The Cognitive Interview

The Cognitive Interview Fisher and Geiselman (1992) The cognitive interview (CI) is a procedure designed for use in police interviews that involve witnesses. Why was the CI developed? To improve the effectiveness of police interviewers when questioning witnesses. To apply the results of psychological research to this area, particularly the work of Elizabeth Loftus.

The Cognitive Interview Fisher and Geiselman (1992) 1. Report everything. 2. Mental reinstatement of original context. 3. Changing the order. 4. Changing the perspective.

The Cognitive Interview Fisher and Geiselman (1992) 1. Report everything – the interviewer encourages the reporting of every single detail of the event, even though it may seem irrelevant or unimportant. 2. Mental reinstatement of original context – the interviewer encourages the interviewee to mentally recreate (imagine) that they are back at the original event (e.g. “What can you hear/smell/see?”)

The Cognitive Interview Fisher and Geiselman (1992) 3. Changing the order – the interviewer may try alternative ways through the timeline of the incident, for example by reversing the order in which events occurred (e.g. “Start from when the police arrived – what happened before that?”) 4. Changing the perspective – the interviewee is asked to recall the incident from multiple perspectives, for example by imagining how it would have appeared to other witnesses present at the time (i.e. putting themselves in someone else’s shoes).

Independent activity Read through the first two pages of your booklet and answer the questions on each section.

Independent task Complete the fill-in-the-gap exercise on the third page of your booklet using the words provided.

The enhanced CI An enhanced version of CI includes additional cognitive techniques for probing a witness’s mental image of an event. This creates additional problems because it places even greater demands on the interviewer. As a result the quantity and quality of training of CI interviewers has become a critical issue. However the study by Stein and Memon (2006) demonstrates that when used in real-life settings the enhanced CI can produce a significant increase in eyewitness recall.

Individual differences The CI may be particularly useful when interviewing older witnesses. Negative stereotypes about older adults’ memory (e.g. that it declines dramatically with age) can make such witnesses overly cautious about reporting information. However the CI, because it stresses the importance of reporting any detail regardless of its perceived insignificance, may overcome such difficulties. Mello and Fisher (1996) compared older (mean age 72 years) and young (mean age 22 years) adults’ memory of a filmed simulated crime using either a CI or standard police interview (SI). The CI produced more information than the SI, but significantly, the advantage of the CI over the SI was greater for the older than for the younger participants.

Possible exam question Discuss the use of the cognitive interview in obtaining evidence from eyewitnesses. (12 marks) Discuss = outline and evaluate! 6 marks - A01 (outline). 6 marks – A02 (evaluate).

Point, Evidence, Explain Point = identify the criticism ‘One study that supports the effectiveness of the CI is by Kohnken et al.’ Evidence = justify the claim (findings) ‘The study found that there was a 34% increase in recall when the CI was used compared to standard interviewing techniques.’ Explain = what does this mean (relate to question) ‘This shows that the CI is a more effective way to access memories for an incident than existing methods of interviewing.’