Improving Eye Witness Testimony

Question 1

What is the cognitive interview?

Answer 1

Police technique for interviewing witnesses that encourages them to recreate the original context of the crime

Question 2

What are the 4 techniques used?

Answer 2

• Report everything
• Reinstatement of context
• Change order
• Change perspective

Question 3

Report everything

Answer 3

Include every single detail of the event (including own thoughts/feelings) to trigger other important memories

Question 4

Reinstatement of context

Answer 4

Returning to the scene of the crime (or imagining) to use context/state cues available there

Question 5

Change order

Answer 5

Recall events of the crime backwards to remove expectations and gap filling (schema)

Question 6

Change perspective

Answer 6

Recall the incident from someone/something else’s perspective go disrupt schemas

Question 7

Fisher and Geiselman’s use of the Cognitive Interview

Answer 7

• 1989
• Police interviewed 47 witnesses
• All first interviews standard
• G1: standard again
• G2: cognitive
• Cognitive had 47% more facts recalled compared to no increase in fact for standard

Question 8

Koehnk

Answer 8

• 1999
• Found that witnesses recalled more incorrect info when interviewed with cognitive (more detail = higher chance of making mistakes)
• Cognitive more time consuming than standard, benefits may outweigh costs however due to better EWT, therefore less wrongful convictions