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Isolating the effects of the cognitive interview techniques
Author(s) -
Memon Amina,
Wark Linsey,
Bull Ray,
Koehnken Guenter
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
british journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.536
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 2044-8295
pISSN - 0007-1269
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8295.1997.tb02629.x
Subject(s) - cognitive interview , recall , psychology , cognition , interview , context (archaeology) , developmental psychology , free recall , memoria , social psychology , cognitive psychology , psychiatry , political science , law , paleontology , biology
The cognitive interview (CI) is a procedure designed for use in police interviews involving witnesses. This study tested the most recent version of the CI (Fisher & Geiselman, 1992) which comprises not only ‘cognitive’ techniques such as context reinstatement but also ‘social’ techniques for increasing rapport. Children (aged eight–nine years) viewed a magic show and were interviewed after a short delay of two days (time 1) and/or a longer delay of 12 days (time 2). At time 1 the CI produced a significantly greater amount of correct recall than did a structured interview (SI) which was similar to the CI save for the CI's special cognitive techniques. However, at time 1 the CI also produced significantly more recall errors. At time 2, no differences occurred between CI and SI recall. There was a significant hypermnesia effect at time 2 for those groups interviewed twice suggesting an effect of retrieval practice. The time 1 effects of the CI were found to exist only in the questioning phase of the interview and social and cognitive explanations for the changes in the nature of recall with a CI are considered. Practical implications are discussed in the context of good practice for interviewing child witnesses.