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Criminological psychology (option): the cognitive interview

Edexcel IAL Psychology · WPS03 Applications of Psychology

Psychology can help police gain more accurate information from witnesses. The specification asks about cognitive interview techniques (spec 6.1.2).

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Why a new interview?

Standard police interviews often interrupted witnesses, asked closed or leading questions in an order that suited the officer, and produced incomplete recall. The cognitive interview (CI) was developed by Geiselman, Fisher and colleagues (1985) using memory research: memories have many retrieval routes, and context and state cues help retrieval (encoding specificity). Reconstructive memory (Bartlett, Unit 1) means schemas can fill gaps, so open reporting without leading questions is better.

The four techniques

Technique	What the witness does	Why it helps
Mental reinstatement of context	Imagines the scene: weather, sounds, smells, feelings	Context and state cues trigger memories
Report everything	Reports every detail, even trivial or partial ones	Small details may cue bigger ones; avoids self-editing
Change the order	Recalls the event in a different order, such as backwards	Disrupts schema-driven 'what usually happens' recall
Change perspective	Describes the event from another person's viewpoint	Uses another retrieval route; reduces schema effects

The enhanced cognitive interview and evidence

The enhanced CI (Fisher et al., 1987; manual by Fisher and Geiselman, 1992) keeps the four techniques and adds social skills: building rapport, transferring control to the witness, active listening, no interruptions, and questions matched to what the witness is thinking about.

Evidence:

Geiselman et al. (1985): the CI produced a mean of 41.2 correct items, compared with 29.4 for a standard police interview, with no rise in incorrect items.
Fisher et al. (1987): the enhanced CI drew out more correct information than the original cognitive interview, without a matching rise in errors.
Köhnken et al. (1999), a meta-analysis of 42 studies (55 comparisons, nearly 2,500 interviewees): a large increase in correct details (d = 0.87) and a much smaller but significant increase in incorrect details (d = 0.28). Accuracy rates were almost identical: 85% with the CI and 82% with standard interviews.

Evaluation

Strengths: much more correct information; based on memory theory; supported by experiments, meta-analyses and field tests (Miami detectives trained in the enhanced CI obtained more information than before training and than untrained colleagues: Fisher, Geiselman and Amador, 1989); used in police training in England and Wales.
Weaknesses: more incorrect details too, so information must be checked; takes longer and needs training, so officers under pressure may shorten it; does not protect against misinformation met after the event; hard to know which technique does the work; needs a cooperative witness.

Worked example

Using Geiselman et al.'s (1985) figures, calculate the percentage increase in correct facts from the standard interview to the cognitive interview.

Increase = 41.2 - 29.4 = 11.8 facts.
Percentage increase = 11.8 / 29.4 x 100 = 40.1%.

Answer: About 40.1% more correct facts.

Key idea: Cognitive interview (Geiselman, Fisher et al., 1985): reinstate context, report everything, change order, change perspective. Enhanced CI adds rapport and witness control. Geiselman (1985): 41.2 v 29.4 correct facts. Köhnken et al. (1999): 42 studies, many more correct details and a few more errors; accuracy about the same (85% v 82%). Time and training costs.

Check yourself

Asking a witness to picture the weather, sounds and how they felt at the time is
- change perspective
- mental reinstatement of context
- change the order
- a leading question
Show answer
mental reinstatement of context. Recreating context provides retrieval cues.
Why are witnesses told to 'report everything'?
- To make the interview shorter
- To test whether the witness is lying
- To introduce misleading information
- Trivial details may cue other memories, and witnesses should not edit their recall
Show answer
Trivial details may cue other memories, and witnesses should not edit their recall. Partial details can trigger more recall.
What does the enhanced cognitive interview add?
- Hypnosis
- Social skills such as building rapport and letting the witness control the pace
- Leading questions
- A line-up
Show answer
Social skills such as building rapport and letting the witness control the pace. Fisher et al. (1987) added communication skills.
Köhnken et al. (1999) found an accuracy rate of 85% for the cognitive interview and 82% for standard interviews. How many percentage points higher was the cognitive interview?
Show answer
3 percentage points. 85 - 82 = 3, so accuracy was almost the same even though far more details were recalled.
What did Fisher et al. (1987) find when they compared the enhanced cognitive interview with the original cognitive interview?
- It drew out more correct information
- It produced far more incorrect details
- It worked only with child witnesses
- It made no difference to recall
Show answer
It drew out more correct information. The enhanced version added social and communication skills and gained more correct detail.
Which is a weakness of the cognitive interview?
- It produces less correct information than standard interviews
- It has never been tested
- It takes longer and needs trained officers
- It relies on hypnosis
Show answer
It takes longer and needs trained officers. Practical costs.
Explain one strength of the cognitive interview.
Show answer
Research such as Geiselman et al. (1985) shows it produces more correct information than standard police interviews, which can help police identify and convict offenders.. Evidence of more correct recall.

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Last updated 8 November 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.