improving accuracy of ewt - cognitive interview Flashcards
cognitive interviews
method of interviewing witnesses to help retrieve more accurate memories
4 techniques of cognitive interview
1) report everything
2) reinstate the context
3) reverse the order
4) change perspective
report everything
encourages the witness to report all details about the event, even though these details may seem unimportant.
reinstate the context
Return to original crime scene in their mind and imagine the environment. Images should act as retrieval cues
reverse the order
events should be recalled in a different order from the original sequence to prevent people reporting from their expectations and dishonesty
change perspective
recall incident from other peoples perspective to disrupt the effect of expectations and schemas on recall
what did Fisher et al come up with?
- Enhanced cognitive interview
- focus on the social dynamics of the interaction
what are enhanced cognitive interview elements?
- interviewer knowing when to give eye contact
- minimising distractions
- building rapport
describe the procedure of Konkhen et al
meta analysis combining data from 55 studies comparing he CI with the standard interview
what did konkhem et al find?
CI gave 41% increase in accurate info compared to a police interview
how does konkhens study support CI?
as it shows CI are beneficial to the real world
why does konkhen et al study lack population validity?
- only used students which have better memories than older people
- limits the application to real life as it cannot help all ages
why are students age a confounding variable?
- memory recall is indirectly affected by this so its not the CI improving recall
- its the age therefore it lacks internal validity
what did Milne and Bull propose?
- we don’t need to use all features of a CI to reap benefits.
- we only need to report everything and reinstate the context, which is beneficial as police officers do not need a lot of time to learn these skills
