MEMORY: Improving the Accuracy of Eyewitness Testimony : Cognitive Interview Flashcards
What did Fisher and Geiselman argue
EWT could be improved if police used better techniques when interviewing witnesses
F&G argued such better techniques should be based on
psychological insights into how memory works
What is the Cognitive Interview
method using better techniques to interview EW to help em retrieve more acccurate memories
Why is the CI called the CI
shows its roots in cognitive psych
What are the 4 main techniques used in the CI
Report Everything
Reinstate the context
Reverse the order
Change Perspectiv e
What happens in Report Everything
witnesses encouraged include all details even if they think its irrelevant or arent confident in it
Whyin REPORT EVERYTHING are witnesses encouraged to report even the things they think irrelevant/unconfident
they may be important + may trigger other important memories
What happens in reinstate the context
witnesses return to the og crime scene in mind and
imagine the environment e.g weather/what they saw
and their emotions . happy/bored etc
Why do witnesses in reinstate the context imagine their emotions
related to context dependent forgetting
What happens in reverse the order
events retold in a different order from og
e.g back to front/middle to beginning
Why is Reverse the Order a thing
prevent people reporting their expectations of how event happened rather than actual events
prevents dishonesty as harder to lie when giving story ina different order + posisbly more obvious
What happens in change the perspective
witnesses recall incident from other peoples perspective
e.g how it appeared to other witness or perpetrator
Why is CHANGE THE PERSPECTIVE a thing
disrupt effect of expectation
disrupt effect of schema on recall
CHANGE THE PERSPECTIVE - the schema you have for a particular setting generates what and how does this affect recall
schema had for a particular setting generates expectations of what wouldve happened
therefore schema is recalled as opposed to what actually happened
what did fisher et al. develop in 1987
additional element sof the CI
wHY DID FISHER ET AL develop additional elemtns of the ci
to focus on the social dynamics of the interaction
Give an example of how social dynamic has been improved
interviwer needs to know when to give eye contact then when to relinquish it
the enhanced CI includes ideas such as
reducing EW anxiety
minimsing distractions
getting witness to speak slowly
asking open ended questions
strength of the cognitive interview
evidence that it works
explain strength of the cognitive interview
meta analysis by konhken combined data from 55 studies comparing the e/ci with standard police interview
ci gave avg 41% increase ina ccurate info compared to SI
Only 4 studies in analysis showed no difference between the types of interviews
SHOWS CI effective technique in helping witnesses recall info that is stored in memory but not immediatley accessible
Counterpoint to Evidence it works
increase in ammount of innacurate infor recalled by pt
Explain CP to evidence it works
particular issue in the ECI , producing more incorrect details than the CI
CI may sacrifice quality of EWT (accuracy) in favour of quantity ( amount of details )
therefore police should treat EWT evidence from CI and ECI with caution
What is the limitation of the CI
Not all of its elements equally effective or useful
explain limitation of the CI - Not all of its elements equally effective or useful
milne and bull found each of techniques used alone produced more info than the standard police interview
also found combo of RE and RC produced better recall than any of the other four elements/ combo of them
confirmed police officers suspiscions some aspects of the CI more useful than others
therefore casting doubts on credibility of the whole cog interview
Another limitation of CI
Police officers may be reluctant to use the CI as takes more time and training than the SI
Explain police limtiation of the CI
more time needed to establish rapport with Interviewee and allow them to relax
ci requires special training and lots of forces dont’ have the resources to provide more than a few hours
suggests complete CI as it exists not a realistic mehtod for police officers to use and might be better to focus on a few elemtns like RE RC
