improving accuracy of EWT (incl. cognitive interview)

Question 1

who introduced the cognitive interview

Answer 1

fisher & geiselman (1992)

Question 2

4 main techniques used in cognitive interview

Answer 2

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

Question 3

describe component 1 - report everything

Answer 3

• include every detail of event
  –> even if irrelevant/witness not confident
• may trigger important memories

Question 4

describe component 2 - reinstate context

Answer 4

• return to original crime scene ‘in their mind’
• imagine their emotions & the environment
• related to context-dependent forgetting

Question 5

describe component 3 - reverse order

Answer 5

• events recalled in diff. order from original sequence
• prevents people reporting their expectations of how the event must of happened
• prevents dishonesty

Question 6

describe component 4 - change perspective

Answer 6

• recall incident from another perspective
• done to disrupt the effect of expectation & the schema on recall

Question 7

describe the enhanced cognitive interview

Answer 7

• fisher et. al (1987)
• additional elements to CI
• eg. interview knows when to establish eye contact/relinquish it
• also incl. ideas eg. reducing EW anxiety, minimising distractions & open-ended questions

Question 8

evaluation of cognitive interview - AO3

Answer 8

+)
P: evidence it works
E: eg. meta-analysis by kohnken et. al (1999) combined data from 55 studies comparing CI to standard police interview. CI gave 41% avg. increase in accurate info. only 4 studies from meta-analysis showed no difference.
T: shows CI is an effective technique helping witnesses recall ingo stored in memory but not immediately accessible
-) COUNTERPOINT
P: kohnken et. al also found an increase in amount of inaccurate info recalled.
E: articular issue in ECI - produced more incorrect details than CI. cognitive interviews may sacrifice quality of EWT
T: means police officers should treat EWT/evidence from CI/ECI’s with caution

-)
P: (original CI) not all of its elements are equally effective/useful
E: milne & bull (2002) foundeach of 4 techniques used alone produced more info than the standard police interview. but, they also found a combination of report everything/reinstate context produced better recall than any of the other elements/combo. confirmed police officer’s suspicions that some aspects of CI are more useful than others
T: casts some doubt on credibility of overall cognitive interview

-)
P: police officers may be reluctant to use CI as it takes more time/training than standard police interview
E: eg. more time needed to establish rapport w/ witness & allow them to relax. CI also requires special training & many forces don’t have resources to provide more than few hours (kebbel & wagstaff 1997)
T: suggests the complete CI as it is exists isn’t a realistic method for police officers to use & might be better to focus on just few key elements