Improving eyewitness testimony

• 4 features of the cognitive interview

  - report everything

  - reinstate the context

  - reverse the order

  - change perspective
• Report everything


  Recall everything you remember about the event
• Reinstate the context


  Return to the scene in your head and think about what you were doing etc..
• Reverse the order


  Recall the event from end to beginning to avoid making assumptions
• Change perspective


  Recall the event from another witness's perspective
• Geiselman et al


  - investigated the effectiveness of the cognitive interview

  - ppts watched a video of a violent crime and were interviewed 2 days later

  - ppts who were interviewed using the cognitive interview had higher recall
• Strength of the cognitive interview

  It produces higher recall and more accurate information
• Weaknesses of the cognitive interview

  - it requires more training so takes longer and is more expensive

  - produces a lot of irrelevant information

  - may be unethical to make a witness recall a traumatic event in so much detail