improving the accuracy of ewt - cognitive interview

Question 1

what is a cognitive interview

Answer 1

eye witness testimony can be improved if police used better techniques when interviewing ewt

Question 2

4 steps of cognitive interview

Answer 2

report everything
reinstate the context
reverse the order
change perspective

Question 3

report everything

Answer 3

witnesses are encouraged to include every detail of the event even those that seem irrelevant

may trigger important memories

Question 4

reinstate the context

Answer 4

should return to the original crime scene and imagine the environment

such as the weather and their emotions

related to context dependent forgetting

Question 5

reverse the order

Answer 5

should be recalled in a different order from the original sequence

to prevent people from reporting their original findings

prevents dishonesty

Question 6

change the perspective

Answer 6

recall incident from other people perspectives

disrupt the effect of the schema on recall

Question 7

what is an enhanced cognitive interview

Answer 7

fisher et al

developed additional elements to cognitive interview to focus on the dynamics of interaction

reducing eyewitness anxiety , minimising distractions

Question 8

strength

Answer 8

supportive for the effectiveness of the CI

strength - evidence that it works

example - meta analysis combined data from 55 studies comparing the CI with standard police interviews

CI gave an average increase of 41% in recall compared with a standard interview

shows that CI is an effective technique in helping witnesses to recall information that is stored in memory but not immediately accessible

Question 9

limitation

Answer 9

some elements may be more useful

limitation- not all events are equally useful or effective

Milne and Bull - each of the four techniques used alone produced more info than standard police interview

also found that using a combo of report everything and reinstate context produced better recall than a combo

casts doubts on the credibility of the overall cognitive interview

Question 10

limitation

Answer 10

CI is time consuming

takes more training than the standard police interview

more time is needed to establish a rapport with witness to allow them to relax

also requires special force training

not a realistic method for police officers to use