Improving The Accuracy Of EWT: The Cognitive Interview Flashcards
Who developed the cognitive interview?
Fisher and Geiselman (1992)
What is the cognitive interview (CI)?
Its a method of increasing the accuracy of eyewitness testimony recall in police interviews.
What is the CI based on?
Tulvig’s (1974) idea that there are several retrieval paths to each memory and information not available through one technique, may be accessible through another.
What’s another principle behind the CI?
It involves Tulving and Thomson’s *encoding specificity theory
What is Tulving and Thomsons encoding specificity theory
It suggests that memory traces consist of several features and using as many retrieval cues as possible enhances recall.
What are the components of the CI?
~Change of narrative order
~Change of perspective
~Mental reinstatement of context
~Report everything
Change of narrative order
Recount the scene in different chronological orders, e.g. from end to beginning.
Change of perspective
Recount the scene from different perspectives, e.g. from the offender’s point of view.
Mental reinstatement of context
Return to both the environmental and emotional context of the crime scene, e.g. weather and feeling.
Report everything
Recall all information, even if it appears to have little relevance or is accorded a lower level of confidence.
What does the context provide in CI?
It provides cues that increase feature overlap between initial witnessing and subsequent retrieval contexts, with context reinstatement involving emotional elements which work via state-dependent effects and sequencing elements, involving what was being done at the time.
What are some examples of state-dependent effects?
Returning to the scene of the crime and picturing how it smelt, what could be heard etc.
Why are witnesses encouraged to ‘report everything’ in CI?
Trivial incidents trigger more important memories.
Why does the change of narrative order and perspective aid recall?
They reduce witnesses’ use of prior knowledge, expectations and schemas, increasing EWT accuracy.
Fisher et al. (1987)
Suggested an amended version of the CI known as the enhanced cognitive interview (ECI).
evaluation of the cognitive interview
- Time consuming
- More structured
- Fisher et Al
Evaluation: time consuming
-Very time consuming to conduct
-Lengthy training compared to standard police training
-As a result it is unlikely that the CI is used consistently police forces
-Police are using different variations of the CI
-Control of extraneous variables is impossible
-Lacks credibility
Evaluation: more structured
The technique is more structured than the standard technique, and it seems appropriate for crime-related interviews to be very thorough in order to gather the detail required for a useful testimony.
Evaluation: fisher et al
In a real-life test, Fisher et al. (1990) trained detectives from the Miami Police Department to use the cognitive interview. Police interviews with
eyewitnesses and victims were videotaped and the total number of statements was scored. A second eyewitness was then asked to confirm
whether these were true or false.
Compared to the standard procedure used, the cognitive interview produced 46% increase in recall and 90% accuracy. The findings suggested that the cognitive interview is more effective than the standard interview, producing higher recall and reducing errors.
