Improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony: Cognitive interview Flashcards
What is a cognitive interview?
A method of interviewing eyewitnesses to help them retrieve more accurate memories. It uses four main techniques, all based on evidence-based psychological knowledge of human memory - report everything, reinstate the context, reverse the order and change perspective.
What does report everything involve?
- Witnesses are encouraged to include every single detail of the event even if it may seem irrelevant or the witness doesn’t feel confident about it.
- Minor details may act as a cue to trigger more important information.
What does reverse order involve?
Witness is encouraged to return to the scene of the event in the hope that this may provide cues to help recall detail.
What does change perspective involve?
Witness is asked to recall events in a different order sequence.
This is done to prevent reporting expectations of how the event happened.
It also prevents dishonesty - harder to produce untruthful account if reversed.
What is enhanced cognitive interview?
Was developed in 1987 and added further elements to the CI, focusing on the dynamic between the interviewer and witness- for example, when to maintain eye contact and how long for, asking open questions, and speaking slowly.
The advanced CI includes ideas such as reducing eyewitness anxiety, minimising distractions, getting the witness to speak slowly and asking open-ended questions.
What is the strength of cognitive interviews?
Support for the effectiveness.
Meta-analysis by Kohnken et al combined data from 55 studies comparing CI with the standard police interview. The CI gave 41% increase in accurate information compared with standard interview. Only 4 studies in the analysis showed no difference between the types of interview.
CI effective technique helping witness recall information stored in memory but not immediately accessible.
What are the strengths of cognitive interviews?
Some elements may be more useful - Milne and Bull.
Time consuming.
What did Milne and Bull find?
Using a combination of report everything and reinstate the context produced better recall than any other element or combination of them.
How are cognitive interviews time-consuming?
Takes more time and training than standard police interview.
Time need to establish rapport with a witness and allow them to relax.
Many forces don’t have resources to provide more than a few hours.
Might be better to focus on just a few key elements.
