Memory: topic 8 ‘improving the accuracy of EWT with the use of cognitive interviews’

Question 1

What is a cognitive interview?

Answer 1

• a method of interviewing eyewitnesses which aims to help them provide more accurate eyewitness testimony
• it uses four main: context reinstatement, report everything, change the perspective and reverse the order

Question 2

What is an enhanced cognitive interview?

Answer 2

• developed by Fischer to focus on the social dynamics of the interview
• the enhanced cognitive interview built on the four main techniques by insuring the interviewer knows when to establish eye contact and when not to, how to reduce eyewitnesses anxiety, how to minimise distractions, to get the witness to speak slowly and to ask open ended questions

Question 3

What is a standard police interview?

Answer 3

• the witnesses are often interrupted and not allowed to talk freely about their experiences which breaks their concentration
• involve closed questions rather than open questions which encourage shorter answers with less details

Question 4

What is the aim of the cognitive interview?

Answer 4

• Fisher and Geisleman developed the cognitive interview which was based on demonstrated psychological principles concerning effective recall
• the aim is to encourage the eye witness to recall more information

Question 5

What is context reinstatement?

Answer 5

• asking the eyewitness to imagine themselves back at the scene of the crime again by trying to imagine how they were feeling at the time and try to recreate that feeling
• this provides retrieval cues to help them access their memory of the event

Question 6

What is report everything?

Answer 6

• the interviewer encourages the eyewitness to report every single detail of the event even though it might seem irrelevant as it may actually be of importance to the investigation
• this helps as it may serve as retrieval cues to help prompt more relevant details to be recalled

Question 7

What is changing the perspective?

Answer 7

• the witness is asked to recall the incident from multiple perspectives and not just from their own
• for example, by imagining how it would have appeared to other witnesses present at the time
• this is done because psychological research has shown memories can be retrieved through a number of different routes and therefore it is more productive to vary these access routes during questioning
• it also reduces the influence of schema

Question 8

What is reverse the order?

Answer 8

• the interviewer may try alternative ways through the time line of the incident
• for example, they may reverse the order and get the eyewitness to recall the target event starting at the event and tracking backwards
• this is to try and retrieve memories via a number of different routes to increase accuracy and detail of recall

Question 9

What are the strengths of cognitive interview? [2]

Answer 9

• kohnken’s meta-analysis of 53 studies found that cognitive interviews generated on average 34% more correct information than standard interviewing techniques
• it was concluded the cognitive interview was a more effective interview technique than the older interview methods
• this is positive as it supports the view that the cognitive interview can increase EWT accuracy.
• it may have a positive effect on the economy
• by improving the accuracy of EWT, the cognitive interview may be helping to improve efficiency in the legal system
• for example, it may help police identify criminals sooner
  by maximising the information the eyewitnesses can give
• this is positive as it helps reduce time waste and improves the efficiency in the justice system

Question 10

What are the limitations of cognitive interviews? [2]

Answer 10

• conducting cognitive interviews may raise ethical issues
• asking participants to mentally ‘relive’ often very traumatic experiences might well lead to a lack of protection from harm
• for example, someone who witnessed a particularly violent
  murder or sexual assault might find going through the event in such vivid detail too traumatic
• this is a problem as it might go against the ethical code of conduct
• the police have criticised the amount of time cognitive interviews take
• this means that in practice, it seemed that the officers felt unable to conduct a full cognitive interview due to the lack of time available and the need for the key details rather than great detail
• for example, it has been shown that officers often favoured using the ‘report everything’ and ‘context reinstatement’ instructions but would not spend time using the ‘changing perspective’ and ‘reverse order’ instructions
• this is a problem as it suggests that not all of the techniques of the cognitive interview are useful