EWT: cognitive interview Flashcards
what are the four steps of the cognitive interview?
- report everything- encouraged to include every detail of event, even if seems irrelevant, seemingly trivial details could be important, may trigger other memories.
- reinstate the context- witness return to original crime scene in mind and imagines the environment and emotions based on context-dependent forgetting
- reverse the order- recall the events in a different order eg from end to beginning. this prevents them using expectation of how event must happen rather than actual event.
- change perspective-they recall incident from other people perspective eg criminal. prevent influence of schema on recall.
what is the enhanced cognitive interview?
fisher et al develop additional elements.
this includes focus on social dynamics of the interaction eg knowing when and when not to make eye contact.
also tries to reduce eyewitness anxiety, minimise distractions, get witness speak slowly.
what is a strength of the cognitive interview? effective?
a study combined data from 50 studies and found the enhanced cognitive interview provided correct info than the standard used by police. studies like this indicate benefits to police of using enhanced CI.
what is a limitation of the cognitive interview?
it may be unreliable because studies of effectiveness of CI use slightly different techniques such as some use enhanced CI and some use regular CI, also the police force evolves their own methods. this means it is difficult to draw conclusions about ci in general.
what is another limitation of the cognitive interview?
it is more time consuming. police reluctant to use it as longer than standard police time. more time needed to get rapport and witness to relax. it also requires special training and many forces can’t provide hours necessary according to a study this means that it is unlikely that ‘proper version’ of ci is actually used.
