Collection of evidence Flashcards
BACKGROUND - LOFTUS AND PALMER
Findings
9mph difference between speed estimates
More twice as many participants reported seeing broken glass
Leading questions can distort memory
SAMPLE - 45 university students
Describe cognitive interviews
improve witness’s recall of events to stop their memory being distorted by leading questions via open ended Qs
FOUR COMPONENTS
1) Context reinstatement of OG context - asking them to remember the context they were in + what they were doing
> cues eg. smell, sight
2) Report everything - freely recall everything
3) Change order - asked to recall events in different orders
4) Change perspective - eg. across the street
BACKGROUND - FISHER
- sample
16 detectives from Florida
All experienced with minimum 5 years within division
BACKGROUND - FISHER
-findings
- trained detectives elicited 47% more information after cognitive interview training than untrained
- cognitive interview is effective in the field
BACKGROUND - FISHER
- sampling bias
- ethnocentrism
SAMPLING BIAS
- all detectives experiences + given proper CI training
- sample not representative of all police officers
- may be better than normal due to experience + training
- sample from robbery division specialising in other crimes so CI not as effective
ETHNOCENTRISM
- sample from Florida, USA
- not applied to cultures with different relationships with police / views on crime
blind procedure - reduces bias
- field experiment - high ecological validity
KEY RESEARCH - MEMON & HIGHAM
- review of components of cognitive interview
- to assess effectivness
- effectivness of context-reinstatment
- when context-reinstatement is used alone obtains as much infomation from witnesses as full CI procedure
- other research found full CI leads to greater recall than another other component of CI
(contradictory research - some also say its not effective on own)
KEY RESEARCH - MEMON & HIGHAM
- effectiveness of report everything component
= when used alone avoided leading questions so interview less likely to affect witnesses’ memory
= however could lead to witness filling in gaps in memory
KEY RESEARCH - MEMON & HIGHAM
- effectiveness of change order component
= suggests its more effective if witness recall in forward order once, then reverse order
rather than two attempts to recall from beginning
= said more research needs to be done
KEY RESEARCH - MEMON & HIGHAM
- effectiveness of change perspective component
= research suggests it could lead to fabricated details and confuse witnesses
= no research suggests it alone increases amount of info recalled
however, one study they reviewed, involving children, found all components were equally effective, but when included adults found context reinstatement is most effective
KEY RESEARCH - MEMON & HIGHAM
Conclusions on effectivness of four components
Needs to be further experimental research as not enough has been conducted
All 4 need to be tested in different combinations
KEY RESEARCH - MEMON & HIGHAM
Reviewing CI against other types of interview
Conclusions
standard interview - rapid-fire questions and frequent interruptions
guided memory interview - encouraging them to recall different contexts
structured interview - builds report using open questions, doesn’t interrupt + aims to build their confidence
Conclusions
= CI is better than standard interview at collecting evidence from witnesses
= but shouldn’t be compared as too different
KEY RESEARCH - MEMON & HIGHAM
Review on quality of training
Found training in cognitive interviews are often inconsistent
Suggest police officers should be given better training in how to conduct a CI and recommend a two-day programme
KEY RESEARCH - MEMON & HIGHAM
- Validity
Some research involved using CI for fake events
- low ecological validity
- participants would not have same emotions as witness to a real crime
Some involved primary school children
- judgments are different to adults/older children
- memory easily distorted
- reduces population validity
Some research involved real witness
- high ecological validity
KEY RESEARCH - MEMON & HIGHAM
- Sampling Bias
Some included young children
- hard to generalise
Some included adults
- similar results
- more generalisable
ETHNOCENTRISM
= looked at western cultures only
- non western cultures may have different views
- Lee found Chinese children find lying is good as value modesty more
Research into collecting evidence from suspects
- Reid Technique
coercive interrogation technique used in US
- assumption suspect is guilty
includes
- Confrontation (saying their guilty)
- Stopping denials
- Presenting two guilty interpretations - one more acceptable
- Urging suspect to tell truth
