ISOLATING THE EFFECTS OF THE COGNITIVE INTERVIEW TECHNIQUES

The cognitive interview (CI) is a procedure designed for use in police interviews involving witnesses. This study tested the most recent ver sion of the CI (Fisher & Geiselman, 1992) which comprises not only 'co gnitive' techniques such as context reinstatement but also 'social' te chniques for increasing rapport. Children (aged eight-nine years) view ed 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). Al time 1 the CI pr oduced a significantly greater amount of correct recall than did a str uctured interview (SI) which was similar to the CI save for the Cl's s pecial cognitive techniques. However, at time 1 the CI also produced s ignificantly more recall errors. At time 2, no differences occurred be tween CI and SI recall. There was a significant hypermnesia effect at time 2 for those groups interviewed twice suggesting an effect of retr ieval practice. The time 1 effects of the CI were found to exist only in the questioning phase of the interview and social and cognitive exp lanations for the changes in the nature of recall with a CI are consid ered. Practical implications are discussed in the context of good prac tice for interviewing child witnesses.