Improving Eye Witness Testimony

Question 1

how do you improve the eye witness testimony

Answer 1

THE COGNITIVE INTERVIEW

Question 2

who developed the cognitive interview

Answer 2

Fisher and Geislman

Question 3

what are the 4 main parts of the cognitive interview

Answer 3

report everything
context reinstatement
reverse the order
change perspective

Question 4

what is ‘report everything’ in the cognitive interview

Answer 4

the witness includes every piece of detail that they can about an event

whether they feel it relevant or not they should include every detail possible

Question 5

what is the aim of the ‘report everything’ in cognitive interview

Answer 5

act as a cue to trigger more info

Question 6

what is ‘context reinstatement’ in the cognitive interview

Answer 6

the witness should return to the scene of the event in their mind trying to reimagine the context of the situation

e.g what the wetaher was like, their emotion

Question 7

what is the aim of context reinstatement in the cognitive interview

Answer 7

to trigger cues to trigger more information

Question 8

what is ‘reverse the order’ in the cognitive interview

Answer 8

the events are recalled in a different order to the original sequence

Question 9

what is the aim of ‘reverse the order’ in the cognitive interview

Answer 9

people dont report their expectations removing schemas of an event

Question 10

what is ‘change perspective’ in the cognitive interview

Answer 10

witnesses should try to recall events from a different persons perspective

e.g what would they have seen if they were the perpetrator

Question 11

what is the aim of ‘ change perspective’ in the cognitive interview

Answer 11

this is done to disrupt the effects of expectations of recall and the impact of schema on recall

Question 12

who investigated improving eye-witness testimony

Answer 12

geiselman (1986)

Question 13

What was the aim of Geiselmans investigation into the cognitive interview

Answer 13

To investigate the effectiveness of the cognitive interview

Question 14

What was the procedure of geiselmans investigation into the cognitive interview

Answer 14

An intruder carried a blue rucksack enters classroom and stole a projector

Two days later p.t were questioned about the event with either a standard interview or a cognitive interview

P.t asked ‘was the guy with the green backpack nervous’ ~ leading Q

Later in interview asked ‘what color the man’s rucksack was’

Question 15

What were the findings of Geiselman experiment into the cognitive interview

Answer 15

P.t in the cognitive interview condition were less likely to recall the rucksack as being green than those given the standard interview

Question 16

What did geiselman conclude after his experiment into the cognitive interviews effectiveness

Answer 16

The cognitive interview technique enhances memory recall and reduces the effect of leading Q’s

Question 17

Weakness of the cognitive interview

Answer 17

P: Police may be reluctant to use the cognitive interview because it takes up more time than standard police interview.
E:For example more time is needed to establish rapport with the witness allow them to relax.
E:The cognitive interview also require special training increasing costs
L:This means it is unlikely that the proper version of cognitive interview is actually used which makes being my police have not been not impressed by it.

Question 18

Strengths of using the cognitive interview

Answer 18

P: Research suggests that the enhanced cognitive interview offers special benefits.
E: For example meta-analysis by Kohnken (1999) combined data from 50 studies.
E: The enhanced cognitive interview consistently provided more correct information than the standard interview used by police.
L: This is a strength because studies such as this would indicate that there are real practical benefits to the police of using the enhanced version of the cognitive interview increasing ability to catch criminals improving society overall.