Improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony- Cognitive
Interview
Key terms
Cognitive interview (CI)- A method of interviewing eyewitnesses to help them
retrieve more accurate memories. It uses four main techniques, all based in well
established psychological knowledge of human memory – report everything,
reinstate the context, reverse the order and change perspective.
The cognitive interview
1- Report everything
- Witnesses are encouraged to include every single detail of the event, even
if it may seem irrelevant or the witness doesn’t seem confident about it.
- Seemingly trivial details may be important, and they may trigger other
important memories.
2- Reinstate the context
- The witness should return to the original crime scene in their mind and
imagine the environment.
→ For example, the weather, what they could see, their emotions etc.
- This is related to context dependent forgetting.
3- Reverse the order
- Events should be recalled in a different chronological order to the original
sequence.
→ For example, backwards or from the middle to the beginning.
- This is done to prevent people from reporting their expectations of how
the event must have happened rather than the actual events.
- It also prevents lying (its harder for people to produce an untruthful
account if they have to reverse it).
4- Change perspective
- Witnesses should recall the incident from other people’s perspectives.
→ This is done to disrupt the effect of expectations and schema n
recall.
- The schema you have for a particular setting generates expectations of
what would have happened, and it is the schema that is recalled rather
than what actually happened.
The enhanced cognitive interview (ECI)
- Fisher developed some additional elements of the CI to focus on the social
dynamics of the interaction.
→ For example, the interviewer needs to know when to establish eye
contact and when to relinquish it.
- The enhanced CI also includes ideas such as reducing eyewitness anxiety,
minimising distractions, getting the witness to speak slowly and asking
open ended questions.
Interview
Key terms
Cognitive interview (CI)- A method of interviewing eyewitnesses to help them
retrieve more accurate memories. It uses four main techniques, all based in well
established psychological knowledge of human memory – report everything,
reinstate the context, reverse the order and change perspective.
The cognitive interview
1- Report everything
- Witnesses are encouraged to include every single detail of the event, even
if it may seem irrelevant or the witness doesn’t seem confident about it.
- Seemingly trivial details may be important, and they may trigger other
important memories.
2- Reinstate the context
- The witness should return to the original crime scene in their mind and
imagine the environment.
→ For example, the weather, what they could see, their emotions etc.
- This is related to context dependent forgetting.
3- Reverse the order
- Events should be recalled in a different chronological order to the original
sequence.
→ For example, backwards or from the middle to the beginning.
- This is done to prevent people from reporting their expectations of how
the event must have happened rather than the actual events.
- It also prevents lying (its harder for people to produce an untruthful
account if they have to reverse it).
4- Change perspective
- Witnesses should recall the incident from other people’s perspectives.
→ This is done to disrupt the effect of expectations and schema n
recall.
- The schema you have for a particular setting generates expectations of
what would have happened, and it is the schema that is recalled rather
than what actually happened.
The enhanced cognitive interview (ECI)
- Fisher developed some additional elements of the CI to focus on the social
dynamics of the interaction.
→ For example, the interviewer needs to know when to establish eye
contact and when to relinquish it.
- The enhanced CI also includes ideas such as reducing eyewitness anxiety,
minimising distractions, getting the witness to speak slowly and asking
open ended questions.
