improving the accuracy of EWT - the cognitive interview

Question 1

what did Fisher and Geiselman argue?

Answer 1

that EWT could be improved if police used better techniques in interviews.

Question 2

what techniques did these involve?

Answer 2

1. report everything - interviewer encourages the reporting of every single detail of the event.
2. reinstate the context - interviewer encourages interviewee to mentally recreate both the physical and physiological envt of incident, to make memories more accessible.
3. reverse the order - to prevent ore-existing schema influencing what you recall.
4. change perspective - interviewee is asked to recall the incident from multiple perspectives, to disrupt the effect schemas have on recall.

Question 3

what is involved in a standard police interview?

Answer 3

• revolves around interviewer rather than witness (interviewer does most of the talking, asking specific questions that require forced choice answers)
• questions are predetermined and witnesses are discouraged from adding extra information.
• may unconsciously ask leading questions.
• standard techniques used disrupt the natural process of searching through memory, making memory retrieval inefficient.

Question 4

evaluation - research into effectiveness of the cognitive interview.

Answer 4

• meta analysis of 53 studies found on average, an increase of 34 percent in amount of correct info generated in cognitive interview compared with standard interview techniques.
• individual differences - cognitive interview may be particularly useful when interviewing older witnesses, negative stereotypes about older adults memory can make witness overly cautious and reporting info.
• difficulty in establishing effectiveness as some police don’t include all four components.