Memory - 06 Improving accuracy of eye witness testimony & cognitive interview

Question 1

What is the cognitive interview?

Answer 1

police technique for interviewing witnesses to crimes, which encourages them to recreate the original context in order to increase the accessibility of stored information

Question 2

What are the 4 components of the cognitive interview?

Answer 2

1)report everything
2)reinstate the context
3)reverse the order
4)change perspective

Question 3

What happens in the report everything component?

Answer 3

-witnesses are asked to report every detail, even if they think it is not significant
-unimportant details might act as a trigger for key information about the event

Question 4

What happens in the reinstate the context component?

Answer 4

-witnesses are asked to use all of their 5 senses in their recollection as this may trigger the recall of context dependent memories
-includes sights, sounds, feelings, emotions and the weather

Question 5

What happens in the reverse the order component?

Answer 5

-people tend to recall more recent events more clearly than others
-witnesses should be encouraged to work backwards from the end to the beginning
-aids recall as it reduces the witnesses use of prior knowledge, expectations or schema

Question 6

What happens in the change perspective component?

Answer 6

-witnesses are asked to report the incident from different perspectives, describing what they think other witnesses (or even the victim or criminal) might have seen

Question 7

What is the enhanced cognitive interview?

Answer 7

when the interviewer must build rapport with the witness to make them feel more comfortable during the interview

Question 8

Supporting evidence for the cognitive interview (Geiselman et al)

Answer 8

-p’s viewed film of violent crime, after 48 hours interviewed using cognitive interview, standard interview or hypnosis
-average number of correctly recalled facts for cognitive interview was 41.2, hypnosis 38 and standard interview 29.4
-cognitive interview leads to better memory than traditional interview

Question 9

weakness of the cognitive interview (time-consuming)

Answer 9

-police may be reluctant to use it, as you need time to build rapport and allow witness to relax, also requires training
-quite unlikely police will use proper version as it takes too long

Question 10

strength of the cognitive interview (combination is most effective)

Answer 10

-Milne & Bull, combination of report everything and context reinstatement produced best results
-at least 2 elements should be used even if not all 4 are
-increases the credibility of it amongst police officers

Question 11

strength of the cognitive interview (special benefits)

Answer 11

-enhanced cognitive interview provided more correct information than standard interview
-real practical benefits to police, gives police a greater chance of catching & charging criminals, which his beneficial to society as a whole

Question 12

weakness of the cognitive interview (increase in inaccurate information)

Answer 12

-although aims to increase correct information, recall of incorrect information may also increase
-81% increase of correct information BUT also 61% increase in incorrect information in comparison to standard interviews
-may affect investigations and cause wrongful convictions