improving the accuracy eye witness testimony ; cognitive interview

Question 1

1. report everything

Answer 1

encouraged to include every single detail of an event , trivial details may be important and may trigger more important memories

Question 2

2. reinstate the context

Answer 2

return to original crime scene in their mind and imagine the environment and their emotions
linked to contact dependent forgetting

Question 3

3. reverse the order

Answer 3

events should eb recalled in a different chronological order to the original sequence
this is doen to prevent people reporting their expectations of how the event happened rather then the actual events , also prevents dishonesty

Question 4

4. change perspective

Answer 4

recall the incident from other peoples perspective
ie how it would appear to other witnesses or to the perpetrator
doen to disrupt the effect of expectations and schema on recall

Question 5

enhanced cognitive interview
ECI

Answer 5

Fisher et al 1987
developed some additional elements of the CI to focus on the social dynamics of the interaction . for example the interviewer needs to know when to establish eye contact and when to relinquish it . this enhanced CI also includes ideas such as reducing eyewitness anxiety minimising distractions getting the witness to speak slowly and askeing open ended questions .

Question 6

limitation
CI is time consuming

Answer 6

police may be reluctant to use CI because it takes much more time than the standard police interview .
ie more time is needed to establish rapport with the witness and allow them to relax
CI also requires special training and many forces may not have been able to provide more than a few hours kebbell and Wagstaff 1966
this means it is unlikely that the proper version of CI is actually sed which may explain why police have not been that impressed by it

Question 7

strength
some elements may be more valuable than others

Answer 7

Milne and bull 2002 found that each indvidual element was equally valuable. each technique used singly produced more information than the standard policy interview . however m+b found that using a combination of report everything and context reinstatement produced better recall then any of the other conditions.
confirmed police officers suspicions that some aspects of the CI are more useful that others
strength bc it suggests that at least these two elements should be used to improve police interviewing of eyewitness even if the full CI is used.

Question 8

strength
support for the effectiveness of the ECI

Answer 8

research suggests that the enhanced cognitive interview may offer special benefits
Kohnken conducted a meta analysis of 50 studies , the enhanced CI consistently provided more correct information than the standard interview used by the police
strength bc tstudies such as tis one indicate that there are real practical benefits to the police of using the enhanced version of CI . this research shows that it gives the police a greater chance of catching and charging criminals which is beneficial to society