Improving accuracy of eyewitness testimony: The cognitive interview

What is the standard interview?

The typical way a detective would interview a witness.

Doesn’t get the best accuracy of EWT.

Why was the cognitive interview designed?

Used in police interviews involving witnesses.

Was designed to improve on the standard interview with the aim to improve accuracy of EWT and enhance retrieval of information from the witness’ memory.

Psychological research was applied to this, particularly Elizabeth Loftus’ work.

What are the problems with the standard interview?

Quick, direct questions - increase witness stress

Often interruptions - witnesses lose track of thought

Often leading questions

Detective decides what info is important, may leave details out

Ultimately leads to inaccurate info

Who developed the cognitive interview?

Geielman (1984)

His cognitive interview was based on 4 distinct components.

What were the 4 components?

1. Mental reinstatement of original context

2. Reporting every detail

3. Changing order of events

4. Changing perspective

How does mental reinstatement of the original context enhance memory retrieval?

This includes senses, weather, feelings and mental state.

Helps in memory retrieval because:

Encoding specificity principle - same context = better memory

Retrieval cues help remembrance and make memories accessible

How does reporting everything enhance memory retrieval?

Witnesses may recall events that they thought were irrelevant.

Also, the recollection of one item may then cue more memories.

How does changing the order of events enhance memory retrieval?

This removes false memories that the brain already makes in order to fill in gaps.

Also because of schemas - these may influence memory because of expectations of things that may happen. Changing the order of events eliminates this.

How does changing perspective enhance memory retrieval?

This can be through other witnesses or the perpetrator’s eyes.

This is done to cancel out schemas’ influence on memory and to reduce bias.

Positive eval

Lots of supporting research - it has been found that the cognitive interview (CI) increases the amount of correct information.

Negative eval

Quantity over quality - it has been found that the CI has massively increased quantity, but this has also resulted in some inaccurate memories being recalled. So the CI doesn’t guarantee accuracy.

Impractical - the CI requires a very large amount of time to conduct, some police officers can’t be bothered so may slack. Also it requires special training to be conducted correctly. Because of these reasons, the CI has not been widespread.

The CI is actually multiple techniques in one - some police officers only use some components of it.

Individual differences - the CI is more effective in interviewing older people compared to younger people.