memory EWT cognitive interview

Question 1

what is the cognitive interview?

Answer 1

A method of interviewing eyewitnesses to help them retrieve more accurate information

Question 2

whats a schema

Answer 2

mental framework of beliefs and expectations that influence cognitive processing - developed from experience
Standard interview

Question 3

who came up with the theory?

Answer 3

Fisher and Geiselman

Question 4

what are the four factors for cognitive interview?

Answer 4

Context reinstatement
Report everything
Recall in reverse order
change perspective

Question 5

context reinstatement

Answer 5

mentally returning to the scene if the crime, including physical environment and emotional state - cue dependent

Question 6

Report everything

Answer 6

all details should be given even if seems irrelevant - may trigger memories

Question 7

Recall in reverse order

Answer 7

recall switch to different chronology / timelines - challenges expectation and dishonesty ( harder to produce an untruthful account )
→ having to think more deeply about it rather than making assumptions

Question 8

changing

Question 9

change perspective

Answer 9

consider mentally recreated how the scene would have been recalled from perspective of other witnesses - to disrupt schema recall
As the schema you have for a specific setting generates specific expectations of what would have happened → schema is recalled rather than the real events

Question 10

Enhanced cognitive interview

Answer 10

Also noticed was that they needed to train officers in social skills ( ie supporting confidence) to get the most correct answer.

• Focused on making witnesses more comfortable
• Reducing eye witness anxiety
• Minimising distractions
• Open ended questions
• Managing eye contact
• Witnesses to speak slowly
• Reminded not to guess at information

Question 11

Strengths

Answer 11

Meta analysis the enhanced CI consistently provided more correct information than the standard interview → indicates their are real practical benefits for using CI - gives police a greater

Milne and Bull → found that each individual element are equally valuable
But found that combination of (report everything x context reinstatement)produced better recall than any of the other conditions
Confirm so aspects are more useful than others - suggests at least two elements should be used to improve EWT- increases the credibility

However for older witnesses perform better with Cognitive interview
Fisher → group 72 yrs performed better than 22yrs
Considered a useful technique

Question 12

Limitations

Answer 12

Practical issues
Police may be reluctant to use CI as takes more time → police don’t have time
CI also requires special training with some forces not able to many hours → unlikely that the full CI will be used ( time and price consuming)
However the analysis also found a 61% increase of incorrect information when the enhanced cognitive interview was used.

Alot of the tests are lab based → lack ecological validity

Individual differences - not able to work well with all witnesses such as younger children may not be able to effectively recall the story in a reversed situation.