Improving the accuracy of Eye-Witness Testimony - The Cognitive interview Flashcards
What is the Cognitive Interview?
Posited by Fisher and Geiselman, they argued that eyewitness testimony could be improved if the police used better techniques to interview witnesses. Such techniques should be based on psychological insights into how memory works, and call these techniques collectively the ‘cognitive interview’ to indicate its foundation in cognitive psychology.
What is Stage 1 of the Cognitive Interview?
Report Everything - include every single detail even if it seems irrelevant or potentially wrong. These details may be important or trigger other memories.
What is Stage 2 of the Cognitive Interview?
Reinstate the Context - they should return to the scene in their mind, and imagine the environment and emotions. This is related to context-dependant forgetting.
What is Stage 3 of the Cognitive Interview?
Reverse the Order - Events should be recalled in a different order - preventing people from reporting their expectations of how the event must have happened. Also prevents dishonesty.
What is Stage 4 of the Cognitive Interview?
Witnesses should recall the incident from other peoples perspectives. this dissuades the effect of expectations and schema. The schema you have of a particular setting generate expectations of what would have happened and that is recalled rather than the memory.
What is the Enhanced Cognitive Interview?
Fisher - developed additional elements to focus on the social dynamics of the interaction. For example, when to establish eye contact. It also includes ideas such as reducing eyewitness anxiety, minimising distractions, getting the witness to speak slowly and using open-ended questions.
What is the evaluation - Support for it’s effectiveness?
One strength is that there is evidence it works. A meta-analysis combined data from 55 studies comparing the E/CI and a standard interview. The CI gave a 41% increase in accurate information.
What is the limitation - Increase in inaccurate information?
It has also been found that there is an increase in the amount of inaccurate information recalled. This was a particular issue with the ECI. Cognitive Interviews may sacrifice quality of EWT in favour of quantity.
What is the evaluation - Some elements may be more useful?
Not all elements are equal - Milne and Bull found that each 4 techniques used alone produced more than the standard interview, but also found that Report Everything and Reinstate the Context produced better recall than the 4 combined.
What is the evaluation - The CI is time-consuming?
Officers may be reluctant to use it because it takes more time and training. More time is needed to establish rapport and allow them to relax. It also requires special training and many forces do not have the resources needed to provide this. This suggests that it is not a realistic method to use.
