improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony

• Who were the psychologist within the idea of improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimonies?

  fisher and geiselman
• what did these two psychologist argue?


  Are you witness testimonies could be improved if the police used better techniques when interviewing the witnesses?
• what are the four steps of this cognitive interview?

  1. Report everything 2. Reinstate the context 3. Reverse the order 4. Change perspective
• what does report everything mean?

  Say absolutely everything that happened and it doesn’t have to be in any particular order. This will improve eyewitness testimony because it could trigger additional memories.
• what does reinstate the context mean?

  Re-create both internal and external context this improves eyewitness testimonies because the idea of cues will trigger recall of the event
• what does reverse the order mean in the cognitive interview?

  Recalling things from start to end then again from the final thing that happened to the first thing that happened this improved in his testimony due to it reducing the chance of expectations affecting what is recalled
• what does it mean by changing the perspective within the cognitive interview?

  recalling the events from a different perspective this could improve awareness testimony as it reduces the chance of affecting what is
• what additional features did Fisher add to further increase the accuracy of recall?

  Active listener encourage interview to relax and speak slowly and minimise distraction
• what is one limitation of the cognitive interview?

  The cognitive interview is rather time-consuming
• what is a strength of the cognitive interview?

  some elements of this interview are more valuable than others
• what is another weakness for the cognitive interview?

  May not be suitable for all interviewees