Improving EWT: Cognitive Interview

Question 1

cognitive interviews

5

Answer 1

a way to improve accuracy of eyewitness testimony

cognitive interviews = a police technique for interviewing witnesses of a crime

encourages them to recreate the original context of the crime in order to increase the accessibility of stored information

developed by Geiselman (1984)

x4 features...
• mental reinstatement of original context
• report everything
• change order
• change perspective

Question 2

mental reinstatement of original context

4

Answer 2

interviewer encourages the witness to mentally recreate both the physical and psychological environment of the incident

the aim of this is to make memories more accessible

studies suggest that being reminded of the place of an event or the emotional state associated with that event can act as a cue to help retrieve memories — known as context reinstatement

links to the encoding specificity principle that states that memory is most effective when information available at encoding is also available at retrieval

Question 3

report everything

3

Answer 3

interviewer encourages the reporting of every single detail of the event without editing anything out, no matter how irrelevant that detail may seem

witnesses should not leave anything out because memories are interconnected, so remembering one thing may act as a cue to remembering a whole other group of memories

moreover, small details from multiple witnesses can be pieced together to form a clearer picture of events

Question 4

change order

3

Answer 4

interviewer may try alternative ways of talking through the timeline of the incident

for example, they may ask the witness to recall the events in reverse order (from the end to the beginning)

can help identify lies or deception and also prevent the use of schemas (assumptions and prejudices) impacting recall

Question 5

change perspective

3

Answer 5

witness is asked to recall the incident from multiple perspectives

for example, imagining how it would have appeared from someone else’s point of view who was present at the time

disrupts the effect that schemas have on recall

Question 6

differences between cognitive interviews and standard police interviews

6

Answer 6

• CI = revolves around the witness who will do most of the talking
• PI = revolves around the interviewer who does most of the talking
• CI = the witnesses’ free recall is not interrupted by specific questions, which emphasises the natural process of searching through memory
• PI = the interviewer often asks specific questions that interrupt the witness’ free recall and disrupts the natural process of searching through memory
• CI = extra information is encouraged through the report everything method
• PI = witnesses are discouraged from adding extra information
• CI = steers clear of leading questions
• PI = interviewer may ask leading questions to confirm their beliefs about a crime, which can contaminate a witness’ memory and increase inaccuracy
• CI = changes order and perspective
• PI = does not change order or perspective
• CI = context reinstatement
• PI = does not reinstate context

Question 7

x3 evaluation points

Answer 7

research support from Kohnken

problems with CI in practice

useful for older witnesses

Question 8

EVALUATION
research support from Kohnken

5

Answer 8

a strength of the cognitive interview as a means of improving EWT is that it is supported by Kohnken (1999)

conducted a meta analysis of 53 studies

found that on average there was a 34% increase in the amount of correct information generated in cognitive interviews compared with standard interviews

supports the notion that cognitive interviews help increase the accuracy of eyewitness testimony

therefore, the cognitive interview can claim reliability and may be a very useful method in improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony

Question 9

EVALUATION
problems with cognitive interviews in practice

5

Answer 9

a limitation of the cognitive interview as a way of improving accuracy of EWT is that there are problems with using it in practice

police officers suggest that cognitive interviews are simply not practical because conducting them requires a lot more time than is often available for questioning

they also said that they prefer to use deliberate strategies aimed to limit an eyewitness report to the minimum amount of information necessary

furthermore, CIs require special training and many police forces have not be able to provide more than few hours of this training, which is why CIs have not become widespread

therefore, CIs may not be the most suitable or practical method of improving accuracy of EWT as police officers themselves have identified problems with them

Question 10

EVALUATION
useful for older witnesses

5

Answer 10

a strength of cognitive interviews is that they may be particularly useful when interviewing older witnesses

this is because the negative stereotype about older adults’ memory declining dramatically with age can make such witnesses overly cautious about reporting information

but the CI tackles this by stressing the importance of reporting all details no matter how insignificant they may seem

thus putting older witnesses at ease and encouraging them to try and recall as much as possible

therefore, cognitive interviews may be very useful techniques for improving eyewitness testimonies, particularly in older people