Explain how the cognitive interview differs from the standard interview and assess the effectiveness of the cognitive interview

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Steven Truong

Explain how the cognitive interview differs from the standard interview (6 marks)

In the past, police used standard interview for eyewitnesses to get information about the event, this involved questions which were brief, closed and direct. The sequencing of questions wasn’t in chronological order which often didn’t match the witnesses’ on image of events. Police questioners would also often interrupt the witnesses and not allowing them to expand on their answers

The cognitive interview, developed by Geiselman and Fisher in 1992, is used nowadays and is much different to the standard interview, as first of all, the time in which the witnesses have is as long as they need and not short (5-30 mins) like a standard interview was. A second difference is that in the cognitive interview, witnesses are encouraged to report every detail, no matter how minor it may seem. Context reinstatement is used where the witness are asked to think about the time of the event and bring themselves back in order to aid memory recall. No questions are asked, this means that the witness is able to freely recall from start to finish. Witnesses are also asked to recall the event in reverse order and/or from a different perspective which is different from the standard interview, this is to help aid memory recall.

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Assess the effectiveness of the cognitive interview (4 marks)

Geiselman (1985) compared the Cognitive Interview Technique (CIT) to the standard interview by showing 89 students a police training video of violent crimes and then using law enforcement officers, who had been trained in either CIT or standard techniques, to interview them. More correct items were recalled in the CIT method than in the standard. However, the error rate was similar; standard being slightly lower. Overall, the CIT method has proved to be far more effective in producing accurate results.

Fisher et al. (1999) also tested the effectiveness ...

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