memory: EWT > the cognitive interview Flashcards
What did Fisher and Geiselman (1992) study?
Real life interviews by detective officers in Florida over a 4 month period.
What problems did Fisher and Geiselman identify with interviewing witnesses?
- The interview revolves around the interviewer rather than the witness,
- witnesses are bombarded with brief, direct, and close-ended questions.
- Witnesses were often interrupted and not allowed to talk freely about their experiences.
- questions were often out of snyc
How did the sequencing of questions affect witnesses?
It often seemed to be out of sync with the witnesses’ own mental representation of the event.
who came up with the cognitive interview
Fisher and Geiselman
which psychologists support the accuracy of the cognitive
Eysenck and Keane (2010) argue that the
cognitive interview is one of the most successful
contributions made to society by psychologists.
What is the cognitive interview?
A method developed to improve the accuracy of eyewitness testimony (EWT) based on sound psychological evidence.
What did Geiselman et al. (1984) argue could improve EWT?
Using better techniques when interviewing witnesses based on psychological research about memory.
What are the techniques included in the cognitive interview?
- Mentally reinstating the context
- Reporting everything
- Changing the order
- Changing perspective
define mentally reinstating context
The witness should return to the original crime scene ‘in their mind’and **imagine the environment such as what the weather was like, their emotions. **
This is linked to content dependent forgetting.
define reporting everything
Witnesses are encourages to include every single detail of the event even if it seems irrelevant > **trivial details may be important or they may trigger other important memories **
define changing the order
Events should be recalled in a different chronological order to the original sequence for example from final point back to the beginning. This is done to prevent people reporting their experiences of how the event must have happened rather than the actual events. It also verifies accuracy
define changing perspective
Witnesses should recall the event from another persons perspective. This is done to disrupt the effects of expectations and schema on recall. It also promotes more ‘holistic’ view of the event which may enhance recall
who developed the enhanced cognitive interview
Fisher et al > developed some additional elements of the cognitive interview to focus specifically on
the social dynamics of the interaction.
what are some characteristics of the enhanced cognitive interview
- the interviewer needs to know when to establish eye contact and when to withdraw it
- The ECI also includes ideas such as reducing anxiety, minimizing distractions, getting participants to speak slowly and asking open ended questions.
- The interviewer takes time to build a rapport with the witness to encourage them to recall more information.
AO3: time consuming
The cognitive interview is time consuming in comparison to the standard police interview.
The cognitive interview takes much more time than the standard police interview as time is needed to establish rapport witnesses and allow them to relax. Additionally, it requires special training which takes time. > most forces have only been able to provide a few hours of cognitive interview training to staff (Kebbell and Wagstaff, 1996),so it is unlikely the proper version of the interview is actually being used.
WEAKNESS as the police may be reluctant to use the cognitive interview due to the high demands placed on them to solve cases quickly
AO3: some aspects are more valuable than others
Some aspects of the cognitive interview may be more valuable than others. Milne and Bull (2002) found individually each element is equally valuable but when combined the report everything and context reinstatement techniques produce the best recall.
STRENGTH because it suggests that at least two elements should be used to improve police interviewing of eyewitnesses even if the full cognitive interview is not used. This increases the credibility of the police officers who use it and helps overcome the issue of the cognitive interview being too time consuming
AO3: contradicting research
There is research to support the effectiveness of the enhanced cognitive interview.
The CI has been found to increase recall accuracy. Kohnken et al (1999) conducted a meta-analysis on 50 studies and found that the CI consistently provided more correct information (81% accurate recall) than the standard interview used by the police.
STRENGTH because studies like this suggest there is a real practical benefit to the police using a cognitive interview. It gives the police a greater chance of catching and charging criminals, which is beneficial to society as a whole.
COUNTER: the cognitive interview can increase recall of inaccurate information as well. Kohnken et al (1999) found that though the cognitive interview improves recall of correct information (81%) it also increases the recall of incorrect information (61%).
This suggests that the cognitive interview can improve recall but can also cause eyewitnesses to recall inaccurate information which could have negative consequences such as a false imprisonment.
AO3: research to support
There is further research to support the cognitive interview
Geiselman et al. (1985) asked participants to view a film of a violent crime and, after 48 hours, were interviewed by a policeman using one of three methods: the cognitive interview; a standard interview used by the Los Angeles Police; or an interview using hypnosis. He found the average number of correctly recalled facts for the cognitive interview was 41.2(MOST), for hypnosis it was 38.0 and for the standard interview it was 29.4(LEAST). There was no significant difference in the number of errors in each condition.
STRENGTH as this shows the cognitive interview leads to better memory of events, with witnesses able to recall more relevant information compared with a traditional interview method.
