improving accuracy of eye witness testimony - cognitive interview

Question 1

cognitive interview definition

Answer 1

a method of interviewing eyewitnesses to help retrieve more accurate memories. it uses 4 main techniques, all based on evidence of psychological knowledge of human memory - report everything, reinstate context, reverse the order and change perspective

Question 2

what are the 4 factors of cognitive interview

Answer 2

-report everything
-reinstate the context
-reverse the order
-change perspective

Question 3

who developed cognitive interview

Answer 3

Fisher and Geiselman

Question 4

when did Fisher and Geiselman develop the cognitive interview

Answer 4

1992

Question 5

why did Fisher and Geiselman develop the cognitive interview

Answer 5

argued that eyewitness testimony could be imported if police used better techniques when interviewing witnesses

Question 6

what did Fisher and Geiselman cognitive interview should be based on

Answer 6

psychological insight into how memory works

Question 7

why did Fisher and Geiselman call the collection of techniques the cognitive interview

Answer 7

to indicate its foundation in cognitive interview

Question 8

why is the technique report everything in cognitive interview

Answer 8

witnesses are encouraged to include every single detail of the event, even though it may seem irrelevant or the witness doesn’t feel confident about it. seemingly trivial details may be important and trigger important memories

Question 9

what is report everything in cognitive interview

Answer 9

witnesses are encouraged to include every single detail of the event, even though it may seem irrelevant or the witness doesn’t feel confident about it

Question 10

what is reinstate the context in cognitive interview

Answer 10

witness should return to the original crime scene in their mind and imagine the environment and their emotions

Question 11

why is the techniques reinstate the context used in cognitive interview

Answer 11

related to context-dependent forgetting

Question 12

what is reverse the order in cognitive interview

Answer 12

events should be recalled in a different order from the original sequence such as final point at beginning

Question 13

why is the technique reverse the order used in cognitive interview

Answer 13

done to prevent people reporting their expectations of how the event must have happened rather than reporting actual event. also prevents dishonesty as its harder to produce untruthful account in reverse

Question 14

what is change perspective in cognitive interview

Answer 14

witnesses should recall the incident from other peoples perspectives such as appeared to other witness or perpetrator

Question 15

why is the technique change perspective used in cognitive interview

Answer 15

disrupts expectations of schema on recall. the schema you have for a particular setting generate expectations of what would have happened and it is the schema that is recalled rather than what actually happened

Question 16

who developed enhanced cognitive interview

Answer 16

Fisher et al

Question 17

when did Fisher et al develop enchaned cognitive interview

Answer 17

1987

Question 18

what is in enhanced cognitive interview

Answer 18

additional elements to focus on social dynamics of the interaction. for example, interviewer needs to know when to establish eye contact and when to relinquish it. also includes ideas such as reducing eyewitness anxiety, minimising distractions, getting witness to speak slowly and asking open ended questions

Question 19

strength of cognitive interview - support for effectiveness of CI

Answer 19

-evidence that it works
-meta analysis dont by Kohnken at at (1999) combined data from 55 studies comparing the CI and ECI to standard police interviews. CI gave an average of 41% increase for accurate information compared with standard interview, only 4 studies showed no difference between types of interview

Question 20

limitation of cognitive interview - counterpoint to support for effectiveness of CI

Answer 20

Kohnken at al also found an increase in the amount of inaccurate information recalled by participants. this was a particular issue with ECI which produced more inaccurate details than CI, cognitive interviews may sacrifice quality of EWT in favour of quantity –> police should treat evidence from CI and ECI with caution

Question 21

limitation of cognitive interview- some elements may be more useful

Answer 21

-limitation of original CI is not all elements are equally useful or effective
-Milne and Bull (2002) found each of the techniques alone produced more information than standard police interview, they also found that using a combination of report everything and reinstate context produced better recall than any of the other elements or combination of them. this confirms police suspicions that some elements of the CI are more useful than others –> casts some doubt on credibility of the overall cognitive interview

Question 22

limitation of cognitive interview - CI is time consuming

Answer 22

police officers may be reluctant to use Ci as takes more time and training than standard police interview
-for example time is needed to establish rapport with witness and allow them to relax. Ci also requires special training and many forced do not have the resources to provide more than a few hours (kebbell and Wagstaff 1997) –> suggests complete CI is unrealistic method for police officers to use and might just be better to focus on just a few key elements

Question 23

evaluation of cognitive interview - variations on CI

Answer 23

l- police officers have taken a ‘pick and mix’ approach to various techniques in the CI which makes it hard to compare the effectiveness of different approaches in research studies
s- however, this ‘pick and mix’ approach is flexible and means individuals can develop their own approach according to what works best for them