3. Collection of evidence (Cognitive) Flashcards
For the exams….
Background
You need to be able to explain the background (with examples)
Refer to psychological themes
Consider issues and debates relating to the topic
Key Research
Describe the Memon and Higham (1999) study and understand how it relates to the topic
Application
Be able to apply understanding to a novel situation
How do the police collect evidence from witnesses?
Technique called the cognitive interview by Fisher and Geiselman
Interviewing Witnesses – The Psychology
You’ve looked at two studies from the Cognitive Area which provide some background;
(2 studies)
- Loftus (1974)study, eye witnesses do not always give an accurate record of events.
- Grant et al. (1998)can also be used as part of your research to outline how context dependent memory improves memory recall through the use of memory cues.
The Cognitive Interview - process
The Cognitive Interview - Stage 1 – Report Everything (3 points)
- Witnesses are asked to recall everything they can from the event.
- Does not matter how trivial or irrelevant it may appear to them.
- Details will cue and enrich the witnesses memory, increasing the accuracy of testimony.
The Cognitive Interview - Stage 2 – Mental Reinstatement (4 things)
- It is a reinstatement of context.
Link to Grant et al.!! - Witnesses are asked to mentally take themselves back to the scene of the crime and;
- imagine the noise, smells, the surroundings etc.
- Not just environmental. Also internal state e.g. their emotions and feelings at the time.
The Cognitive Interview - Stage 3 – Recall Different Perspectives (2 things)
- Witnesses are asked to describe the event as others present may have seen it
e.g. as the victim, accused or other witnesses. - Again, helps to minimise schemas
The Cognitive Interview - Stage 4 – Recall in Different Temporal Orders (2 things)
- Witnesses are asked to recall events in different orders,
Starting halfway through a sequence of events and then working backwards,
Recalling the whole event in reverse order. - It helps to prevent schemas from distorting their testimony.
The standard interview (4 things)
- Asked lots of questions to the witness:
Brief
Direct
Closed
Repetitive questioning - Questions weren’t asked in the same order as the event
- Police interrupted frequently
- Prevented from talking freely about the event
Cognituve interview in detail (all 4 stages)
How can the Cognitive interview be improved?
exemplar
Using research by Memon and Higham, describe what we have learnt about the cognitive interview. (10 marks) exemplar
Memon and Higham was a review article of the cognitive interview, and the aim was to assess whether the cognitive interview (CI) would elicit more correct information than the standard interview used by the police. The cognitive interview includes 4 main stages; context reinstatement - involving the witnesses trying to put themselves back into the internal (eg. emotions) and external (temperature, location) environment that they were in during the crime, recall everything - this involved the witnesses recalling every tiny detail that they could remember about the crime without interruptions, even if they believed it to be irrelevant, changing order - this involved the witness recalling the crime in a different order, such as recalling the crime back to front, and finally changing perspective - this involved the witnesses recalling the crime from the view as someone else, such as another witness or the victim.
Memon and Higham reviewed research into the effectiveness of the different components of the CI, the component which appeared most effective was the Context Reinstatement component. They describe a study by Milne where participants recall for an event was compared using all the separate components. Context reinstatement was the most effective and participants recalled as much in that one component than as in the whole Cognitive Interview. They also looked at the comparison interviews that were used to judge the effectiveness of the cognitive interview. They concluded that the best technique to compare the cognitive interview with is the structured interview. The structured interview technique involves building a rapport with the witness, just like the cognitive interview, and they avoid repetitive/leading questions. This makes the Structured Interview and Cognitive Interview appropriate to compare and so we can see how cognitive techniques can improve witness recall, as the only difference between the two techniques is that the Cognitive Interview uses cognitive techniques and the Structured Interview doesn’t. Memon & Higham also looked at the training of interviewers in the research studies and they argued that they should be trained for at least 2 days in the use of the cognitive interview and ideally by a senior officer as they would be more likely to engage with the CI training.
Memon & Higham’s overall conclusion was that due to the methodological flaws in the research that they could not definitively say that the cognitive interview was more effective than other methods and that further research was required.
Brandon Mayfield (5 things)
- A high profile case showed that finger print analysis is not as objective and full proof as both forensic scientists and the general public might believe. On the 11 March 2004 a series of bombs went off in a co-ordinated attack on 4 commuter trains in Madrid, Spain
- As result of these attacks, 191 people were killed and 1800 people were wounded.
- A latent finger print which had been created by sweat was lifted from a bag believed to have belonged to the bomber and contained detonating devices. Using the standard FBI fingerprint analysis protocol, a suspect was identified.
- He was a US suspect, an American Muslim called Brandon Mayfield, who had been a person of interest to the FBI since the 9/11 bombings. The FBI had a number of fingerprint experts examine the fingerprint. All agreed it was Mayfield’s. Mayfield, however, protested his innocence and asked, when he appeared in court, for an expert appointed by the defence to examine the fingerprint.
- This was done and the expert also confirmed that the print was Mayfield’s. This evidence would surely have been key in the trial of Brandon Mayfield had it not been for the fact that the Spanish police matched the print to the real bomber, an Algerian national called Ouhnane Daoud. The print was not Mayfield at all!
Motivating factors (2 things, 5,2 points)
- Emotional motivation
Job satisfaction
Catching the criminal
Need for closure
Emotional involvement
Some crimes involve more emotions – Dror - Cognitive biases
Contextual biases
Confirmation biases
Cognitive biases (1 + 2 things)
Cognitive factors have been seen to influence finger print analysis as it is an information processing task and involves processes such as attention and visual searching.
- Contextual bias is where someone has other information aside from that being considered, which influences (either consciously or subconsciously) the outcome of the consideration. E.g. Details from the case
- Confirmation bias people test hypotheses by looking for confirming evidence rather than for potentially conflicting evidence. E.g. they have a suspect in mind so only look for supporting evidence rather than any anomalies
Complete this
