The Cognitive Interview: Geiselman And Fisher

Prompted by the need of probative eyewitness interviewing, psychologist Geiselman and Fisher () developed the Cognitive Interview (CI) 30 years ago. The results gained significant attentions for further research in which the CI improve the effectiveness of collecting corrected details. In later years, Geiselman and Fisher () developed an enhanced version of the CI (ECI). Given that these two versions of the CI might not be well-fit into specific population, such as children or old adults, researchers have developed a modified version of the CI (MCI). Two meta-analysis has been conducted to demonstrate the empirical effectiveness of the CI (). The research direction has shifted from analyzing the effectiveness of different versions of the CI
Sharing intimate and frightening experience with strangers, especially with police officers, often provoke distress on the interviewees. Interviewers are recommended to begin the interrogation with the introduction of themselves and then explain the reasons why this witness is selected, followed by a brief introduction of following steps. Furthermore, interviewers are encouraged to use non-verbal language and active listening to show the interest in the interviewees. This rapport served as a function of releasing anxiety of the interviewees. Particularly, the first step of the interview also involve transferring control to the interviewees. Interviewees are allowed explicitly to choose the starting point of the event and to control the pace of his or her own speech and words. The first step of the CI not only establishes a well-being of the interviewees, it also facilitate the following steps in order to recall more accurate
In contrasts, judgmental comments and closed questions should be avoided because they will limit the response possibilities and decrease the retrieval performance; consequently, less information, more incorrect details or more fabricated details will be collected (). Interviewers are allowed to use "tell more" if more information is interested, otherwise it is encouraged not to disturb the narration. In addition, if the interviewers require extensive information from a certain point of the event, it is encouraged to ask compatibly. Interviewers should ask the right questions at the right time. For instance, when the interviewees are talking about how the robber took out the gun, it is not suitable to ask about how the robber left. Importantly, interviewers are encouraged to request the interviewees to recall in a different perspectives or in a different chronological order. In order to obtain a more specific detail of the crime scene, interviewers could guide the interviewees to reinstate themselves into a specific moment of the crime (e.g. 'Think about how the victims behaved after the robber took out the