Eyewitness Testimony and Cognitive Interview

Question 1

give 4 factors that affect eyewtiness testimony

Answer 1

• post event discussion
• weapon focus
• anxiety / stress
• leading questions

Question 2

explain what post event discussion is and how it affects EWT

Answer 2

• occurs in the aftermath of an incident
• after the incident the witnesses talk about the situation
• this alters your perception of the event leading to an unreliable memory

Question 3

explain the study that supports post event discussion

Answer 3

gabbert et al

• participants watched a video of a crime from different points of view
• participants then discussed the incident with eachother
• 71% of participants recalled information they didnt see
• control group had 0% innacurate recall

Question 4

explain what weapon focus is

Answer 4

• eyewitness concentrates on a weapon over other details of a crime

Question 5

explain what the yerkes-dodson curve is

Answer 5

• stress-performance relationship followed an inverted U
• this means for tasks of moderate complexity, performance increases with stress up to an optimal point where it then declines

Question 6

explain the study that supports the affect of anxiety on EWT

Answer 6

johnson and scott

• particpants believed they were taking part in a lab study
• while waiting for the lab study they heard an argument in the next room
• low anxiety condition = a man walked through carrying a pen with greasy hands
• high anxiety condition = sound of breaking glass. A man walked out of the room holding a paper knide that was covered in blood
• particpants later picked out the man from a set of 50 photos
• 49% of the low anxiety condition correctly identified the man compared to 33% in the high anxiety condition

Question 7

explain the study that contradicts the importace of stress and weapon focus on influencing EWT

Answer 7

yuille and cutshall

• studied a real life shooting where a thief was shot
• they conducted interviews and compared them to the orginal interviews that happened at the time of the incident
• they were also asked to rate how stressed they felt in the moment of the incident
• the witnesses were very accurate:
• the people who reported the highest level of stress had 88% accurate recall
• less stressed had 75% accurate recall

Question 8

explain the study that supports the affect of leading questions on EWT

Answer 8

loftus and palmer

• participants watched a video of a car crash and got asked a question with different verbs
• hit, smashed or contacted
• mean speed reported for contacted was 31mph compared to 40mph for smashed

Question 9

who created the cognitive interview

Answer 9

fisher and geiselman

Question 10

what is the cogonitive interview

Answer 10

a questioning technique used by the police to enhance retrieval of information about a crime scene from the eyewtiness

Question 11

what are the 4 stages in the cognitive interview

Answer 11

1. report everything
2. reinstate the context
3. reverse the order
4. change perspective

Question 12

explain stage 1 of the cognitive interview

Answer 12

report everything

• witnesses are asked to report every detail even if they think it is not important

Question 13

explain stage 2 of the cognitive interview

Answer 13

reinstate the context

• the interviewer tries to mentally reinstate the environment and personal context of the crime
• this can help recreate the event in their mind and act as a cue

Question 14

explain stage 3 of the cognitive interview

Answer 14

reverse the order

• recount the incident in a different narrative order
• people tend to recall recent events more clearly due to the recency effect

Question 15

explain stage 4 of the cognitive interview

Answer 15

change perspective

• describe what they think other witnessed may have seen

Question 16

explain the study that supports the use of the cognitive interview

Answer 16

geiselman at al

• participants viewed a film of a violent crime, after 48 hours they were interviewed using:
• the cognitive intrview, standrd interview
• the number of facts accurately recalled was recorded
• the average number of correctly recalled facts for the cognitive interview was greater than the standard interview