memory 1.6 Flashcards
Improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony, including the use of the cognitive interview.
what is the cognitive interview based on?
psychological understanding of memory
cognitive interview
a method of interviewing eyewitnesses about what they can recall from a crime scene or event
it was developed as a way of improving EWT in order to enhance recall and thus lead to more accurate conviction of the perpetrator.
what did Fisher and Geiselman (1992) claim?
they claimed that EWT could be improved if the police use techniques based on psychological insights into how memory works
why is it called the cognitive interview?
to indicate its foundation in cognitive psychology
rapport
the ability to connect with others in a way that creates a climate of trust and understanding
it is established with interviewees using four main techniques
four stages of the cognitive interview (not including enhanced cognitive interview)
report everything
reinstate the context
reverse the order
change perspective
report everything step
witnesses are encouraged to include every detail of an event, even if it seems irrelevant or the witness is not confident about it
seemingly trivial details could be important and may trigger other memories
reinstate the context step
witness returns to the original crime scene ‘in their mind’ and imagines the environment (e.g. the weather) and their emotions (e.g. what they felt)
this is based on the concept of context-dependent forgetting
cues from the context may trigger recall
reverse the order step
events are recalled in a different order (e.g. from the end back to the beginning)
this prevents people basing their descriptions on their expectations of how the event must have happened rather than the actual events
also prevents dishonesty as it is harder to produce an untruthful account if it has to be reversed
change perspective step
witnesses recall the incident from other people’s perspectives
‘how would it have appeared to another witness or the perpetrator?’
this prevents the influence of expectations and scheme on recall
schemas are packages of information developed through experience, they generate a framework for interpreting incoming information
enhanced cognitive interview (ECI)
Fisher et al (1987) developed addition elements of the cognitive interview
this includes a focus on the social dynamics of the interaction (e.g. knowing when to establish and relinquish eye contact)
the enhanced cognitive interview also includes ideas such as reducing the eyewitness’ anxiety, minimising distractions, getting the witness to speak slowly and asking open ended questions
who researched into the effectiveness of the cognitive interview?
Geiselman (1986)
what was Geiselman (1986)’s aim?
investigate the effectiveness of the cognitive interview
what was Geiselman (1986)’s procedure?
an intruder carrying a blue rucksack entered a classroom and stole a slide projector
two days later participants were questioned about the vent with either a standard or cognitive interview
early in the interview participants were asked “was the guy with the green backpack nervous?”
later on in the interview participants were asked “what colour was the man’s rucksack?”
what were Geiselman (1986)’s results?
participants in the cognitive interview technique were less likely to recall the rucksack as being green than those given the standard interview
what was Geiselman (1986)’s conclusion?
the cognitive interview technique enhances memory recall and reduces the effect of leading questions
explain how supporting evidence from Geiselman et al (1985) is a strength of the cognitive interview
it involved the Los Angeles police department
participants watched police training films of simulated violent crimes
they were interviewed 48 hours later using either a standard interview or cognitive interview by experienced police officers
in the standard interview the average number of correct items recalled was 29.4 and the average number of incorrect items recalled was 7.3
in the cognitive interview, the average number of correct items recalled was 41.2 and the average number of incorrect items recalled was 6.1
therefore this supports the cognitive interview as more items were correctly recalled using it
explain how supporting evidence from Fisher et al (1989) is a strength of the cognitive interview
7 experienced detectives from robbery division of miami police department were trained to use the cognitive interview, compared with 9 untrained detectives
all interviews were tape recorded so they could later be analysed
detectives trained in the cognitive interview produced 63% more information than untrained detectives with over 90% accuracy
this demonstrates how the cognitive interview can lead to better recall in eyewitnesses over the standard interview
explain how challenging evidence from Kohnken et al (1999) is a weakness of the cognitive interview
it involved a meta analysis, analysing 42 studies which involved nearly 2500 interviews
whilst they found, on the one hand the cognitive interview did lead to an increase in correctly recalled information when the cognitive interview was used, there were more errors produced than the original cognitive interview
explain how being time consuming is a limitation of the cognitive interview
this is because, not only does it take much longer to conduct than a standard police interview due to the need to build up a rapport with the witness, it also requires time to train police officers
in fact, one study asked police officers who were trained in the cognitive interview to rate how frequently they used it and how useful they found the different parts of the cognitive interview
an interesting finding from this study was that a major problem for many officers was that they do not have time to conduct a full cognitive interview so despite the fact that the evidence points to the effectiveness of the cognitive interview, the time pressures and limited resources of the police can mean that the full cognitive interview is rarely used
