Eyewitness Testimony and Cognitive Interview

Question 1

give 4 factors that affect eyewtiness testimony

Answer 1

• post event discussion
• weapon focus
• anxiety / stress
• leading questions

Question 2

explain what post event discussion is and how it affects EWT

Answer 2

• occurs in the aftermath of an incident
• after the incident the witnesses talk about the situation
• this alters your perception of the event leading to an unreliable memory

Question 3

explain the study that supports post event discussion

Answer 3

gabbert et al

• participants watched a video of a crime from different points of view
• participants then discussed the incident with eachother
• 71% of participants recalled information they didnt see
• control group had 0% innacurate recall

Question 4

explain what weapon focus is

Answer 4

• eyewitness concentrates on a weapon over other details of a crime

Question 5

explain what the yerkes-dodson curve is

Answer 5

• stress-performance relationship followed an inverted U
• this means for tasks of moderate complexity, performance increases with stress up to an optimal point where it then declines

Question 6

explain the study that supports the affect of anxiety on EWT

Answer 6

johnson and scott

• particpants believed they were taking part in a lab study
• while waiting for the lab study they heard an argument in the next room
• low anxiety condition = a man walked through carrying a pen with greasy hands
• high anxiety condition = sound of breaking glass. A man walked out of the room holding a paper knide that was covered in blood
• particpants later picked out the man from a set of photos
• 50% of the low anxiety condition correctly identified the man compared to 30% in the high anxiety condition

Question 7

explain the study that contradicts the importace of anxiety and weapon focus on influencing EWT

Answer 7

yuille and cutshall

• Studied witnesses of a real-life shooting (thief shot).
• Conducted follow-up interviews and compared them to original ones.
• Witnesses rated their stress levels during the incident.
• Highly stressed witnesses: 85% accurate recall.
• Less stressed witnesses: 75% accurate recall.

Question 8

explain the study that supports the affect of leading questions on EWT

Answer 8

loftus and palmer

• participants watched a video of a car crash and got asked a question with different verbs
• hit, smashed or contacted
• mean speed reported for contacted was 31mph compared to 40mph for smashed

Question 9

who created the cognitive interview

Answer 9

fisher and geiselman

Question 10

what is the cogonitive interview

Answer 10

a questioning technique used by the police to enhance retrieval of information about a crime scene from the eyewtiness

Question 11

what are the 4 stages in the cognitive interview

Answer 11

1. report everything
2. reinstate the context
3. reverse the order
4. change perspective

Question 12

explain stage 1 of the cognitive interview

Answer 12

report everything

• witnesses are asked to report every detail even if they think it is not important

Question 13

explain stage 2 of the cognitive interview

Answer 13

reinstate the context

• the interviewer tries to mentally reinstate the environment and personal context of the crime
• this can help recreate the event in their mind and act as a cue

Question 14

explain stage 3 of the cognitive interview

Answer 14

reverse the order

• recount the incident in a different narrative order
• people tend to recall recent events more clearly due to the recency effect

Question 15

explain stage 4 of the cognitive interview

Answer 15

change perspective

• describe what they think other witnessed may have seen

Question 16

explain the study that supports the use of the cognitive interview

Answer 16

geiselman at al

• participants viewed a film of a violent crime, after 48 hours they were interviewed using:
• the cognitive intrview, standrd interview
• the number of facts accurately recalled was recorded
• the average number of correctly recalled facts for the cognitive interview was greater than the standard interview

Question 17

strength

evaluate research into the effect of leading questions

Answer 17

• P - real world application
• Eg - loftus and plamers finding have influences how police officers are trained to avoid leading questiosn when interviewing witnesses
• Ex - this is because leading questions can distort memory as seen in the study
• L - improves the accuracy of eye witness testimony
• H - the stuyd lacks emotional realism as it used a video of car crashes so limits its generalisability

Question 18

strength

evaluate the effect of post event discussion on EWT

Answer 18

• P - supporting evidence
• Eg - gabbert et al found 71% of participants recalled information they hadnt seen
• Ex - demonstrates the effect of how discussing evenmts can contaminate original memories
• L - this increases the validity
• H - the study used visual footatge so lacks the stress and emotional impact of real life events

Question 19

limitation

evaluate the effect of anxiety on EWT

Answer 19

• P - findings are inconsistent
• Eg - johnson and scott found high anxiety reduces recall accuracy but yuille and cutshall found high anxiety improves recall
• Ex - this suggests anxiety doesnt always have an effect on memory
• L - reduce the reliability of the concluson that anxiety affects EWT
• H - a possible explanation is yerkes dodson law

Question 20

strength

evaluate the use of the cognitive interview

Answer 20

• P - effective
• Eg - gieselman et al found participants recalled more facts using the cognitive interview compared to the standard police interview
• Ex - this supports the idea that cognitive intervbew techniques like reisntstating the context improves memory retrieval
• L - the CI is effective at improving EWT, helping law enforcement
• H - the technique is more time consuming