CFI CFI Cognitive Interview Methods & Memory Enhancement 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: The 'encoding specificity principle' relevant to cognitive interviewing states that:
- Memory is best recalled when retrieval conditions match encoding conditions (Correct answer)
- Memories encoded under stress are always inaccurate
- Witnesses encode only visual information during crimes
- Memory accuracy increases automatically with time
Correct answer: Memory is best recalled when retrieval conditions match encoding conditions
The encoding specificity principle holds that memory retrieval is most effective when the context at retrieval closely matches the context at encoding.
Question 2: In forensic interviewing, 'source monitoring errors' occur when a witness:
- Refuses to answer questions about the incident
- Confuses the origin of information (e.g., post-event suggestion vs. actual memory) (Correct answer)
- Accurately identifies the source of every memory
- Declines to describe peripheral details
Correct answer: Confuses the origin of information (e.g., post-event suggestion vs. actual memory)
Source monitoring errors happen when witnesses misattribute the origin of a memory, such as mistaking something they heard after the event for something they actually witnessed.
Question 3: Which interviewing approach is MOST consistent with minimizing post-event contamination of witness memory?
- Conducting interviews in groups so witnesses can confirm each other's accounts
- Interviewing witnesses as soon as possible and in isolation from each other (Correct answer)
- Allowing witnesses to review police reports before being interviewed
- Showing suspects' photos before completing the narrative account
Correct answer: Interviewing witnesses as soon as possible and in isolation from each other
Early, individual interviews minimize the risk of witnesses contaminating each other's memories or incorporating post-event information into their accounts.
Question 4: A CFI uses the 'rapport-building' phase before memory retrieval primarily because:
- It legally requires the witness to cooperate
- Rapport reduces anxiety and increases the completeness and accuracy of recall (Correct answer)
- It replaces the need for Miranda warnings
- It allows the interviewer to preview the suspect's likely defenses
Correct answer: Rapport reduces anxiety and increases the completeness and accuracy of recall
Establishing rapport reduces witness anxiety, which in turn improves memory retrieval by allowing the witness to focus cognitive resources on recall rather than social anxiety.
Question 5: What is 'confabulation' in the context of forensic witness interviewing?
- A witness deliberately lying about the event
- Unconscious memory fabrication where the witness fills memory gaps with plausible but inaccurate information (Correct answer)
- A technique used by interviewers to test witness credibility
- Accurate reconstruction of events through logical inference
Correct answer: Unconscious memory fabrication where the witness fills memory gaps with plausible but inaccurate information
Confabulation is an unconscious process where the brain fills in memory gaps with plausible information without the witness realizing the information is inaccurate.
Question 6: Which questioning strategy BEST supports accurate memory retrieval in a cognitive interview?
- Leading questions that confirm the interviewer's hypothesis
- Multiple simultaneous questions requiring prioritized answers
- Open-ended prompts followed by silence to allow free recall (Correct answer)
- Closed yes/no questions to quickly confirm key facts
Correct answer: Open-ended prompts followed by silence to allow free recall
Open-ended prompts (e.g., 'Tell me everything that happened') followed by silence give the witness maximum latitude to retrieve and report memories without interviewer contamination.
CFI CFI Cognitive Interview Methods & Memory Enhancement 2
The 'encoding specificity principle' relevant to cognitive interviewing states that: