Memory: Eyewitness testimony and cognitive interview

Question 1

Anxiety

Answer 1

A state of emotional and physical arousal, for example feeling tension and increased heart rate
Can effect the accuracy of eyewitness testimony

Question 2

Context reinstatement

Answer 2

The witness should return to the crime scene in their mind and imagine the environment and their emotions
This is related to context-dependent forgetting

Question 3

Composite sketch

Answer 3

A recreation of someone’s face used to help convict a criminal

Question 4

Enhanced cognitive interview (ECI)

Answer 4

Fisher et al (1987) developed some additional elements of the CI to focus on the social dynamics of the interaction, including ideas such as reducing eyewitness anxiety, minimising distractions, getting the witness to speak slowly and asking open-ended questions

Question 5

Eyewitness testimony

Answer 5

The ability of people to remember details of events, such as accidents and crimes, which they themselves observed

Question 6

Four factors of cognitive interview

Answer 6

Report everything
Context reinstatement
Recall from a changed perspective
Recall in reverse order

Question 7

Leading question

Answer 7

A question that suggests a certain answer, e.g. ‘was the knife in the accused’s left hand?’

Question 8

Misleading information

Answer 8

Incorrect information given to the eyewitness after the event which can alter their testimony
This includes leading questions and post-event discussion

Question 9

Post-event discussion

Answer 9

When witnesses discuss the event and this influences their memory of it

Question 10

Recall from a changed perspective

Answer 10

Witnesses should recall the event from another perspective. This disrupts the effect of schema and expectations on recall. The schema you have for a setting generates expectations of what happened

Question 11

Recall in reverse order

Answer 11

Events should be recalled in an order other than chronological, which helps prevent people reporting their expectations of how an event happened, and prevents dishonesty as it is harder for people to be untruthful when recalling in reverse order

Question 12

Report everything

Answer 12

Witnesses are encouraged to include every single detail, even though it may seem irrelevant. Trivial details may be important or trigger other memories

Question 13

Strengths of CI

Answer 13

Fisher et al showed detectives trained in CI obtained 63% more information than detectives not trained in CI
Kohnken carried out a meta-analysis of 53 different lab studies and showed that CI increases the effectiveness of EWT
Practical application - CI has improved EWT

Question 14

Strengths of EWT

Answer 14

Loftus’ research into leading questions has helped the police to design questions when interviewing eyewitnesses - the research has practical application

Question 15

The difference between a CI and a standard interview

Answer 15

A CI increases the amount of information reported, although some details may be irrelevant
A CI reduces the chance of dishonesty through the use of recall in reverse order
A CI requires witnesses to return to the crime scene in their mind

Question 16

Weaknesses of anxiety

Answer 16

Experiments into anxiety have ethical issues as participants have the right to protection from harm and distress
Field experiments can have extraneous variables - results may be invalid as other factors affect results
The weapon-focus effect may be due to surprise rather than anxiety - Pickel (1998) showed this with his experiments

Question 17

Weaknesses of CI

Answer 17

Fisher et al’s study only measured the amount of information obtained, rather than the amount of relevant information, meaning that CI may not be more useful even though more information is obtained

Question 18

Weaknesses of EWT

Answer 18

Much of the research into EWT is conducted in labs, where participants do not experience real crimes, meaning anxiety etc does not affect results, and so they are not generalisable
Demand characteristics can influence participants to say they saw things which they didn’t in order to please the researcher (social desirability bias) and this means results are invald

Question 19

Weapon-focus effect

Answer 19

Loftus argued that people focus on the weapon to the extent that they cannot remember other details from the event

Question 20

Yerkes-Dodson curve

Answer 20

Yerkes predicted that different levels of anxiety have different effects on memory recall