Cognitve Interview

Question 1

What are the four techniques of the cognitive interview

Answer 1

• reinstate the context
• change of narrative order
• change perspective
• report everything

Question 2

Reinstate the context explained

Answer 2

go help the interviewees to go back in their mind to the context in which they encoded the memory. Eg how were they feeling emotionally at the time, way where they doing, what were they wearing.

Question 3

Change of narrative order explained

Answer 3

changing the order in which events are recalled can be very beneficial as it ensures that details are not skipped an gaps can be filled. Eg the witness might be asked to repeat their account in reverse order

Question 4

Change perspective explained

Answer 4

You are asked to describe the incident from the POV of the other people who were present at the time. Eg recall from the offenders POV

Question 5

Report everything explained

Answer 5

you are required to report back any information about the event that you can remember. Even if it does not seem to be relevant or have a bearing on the crime.

Question 6

AO3 supporting evidence

Answer 6

Kohnken used meta analysis to combine data from 55 studies comparing the CI with the standard police interview. The CI gave an Avarage 41% increase in accurate information compared to the control. Shows CI is effective to help witnesses recall info that is stored in memory but not immediately accessible. BUT Kohnken also found an increase in the amount of inncaurte info recalled. Means CI needs to be treated with caution

Question 7

AO3 elements

Answer 7

One limitation of the original Cl is that not all of its elements are equally effective or useful.
Rebecca Milne and Ray Bull (2002) found that each of the four techniques used alone produced more information than the standard police interview. But they also found that using a combination of report everything and reinstate the context produced better recall than any of the other elements or combination of them. This confirmed police officers’ suspicions that some aspects of the Cl are more useful than others.
This casts some doubt on the credibility of the overall cognitive interview.

Question 8

AO3 time

Answer 8

One limitation is that police officers may be reluctant to use the CI because it takes more time and training (which Will cost money) than a standard police interview. Suggests it’s not a realistic method to be always used. FUTHERMORE children are egocentric meaning they can only see the world from their POV so they Ci wouldn’t work on them. So CI not always appropriate