Improving the accuracy of EWT

• Cognitive interview is a method of interviewing eyewitnesses to help them retrieve more accurate memories.
• Fisher and Geiselman (1972) argued that EWT could be improved if the police used better techniques when interviewing witnesses. The aim is to reduce a witness' use of prior knowledge, expectations and schemas (increase quality/ accuracy of recalled information).
• Report everything: Witnesses are encouraged to include every single detail of the event as certain details may be important and trigger other important memories.
• Reinstate the context: the witness should return to the original crime scene 'in their mind' and imagine the environment and their emotions. This is related to context-dependent forgetting, in which returning to the same state of mind and emotional state as when the crime was witnessed can cause improved recall.
• Reverse the order: events should be recalled in different orders to prevent witnesses recalling the event how they think it should go rather than the actual event. This also prevents dishonesty
• Change perspective: Witnesses should recall the incident from other people's perspective. This is done to disrupt the effect of expectations and schema on recall. This schema you have for a particular setting generates expectations of what would have happened and therefore the schema is recalled instead of the real event.
• Enhanced cognitive interview:

  • Fisher et al, developed additional elements of the cognitive interview to focus on social interactions. For example, the interviewer needs to know when to establish eye contact. This enhanced cognitive interview also includes ideas such as reducing eyewitness anxiety, minimising distractions and asking open-ended questions.
• One strength of this is that the cognitive interviews have been proven to work. For example, Mine and Bull found that all 4 techniques when used singularly produced more recall from a witness than the standard police interview. This is a strength because it suggests that recall can be improved by using the 4 simple cognitive interview techniques as part of the interviewing process, it shows it can be an effective method, explaining its use by the police.
• Another strength of this is there is research to support the use of cognitive interviews. For example, Kohnken et al (1999) found an 81% increase in correct information provided by a witness when using the cognitive interview. This is a strength because this further supports that recall is improved through the use of cognitive interview techniques, which is an effective method to be used by the police.
• One weakness is cognitive interviews are not suitable to work for all ages. For example, Gelselman (1999) reviewed many cases and found that in children under 6, recall of events was slightly less accurate, possibly due to the complexity of the instructions provided as part of the cognitive interview. This is a weakness because it suggests that cognitive interview doesn’t always improve recall in all cases (i.e. children) so therefore cannot be used with all witnesses to improve memory and recall.
• Another weakness is that police may be reluctant to use the cognitive interview because it takes more time than a standard police interview. For example, more time is needed to establish a rapport with the witness to allow them to relax. The cognitive interview also requires special training and many forces have not been able to provide more than a few hours of training. This means it is unlikely the ‘proper’ version.