Summary
Summary Cognitive interviews
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Looks at how cognitive interviews can help improve eyewitness testimonies, including definitions for key terms and key studies.
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Cognitive interviewMemory
Key Names
Ronald Fisher and Edward Geiselman (1992)
Key words
Cognitive interview (CI) – Fisher and Geiselman (1992) Suggested that eyewitness testimony should be based on psychologica
A method of interviewing insights into how memory works, they identified 4 main techniques.
witnesses to help them 4 stages of the Cognitive Interview
retrieve more accurate
Report everything (RE) – Report every detail you can even if they seem irrelevant or trivial
memories.
Context reinstatement (CR) – Recall image of the scene, the weather, what you were feeling. This i
linked to context dependent forgetting.
Recall in reverse/different order (RO) – Describe the event from memorable point. This is done to
prevent witnesses from reporting their expectations.
Recall from a changed perspective (CP) – Describe the event as it would have been seen from
different viewpoints. Done to disrupt the effect of assumptions with the schema.
Fisher et al (1987) later introduced additional elements that focused on the social dynamics of the
interaction. This included details such as when is best to make eye contact. It also looks at reducing
eye-witness anxiety, minimizing distractions, getting the witness to speak slowly and asking open
ended questions. These and the initial 4 stages make up the Enhanced Cognitive Interview.
Evaluation
Fisher et al. (1990) found that witnesses reported greater detail in their accounts of crimes
when American detectives had been trained to use the technique. The technique is more
structured than the standard technique, and it seems appropriate for crime-related interviews
to be very thorough in order to gather the detail required for a useful testimony.
Koehnken et al. (1999) found that witnesses recalled more incorrect information when
interviewed with the cognitive interview compared to the standard interview technique,
perhaps because more detailed recall increases the chances of making mistakes. The
interview is far more time-consuming than the standard interview.
Geiselman et al. (1985) - Participants viewed 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. The
number of facts accurately recalled and the number of errors made were recorded. The
average number of correctly recalled facts for the cognitive interview was 41.2, for hypnosis i
was 38.0 and for the standard interview it was 29.4. There was no significant difference in the
number of errors in each condition.
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