How can we improve the reliability of EWT

• who created the cognitive interview and why?


  Geiselman et al (1985)

  to allowpolice to increase the range of retrieval cues avaliable to witnesses
• what are the stages of a cognitive interview?


  1. recreate the context at the time of the incident(who ,what ,when, where)
  2. report every detail, even those that seem irelevent
  3. recount the incident in different orders ( finish to start)
  4. recount the incident from other perspectives( the victim)
• why are points 1 and 2 important in a cognitive interview?


  they are related to encoding specificity , they aim to provide as similar as context as possible between encoding and retrieval
• why are points 3 and 4 important in a cognitive interview?


  they are trying to retrieve information by accessing different routes made participants relying on schemas
• what was Geiselman et al (1985) study?


  to compare the effectiveness of cognitive interview compared to 2 other interviewing techniques

  participants viewed a violent crime

  after 48 hours they were interviewed by a police officer in one of three conditions:

  .standard LAPD interview

  .interview with hypnotysed participants

  .cognitive interview

  the number of accurately recalled facts and the number of errors was recorded
• What were the findings Geiselman et al (1985) study?


  the mean accurate statements were

  standard- 29

  hypnosis- 38

  cognitive interview- 41

  there was no significant difference in number of incorrect responses
• what was the conclusion for Geiselman et al (1985) study?


  the cognitive interview is superior to other interviewing techniques

  a follow study found that participants were less likely to be misled by false information when the cognitive interview is being used
• what did Geiselman and fisher (1997) find out about cognitive interviews?


  work best when used within a short time following a crime rather than a long time afterwards
• what did Kohnken et al (1999) find out about cogintive interviews?


  meta-analysis of 55 studies comparing CI to a standard police interview

  found that CI produced more accurate detail but also more inaccurate detail

  no age differences found

  recall was enhanced when witnesses were personaly involved in the event

  the amount of correct detail produced in the CI declined the longer the CI was after the event
• who created the enhanced cognitive intrview and why?


  Fisher et al (1987)

  designed to build a trusting relationship between the interviewer and the witness and improve the quality of communication between the two
• what are the features of the enhanced cognitive interview?

  the 4 steps from the CI

  -minimise distractions and tailor language to the EW

  -EW should speak slowly,pause and be encouraged to relax

  -EW should control flow of information

  -use open ended questions

  -EW should be encouraged to say 'dont know' when appropriate

  -judgemental comments should be avoided

  -EW description of events/people should be reviewed
• what are the steps of an enhanced cognitive interview?


  EW is asked open ended questions on netural topics

  .context reinstatement occurs

  .free recall of events

  .report everything but dont guess

  .focused memory techniques( visualisation, most details are retrievable when they are perceptually related to mental image)
• what is a modified cognitive interview?


  sutiable for use with children

  builds trusting relationship

  removes 'change perspective step'

  may need to shorten the interview so might have to remove 'change order step'
• what are pratical limitations for cognitive interviews?


  irrelivant details are recorded which is time consuming

  the longer the gap between the event and interview is less effective it is

  involves specialised training which is time consuming and expensive

  older and younger witnesses arent very effective

  identification and description of criminals are no better than a standard interview