Improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony

• Cognitive Interview Technique- Geiselman et al 1985:

  1. Cognitive/ context reinstatement
  2. Report everything
  3. Recall from changed perspective
  4. Recall in changed/ reverse order
• Cognitive/ context reinstatement= mentally reinstate the context of event, eg recall the scene, weather etc.
• Report everything= every detail, even if it seems trivial/ unimportant.
• Recall from changed perspective= describe the event as it would have been seen from different viewpoints- not just your own, get PPs to imagine what they witnessed through someone else's perspective.
• Recall in changed/ reverse order= recall in several different temporal (time) orders moving backwards & forwards in time.
• Both Cognitive/ context reinstatement & Report everything are techniques that increase recall by providing 'cues' to trigger memory recall- this increases amount of recall.
• Both Recall from changed perspective & Recall in changed/ reverse order are techniques that disrupt schema to avoid them including 'schema items', to improve accuracy.
• Evaluation- Strength:

  • Research support from Geiselman.
  • Tested by showing PPs videos of stimulated crimes & testing different groups with cognitive interview & standard interviews, & one under hypnosis.
  • Cognitive interview elicited more information than either of the other methods.
• Evaluation- Weakness:

  • Cognitive Interview Technique may increase quantity not quality.
  • Kohnken found that using cognitive interview meant there was an 81% increase in correct information, but also a 61% increase in incorrect information, so this information must be treated with caution, as it may not be accurate.
  • Shows cognitive interview doesn't necessarily improve accuracy.
• Evaluation- Weakness:

  • Cognitive interview is not practical; police officers say that the technique requires time that they just don't have.
  • Police often just choose not to use it, so for these reasons, the technique is not widespread.
  • Information is minimised to what they feel is necessary.
• Evaluation- Strength:

  • Good for certain types of witnesses.
  • Cognitive interview is a useful technique when the witness is a bit older, for instance (also could be anyone who feels less confident, eg children).
  • By encouraging these types of witnesses to report everything, even if it may not be significant, it gives them more confidence.
  • Shows that cognitive interview does have its place & is useful is some circumstances.