Improving The Accuracy Of Eyewitness Testimony

Question 1

Who developed the cognitive interview?

Answer 1

Fisher and Geiselman

Question 2

What are the 4 elements of the cognitive interview?

Answer 2

Report everything
Reinstate context
Reverse chronological recall
Change the perspective

Question 3

Explain ‘report everything’ in the cognitive interview

Answer 3

Eyewitnesses report every detail despite how insignificant they may seem as they could trigger the recall of larger events by acting as a ‘cue’

Question 4

Explain ‘reinstating the context’ in the cognitive interview

Answer 4

Eyewitnesses asked to recall weather, location and mood of the day (prevents context dependent forgetting)

Question 5

Explain ‘Reverse chronological recall’ in the cognitive interview

Answer 5

Reduces the ability of an eyewitness to lie and also helps remove schemas on their perception of events

Question 6

Explain ‘change the perspective’ in the cognitive interview

Answer 6

Eyewitness recalls the event from another person’s perspective, this helps reduce schemas or pre-conceived perceptions of how the crime happened

Question 7

Limitation of the cognitive interview?

Answer 7

It is very time consuming and requires specialist training to be able to conduct it.
Many police forces don’t have the resources to provide this training, so it’s not very useful.

Question 8

Strength of the cognitive interview?

Answer 8

Milne and Bull (2002) found that context reinstatement and report everything produced the greatest accuracy of recall. Not all steps have to be used so police forces can increase the accuracy of EWT gradually.