Improving accuracy of EWT

Question 1

Who came up with the cognitive interview?

Answer 1

• Fischer & Gieselman (1985-92)

Question 2

What is the cognitive interview?

Answer 2

• Psychological procedure when interviewing witnesses to crimes
• Based on Loftus research, who showed memory involves using retrieval strategies to increase accuracy of memories

Question 3

What principle does the cognitive interview use?
What is it?

Answer 3

• Tulving encoding principle
• Memory is improved when info available at encoding is available at retrieval
• Principle predicts recall for info would be accurate if subjects were tested in the same room they were taught

Question 4

What is involved in cognitive interview?
(4 components)

Answer 4

1. Reinstate context
2. Recall events reverse order
3. Report everything they remember
4. Describe events from someone else’s POV

Question 5

Explain reinstate context?

Answer 5

• Interviewer will ask things like sights, sounds, feelings at time of criminal event

Question 6

Explain recall of events in reverse order?

Answer 6

• Witnesses will be encouraged to report order of events from front to back
• Based on recency effect, remembering more from recent events

Question 7

Explain report everything they remember?

Answer 7

• Interviewer asks witness to report every detail (even if trivial)
• Trivial info may trigger legitimate info

Question 8

Explain writing down events from someone else’s POV?

Answer 8

• Interviewer asks witness to report incident from different perspectives, potentially even the criminal themselves

Question 9

AO3 cognitive interview
Research support?
Research against?
Kohnken (1999)

Answer 9

P - Kohnken (1999) research support
E - Conducted a meta-analysis & found compared to standard interviewing, CI produced a higher amount of accurate EWT vs standard interview
E - However also found nearly identical accuracy rate (proportion of correct details were relative to amount of details provided overall) for both cognitive & standard interviews
- Suggests cognitive interview is as likely to be inaccurate as standard interviews
L - Despite accuracy rate, Kohnken suggests overall CI is more effective than standard interview

Question 10

AO3 cognitive interview
Practical problems of CI?
Kebbell & Wagstaff (1999)

Answer 10

P - Practical problems of using CI to improve accuracy of EWT
E - Kebbell & Wagstaff (1999) survey report, police officers reported they use the CI but were worried about amount of false info witnesses recalled & amount of time it takes to do
E - CI encourages a lot of false info (report everything they remember) so police find it hard to differentiate between false/true
L - Suggests it may be difficult for police to use Ci in practice, limiting its effectiveness

Question 11

AO3 cognitive interview
The way CI is used makes it more/less effective?
Milne & Bull (2002)

Answer 11

P - May be way in which CI is used that results in effectiveness/not
E - Milne & Bull (2002) found all 4 methods of Ci used singularly produced more recall from witness vs standard interview technique
E - However recall everything & reinstate context combined = more correct recall vs using just one method each time
L - Suggests Ci is effective if used in combination of methods rather than one alone
- So combining methods increases accuracy of EWT

Question 12

AO3 cognitive interview
Practical application?

Answer 12

P - CI has useful practical applications to society & the justice system
E - The police & other law enforcement agencies can use CI to effectively gather accurate info
E - The methods have been proven to work in research (Kohnken 1999) especially if combined
L - Therefore CI helps to gather accurate info making criminal investigations more effective & efficient
- Justice system is more effective as a result