improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony

Question 1

explain the cognitive interview (Fisher and Geiselman)

Answer 1

a method of interviewing eyewitnesses to help them retrieve more accurate memories. It uses 4 main techniques, all based on well-established psychological knowledge of human memory -report everything, reinstate the context, reverse the order and change perspective.

Question 2

1.report everything

Answer 2

witnesses are encouraged to include every single detail of the event, even if they feel it may seem irrelevant . Trivial details may be important and also trigger other important memories

Question 3

2. reinstate the context

Answer 3

The witness should return to the original crime scene ‘in their mind’and imagine the environment and their emotions. This is related to context-dependent forgetting.

Question 4

3. reverse the order

Answer 4

events should be recalled in a different chronological order to the original sequence to prevent people’s expectations of how the event must have carried out and prevent dishonesty.

Question 5

4.change perspective

Answer 5

witnesses should recall the incident from other people’s perspective. This is done to disrupt the effect of expectations and schema on recall. The schema you have for a particular setting generate expectations of what would have happened and it is the schema that is recalled rather than what actually happened.

Question 6

explain the enhanced cognitive interview

Answer 6

Fisher et al. developed some additional elements to the cognitive interview to focus on the social dynamics of the interaction. E.g the interviewer needs to know when to establish eye contact and when to relinquish it. Also includes minimising distractions, getting the witness to speak slowly and asking open-ended questions.

Question 7

AO3- the ci is time consuming

Answer 7

police may be reluctant to use the cognitive interview because it takes much more time than a standard police interview. E.g, more time is needed to establish rapport with the witness and allow them to relax. Also requires special training and many forces have not been able to provide more than a few hours. This means that it is unlikely that the ‘proper’ version of the cognitive interview is used, which may explain why police have not been that impressed by it.

Question 8

AO3- variations of the CI are used

Answer 8

Studies of the effectiveness of the cognitive interview inevitably use slightly different cognitive interview techniques or used the enhanced cognitive interview. The same is true in real life - police forces evolve their own methods

Question 9

AO3- cognitive interviews create an increase in inaccurate info

Answer 9

The techniques of the cognitive interview aim to increase the amount of correct info remembered but the recall of incorrect info may also be increased. For example, Kohnken et al.found an 81% increase of correct info but also a 61% increase of incorrect info when the enhanced cognitive interview was compared to a standard interview.