, they also found an increase in incorrect information recalled during the CI - this could be due to the overall increased quantity of information recalled when it is used
Further analysis showed that the studies within the meta-analysis that used a staged offence elicited more accurate recall compared to studies which assessed video recall
Therefore, the police should be cautious with the CI - quantity of EWT recall doesn’t necessarily guarantee the quality of EWT
How does Kebbell and Wagstaff (1999) refute the cognitive interview? (4 points)
Found police officers report the CI requires more time than is often available
They prefer to use deliberate strategies aimed at limiting an eyewitness report to the minimum amount of information that is necessary
This is more pragmatic, especially at chaotic and busy initial crime scene investigations, when getting many details as quickly as possible is required
Also, CIs require special training - many forces have not been able to provide more than a few hours for this due to austerity measures
How does Milne and Bull (2002) refute the cognitive interview? (5 points)
Found that the CI’s effectiveness is dependent on some of its elements more than other elements
They interviewed undergraduate students and children and found the accuracy of recall across each of the four individual components alone was broadly similar
However, when participants were interviewed using a combination of ‘Free Recall’ and ‘Context Reinstatement’, their recall was significantly more accurate than in all other combinations
Suggests that the CI should perhaps only include the components which refer to Tulving’s LTM theory - rather than spending time and resources preventing memory reconstruction using schemas, police should focus on accessing episodic memories using cues
This could increase the application due to time efficiency which police report as an issue
