Improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony: the cognitive interview Flashcards
What does report everything mean?
Witnesses are encouraged to include every single detail of the event, even if it seems irrelevant or they seem unconfident about it. These trivial details may actually be important.
What does reinstate the context mean?
The witnesses should return to the original crime scene in their mind and imagine the environment. This is based on contrxt dependent forgetting.
Why is reversal of the order important?
Events should be recalled in a different oder from the original sequence. For example from the final looking to the begging or from the middle to the beggining. This is done to prevent people reporting their expectations of how the event happened instead of what actually happened.
Why is changing perspectives important?
Witnesses should recall the incident from other peoples perspectives. For example the witnesses or the perpetrator. This is to disrupt the effect of expectations and also schemas.
What is the enhanced cognitive interview?
Fisher developed some additional elements. E.g the interviewer needs to know when to establish eye contact and when to not. They need to include ideas such as minisming distractions, getting the eyewitnesses to speak slowly and asking,open ended questions.
Limitation of the cognitive interview.
Police officers may be reluctant to use the cognitive interview due to the fact that it is more time consuming than the standard police interview. E.g more time is needed to allow the witness to relax. Also it requires more training to conduct. This suggests that the complete cognitive interview is not a realistic method for police officers to use.
Give a limitation of the cognitive interview. (Some elements may be more useful)
Not all of its elements are used equally or as useful. Research has found that each of the four techniques used alone produced more information than the standard police interview. But a combination of report everything and reinstate the context produced better recall than any other elements or a combination of them. This confirmed police officers suspicions that some aspects are more useful than others.
Give a strength of the cognitive interview.
There is evidence that it works. For example, a meta-analysis combined data from 55 studies comparing the cognitive interview and enhanced cognitive interview with a regular police interview. The cognitive interview gave a 41% increase in accurate information compared to standard one. This shows that the cognitive interview is an effective technique in helping witnesses to recall information .However, the study also found an increase in the amount of inaccurate information using the ECI. Cognitive interviews may sacrifice quality of EWT for quantity. This means police officers should be weary of the cognitive interview.
What are the four features of the cognitive interview?
Report everything, reinstate the context, reverse the order, changing perspective.
