Cognitive Interviews

Police officers have claimed that witnesses are the key to every criminal investigation (Brunel, Py & Launay,2012; Kebbel & Milne, 1998; Koehnken, Milne, Memon & Bull,1999). Therefore it is necessary that the correct, accurate and practical interviewing techniques are available to aid the information retrieval process, as the information retrieved will be crucial for the outcome of the investigation(Brunel, Py & Launay,2012; Geiselman, Fischer, MacKinnon & Holland,1985 ). Based on this notion Geiselman et al (1984) developed the cognitive interview which consists of four mnemonics. All of these aids reinstating environmental and personal 'context' during the crime and furthermore aid to 'report everything' known to the person, regardless of …show more content…
Lastly it aids in taking different 'perspectives' which can also be seen to aid memory retrieval(Geiselman, Fischer, MacKinnon & Holland,1985).Memory in this context are the encoded and stored images, sounds or meanings which need to be retrieved within the cognitive interview for the use of police officers and their investigation(McLeod, 2007). Research has found, that cognitive interviews (CI) aid full and accurate testimonies compared to the standard police interview (Brunel, Py & Launay,2012 ).However police officers find these techniques difficult to use, for example the multiple retrievals are not used systematically and techniques are often not clear, incomplete or used inappropriately (Brunel, Py & Launay,2012, Clarke and Milne,2001;Dando, Wilcock & Milne, 2009).Therefore different memory-based techniques on the basis of the cognitive interview and its variants such as the enhanced cognitive-interview, the modified cognitive-interview, the Sketch MRC, the GPF instruction, eye-closure instruction and hypnosis technique will be evaluated and the most effective techniques will be suggested for police interviews to work most …show more content…
The Enhanced Cognitive Interview (ECI) has the same four mnemonics as the CI, however it also includes techniques from social psychology of communication such as 'rapport building, transferring control of the interview to the interviewee, the appropriate use of pauses and non-verbal behaviour , and the relative efficacy of different types of questions'( Fisher & Geiselman, 1992; Koehnken, Milne, Memon & Bull,1999,p.2). Fisher, Geiselman, Raymond, Jurkcvich, and Warhaftig (1987) had found that the enhanced cognitive interview retrieved 45% more correct facts compared to the original cognitive interview and was still more accurate in terms of lack of errors compared to the standard interview(Koehnken, Milne, Memon & Bull,1999;Davis, McMahon & Greenwood,2005). Fisher (2010) argues that the ECI/CI technique should not be considered as one but should be considered as a 'toolbox'. This 'toolbox' will aid the interviewer to choose which of the different techniques may be suitable for the interview, as some can be used independently, however this does depend on the circumstances of the situation. Within all research conducted to evaluate which memory-based technique is best to retrieve the most and accurate (in terms of lack of errors)

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