Improving accuracy of eyewitness testimony Flashcards
what is Cognitive Interview
procedure designed for use in police interview that involve witnesses, the reason for CI to appear is to improve EWT and aso to apply the results of physiological research in this area (especially wotk of Elizabeth Loftus)
who developed interview techniques?
Geisselman et al 1984
on proven psych principles
what is the first component of CI?
mental reinstatemnet of original context
what MROC involves
context reinstatment - recalling the scene, everything that was around, the ewather,what you were feeling, what were your emotions etc
it will help to acces info, as often we just cant access the right info, these cues will help
what is the 2nd component of CI?
Report everything
what RE involves
report every detail, even if it is irrelvant
witness may not realise that some details can be actually helpfull, ot they can help the witess to access right info
memories are interconnected, recallection of one, can help recall snother,
recaling small details,evantually can be pieced togeether to form a clearer picture
what is the 3rd component of CI?
change order
what CO involves
describe the ivent in reverse order,or start from most memorable part
it will prevent schemas form influencing our memory,
what is the 4th component of CI?
change perspective
what CP involves
witnesses are asked to report the event from dif perspectives, describing what they think others woulod have seen
it encourages many retreival paths, prevents form influence by pre-exisitng schemas
what are the key influences from standard police interview
- revolves aroun interviewr VS witnesses
- asked specific questions: how tall was the criminal,
- questions are predetermined
- interviewr talks more
witness is discouraged from gining more info
leeading questions are used
eval 1 top
the major disadvantage of the techniwue is the amoun of time spend on it and the skills required
eval 1 point
Kebbell and Wagstaff report a problem with CI.
it requires more time, than often available, and therefore they prefer using the clasic way
which limit EWT,
and the required training wasnt implemented everywhere, so PO were not able to acquire skills
eval 1 tail
therefore the use of CI wasnt implemented on a larger scale, and for now stays as ineficiant interview,
additionally costly economically,
eval 2 top
anpther dificulty is that CI is not one procedure it is a whole collection of technique
eval 2 point
soem police officers used a version that doesnt include cnhaging perspective, other police offciers day that they have reduced the CI to on;y use of Reinstatnment of context, and report everything,
eval 2 tail
therefore it is ahrd to establish the usefulness of the whole technique when using all parts of it
eval 2 double
additionally, the technique tries to enhance the quantitiy of info without compromiding quality
Kohnken et al 1999 suggested that there was 81% increase in correct info
HOWEVER 61% increase in incorrect info
meaning info has to be treated with great caution
as if the wuantity of it increases it means not only right info rises but false as well
eval 3 top
the advantage if CI is that it may be very usefull when interviewing older people
eval 3 point
the stereotype about ‘older people’s decline in memory’ can make such witnesses overly cautious when giniving info,
however, CI provides an opportunity to recall everything,
Mello and Fisher compared older (mean age 27) VS younger (mean age 22)memory of a filmes simulated crime using either CI or standard police interview (spi)
CI produced more info than SI, but the strength of CI was greater on older group then younger,
eval 3 tail
suggesting indiv dif matter, and supports use of CI for older people
