Cognitive - Cognitive Interview

Witnesses were often interrupted in standard interviews so cognitive interviews were introduced by Geiselman et al (1985). They consisted of...

CONTEXT REINSTATEMENT (CR) - Mentally reinstate the context of the target event. Recall the scene, the weather, what you were thinking and feeling at the time, the preceding events etc. 

REPORT EVERYTHING (RE) - Report every detail you can recall even if it seems trivial. 

RECALL FROM CHANGED PERSPECTIVE (CP) - Try to describe the episode as it would have been seen from different viewpoints. 

RECALL IN REVERSE ORDER (RO) - Report the episode in several different temporal orders moving backward and forwards in time. 

Fisher et al (1987) introduced the 'enhanced cognitive interview' suggesting a few added features like...

• Minimised distractions.
• Listening to witness.
• Open-ended questions.
• Pause after response.
• Avoid interruption.
• Encourage use of imagery.
• Adapt language to suit witness.
• Avoid judgement.

Evaluation

+ More effective than standard interview.
+ Improved recall for both high and low arousal in experimental setting.
+ Applied to real-world settings.
+ Stresses importance of reporting every detail.
+ More information.
+ Produces forensically rich information.
+ Increase of 34% in correct information.

- Time delay.
- Hard to recall information that happened a long time ago.
- Provision of cues.
- Unhelpful in a line-up.
- Negative stereotypes.
- Time constraints.
- Demands on interviewer.
- Interviewer training.