Improving accuracy of EWT: Cognitive interview

Question 1

who developed cognitive interview

Answer 1

Fisher and Geiselman (1992)

Question 2

what did fisher and Geiselman suggest

Answer 2

argued EWT could be improved if police used better techniques when interviewing witnesses. They suggested the techniques should be based on psychological insights into how memory works, and collectively called these techniques cognitive interview.

Question 3

what are the 4 techniques of the CI

Answer 3

report everything
reinstate the context
reverse the order
change perspective

Question 4

report everything

Answer 4

Witnesses encouraged to include every single detail of the event even though it may seem irrelevant or the witness doesn’t feel confident about it. This is important in improving EWT as seemingly trivial details may be important and they may trigger other important memories.

Question 5

reinstate the context

Answer 5

Witness should return to the original crime scene in their mind and imagine the environment and their emotions. This is related context dependent.

Question 6

reverse the order

Answer 6

Events should be recalled in a different order from the original sequence. This is done to prevent people reporting their expectations of how the event should go rather than reporting the actual events, also prevents dishonesty.

Question 7

change perspective

Answer 7

Witnesses should recall the incident from other people’s perspective. Done to disrupt the effect of expectations and effect of schema on recall. The schema you have for a particular setting generates expectations of what would have happened and it’s the schema that’s recalled rather than what actually happened.

Question 8

enhanced cognitive interview

Answer 8

Fisher et al developed some additional elements to the CI to focus on the social dynamics of the interaction. The ECI also includes:

Reducing eyewitness anxiety
Minimising distractions
Getting witness to speak slowly
Ask open ended questions

Question 9

Evaluation of cognitive interview (brief)

Answer 9

strength - support for effectiveness, quality over quantity
weakness - not all equally effective
weakness - time consuming

Question 10

strengths of cognitive interview

Answer 10

there’s support for the effectiveness of the CI. A meta-analysis by Kohnken et al combined 55 studies comparing the CI with a standard police interview. CI gave an average 41% increase in accurate information compared with standard interview. This shows CI is an effective technique in helping witness to recall information that is available but not immediately accessible. HOWEVER, Kohnken et al also found an increase in inaccurate information recalled by p’s particularly in ECI. CI may sacrifice quality of EWT in favour of quantity. This means police should treat EW’s evidence from CI and ECI with caution.

Question 11

weaknesses of cognitive interview

Answer 11

not all of original CI’s elements are equally effective. Milne and Bull found that each of the 4 techniques used alone produced more info than standard police interview. But also found a combo of report everything and reinstate the context produced better recall than any other element or combo. Shows some aspects of the CI are more useful than others. A weakness because it casts some doubt on the credibility of the overall CI.

the CI is time consuming so police officers may be reluctant to use it as it requires more time and training than standard interview. The CI requires special training and many forces won’t have the resources due to funding to provide sufficient training. Weakness as suggests the complete CI as it exists is not a realistic method for police officers to use and it might be better to focus on just a few key elements. The CI may not be feasible in the UK, however it may be beneficial in richer countries