Cognitive Interviews - Improving Eye Witness Testimony
1. Report everything
• Witnesses are encouraged to include every detail of the event even if it seems irrelevant.
• Trivial details may trigger other important memories.
• Witnesses are retrieving episodic and semantic long term memories – which is aided by trying to retrieve as much information from possible using any cues that they can – both context and state dependent
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2. Reinstate the context
• Witness should return to original crime scene in their mind and imagine the environment and their emotions.
• This technique is based on context dependent failure – by getting witnesses to recall every detail of the crime scene/incident this may help them retrieve more information based on cues that they made in that context/environment
3. Reverse the order
• Events should be recalled in a different chronological order.
• Prevents people from reporting what they expect to happen and to focus on the actual event. Also prevents dishonesty.
• This avoids witnesses relying on schema (recalling what they expected to happen) and encourages witnesses to use cues from the context to help them accurately retrieve information
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4. Change perspective
• Witness recalls event from another perspective. E.g. how would the event appear to another witness. The aim is to disrupt expectations or schemas about the event.
• Schemas about an event can create expectations and this can affect the accuracy of recall – changing perspective make a witness see both the context and the state of the incident differently – this may allow them to use more cues from the context and also reduces the influence of their state in the incident
Evaluation of Cognitive Interview
Strength – research support for the effectiveness of the ECI
•Kohnken (1999) carried out a meta-analysis, combining data from 50 studies. The ECI was found to consistently provide more correct information than the standard interview.
•This gives strength to the CI because it shows the practical benefits of the ECI on the accuracy of EWT. EWT can be very influential and at times can be used as strong evidence in court. Using the ECI can give the police more accurate information and they can then have a better chance at catching and charging criminals, which is beneficial for society.
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Strength – some elements of the CI are more valuable than others
•Milne and Bull (2002) found that each element of the CI, used singly, produced more information than the standard police interview.
•They also found that “report everything” and “context reinstatement” produced better recall used together than any of the other conditions.
•These findings support the successful use of the CI to increase EWT accuracy – at least two of the 4 elements have been found to increase accuracy. It also increases the credibility of the CI among police officers.