Improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony

• What is the cognitive interview based on?

  Based on psychological understanding of memory.

  Fisher and Geiselman (1992) claimed that EWT be improved could if the police use techniques based on psychological insights into how memory Works. They called it the cognitive interview to indicate its foundation in cognitive psychology. Rapport (understanding) is established with interviewee using four main techniques.
• What is report everything?

  Witnesses are encouraged to include every detail of an event, even if it seems irrelevant or the witness is not confident about it. Seemingly trivial details could be important and may trigger other memories
• What is reinstate the context?


  The witness returns to the original crime scene 'in their mind' and imagines the environment (e.g. the weather, what they could see) and their emotions (e.g. what they felt). This is based on the concept of context-dependent forgetting (see page 40). Cues from the context may trigger recall.
• What is reverse the order?

  Events are recalled in a different order (e.g. from the end back to the beginning, or from the middle to the beginning). This prevents people basing their descriptions on their expectations of how the event must have happened rather than the actual events. It also prevents dishonesty (harder to produce an untruthful account if it has to be reversed).
• What is change perspective?

  Witnesses recall the incident from other people's perspectives. How would it have appeared to another witness or to the perpetrator? This prevents the influence of expectations and schema on recall. Schema are packages of information developed through experience. They generate a framework for interpreting incoming information
• What is ECI?


  Plus the Enhanced cognitive interview (ECI).

  Fisher et al. (1987) developed additional elements of the Cl. This includes a focus on the social dynamics of the interaction (e.g. knowing when to establish and relinquish eye contact). The enhanced Cl also includes ideas such as reducing the eyewitness's anxiety, minimising distractions, getting the witness to speak slowly and asking openended questipns.
• What is a strength of eyewitness testimony? (research support)

  P - One strength is research support for the effectiveness of the Cl.

  E - A meta-analysis by Köhnken et 01. (1999) combined data from 55 studies comparing Cl (and ECI) with the standard police interview.

  E - The Cl produced an average of 41% more correct information than the standard interview. Only four studies showed no difference.

  L - This shows that the Cl is effective in helping witnesses recall information that is available but not accessible.

  C - Köhnken et al. also found increases in the amount of inaccurate information, especially in the ECI (quantity over quality). Therefore police officers need to be very careful about how they treat eyewitness evidence from Cls/ECls.
• What is a limitation of eyewitness testimony? (some elements are more useful than others)

  P - One limitation is that some elements of the CI are more useful than others.

  E - Milne and Bull (2002) found that each individual technique of the Cl alone produced more information than the standard police interview.

  E - But they also found that combining report everything and reinstate the context produced better recall than any other technique individually or combined.

  L - This casts doubt on the credibility of the overall Cl because some of the techniques are less effective than the others.
• What is a limitation of eyewitness testimony? (time-consuming)


  P - Another limitation of the CI is that it is time-consuming.

  E - Police are reluctant to use the Cl because it takes more time than the standard police interview (e.g. to establish rapport and allow the witness to relax).

  E - The Cl also requires special training but many forces do not have the resources to provide more than a few hours' training (Kebbell and Wagstaff 1997).

  L - This suggests that the complete Cl is not realistic for police offcers to use and it might be better (as suggested above) to focus on just a few key elements.