What is the cognitive interview?

• The cognitive interview (CI) is a method of interviewing eyewitnesses about what they can recall from a crime scene or event that they witnessed
• It was developed by?Geiselman and Fisher?in 1985
• It is designed to enhance recall and increase the amount of information that is recalled

What techniques does the cognitive interview use?

Recall everything

• Witnesses are asked to recall as much detail as they can, however trivial it might seem
• This will enable them to move on and recall more information

Recall the events in reverse order

• Witnesses are asked to tell the events starting from the end
• This makes the witness think very carefully about the event and what they witnessed
• The reverse order means witnesses cannot rely on schemas or prior knowledge to influence them

Reinstate the context

• The witness has to think about what was happening at the time of the event: Was it raining? What had they been doing?
• Again, this may prompt a new memory if they try to recall the context of the event

Describe events from the perspective of someone else

• Here the witness needs to see the event from someone else’s viewpoint
• What might they have seen if they had been standing across the road or from a passing car?
• This again makes the witness think about the event in a different way so may bring up new memories

Comparing the cognitive interview (CI) to the standard interview (SI)

• Fisher?(1999) trained detectives in Florida how to conduct the cognitive interview and then compared the amount of information obtained from cognitive interviews of real life witnesses to that obtained from standard interviews
• A second Eye Witness was then asked to confirm if this information was correct
• The cognitive interview was found to be produce 46% more detail and was 90% accurate
• However,?Koehnken?(1999) found that witness also recalled more incorrect information
• These are known as confabulations
• This was found to be a result of the extra detail witnesses gave
• He also felt the interview was too time consuming

Evaluating the cognitive interview

• The research above is a good way to criticise the studies:
  • Fisher’s?study comparing Cognitive to Standard
  • Koehnken’s?findings regarding incorrect information
• In reality many police forces do use this type of interview as it is expensive to train officers and it is time consuming
  • It is probably only used in more serious crimes or ones with no real leads
• It has been found that some parts of the interview are better than others
  • Reinstate the context and report everything has been found to yield the best results when used in combination