Improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony: Cognitive interview Flashcards
What is the cognitive interview?
The cognitive interview is a method of interviewing eyewitnesses to help them retrieve more accurate memories. It uses four main techniques, all based on well-established psychological knowledge of human memory.
Which two psychologists aimed to improve the accuracy of EWT?
Ronald Fisher and Edward Geiselman (1992): They argued that EWT could be improved if the police used better techniques when interviewing witnesses.
What were the improved techniques based on?
Fisher and Geiselman recommended that the improved techniques should be based on psychological insights into how memory works.
Collectively, what were these improved techniques known as?
These techniques were collectively known as the ‘cognitive interview’ (CI).
How many techniques are used in the cognitive interview?
There are four main techniques that are used in the cognitive interview.
What are the four main techniques used in the cognitive interview?
- Report everything
- Reinstate the context
- Reverse the order
- Change perspective
The first technique used in the cognitive interview is ‘report everything’. What are witnesses encouraged to do during this stage?
Witnesses are encouraged to include every single detail of the event, even though it may seem irrelevant or the witness doesn’t feel confident about it. Seemingly trivial details may be important and, moreover, they may trigger other important memories.
The second technique used in the cognitive interview is ‘reinstate the context’. What are witnesses encouraged to do during this stage?
The witness should return to the original crime scene ‘in their mind’ and imagine the environment (e.g. what the weather was like or what they could see) and their emotions (such as what they were feeling). This is related to context-dependent forgetting.
The third technique used in the cognitive interview is ‘reversing the order’. What are witnesses encouraged to do during this stage?
Events should be recalled in a different chronological order to the original sequence, for example, from the final point back to the beginning, or from the middle to the beginning.
What is the purpose of asking witnesses to reverse the order of events at a crime scene?
This is done to prevent people reporting their expectations of how the event must have happened rather than the actual events. It prevents dishonesty because it is harder for people to produce an untruthful account if they have to reverse it.
The fourth technique used in the cognitive interview is ‘changing perspective’. What are witnesses encouraged to do during this stage?
Witnesses should recall the incident from other people’s perspectives. For example, how it would have appeared to other witnesses or to the perpetrator.
What is the purpose of asking witnesses to view the crime scene from an alternative 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.
Who developed the enhanced cognitive interview (ECI)?
Fisher et al (1987)
How did Fisher et al. develop the cognitive interview?
Fisher et al. developed some additional elements of the CI to focus on the social dynamics of the interaction. For example, the interviewer needs to know when to establish eye contact and when to establish it. The ECI also includes ideas such as reducing eyewitness anxiety, minimising distractions, getting the witness to speak slowly and asking open-ended questions.
