FISHER AND GEISELMAN (1992) claimed that EWT could be improved if the police use techniques based on psychological insights into how memory works,
They called it the cognitiv interview to indicate its foundation in cognitive psychology.
Rapport (understanding) is established with interviewee using 4 main techniques.
Report everything
Witnesses are encouraged to include every detail of an event, even if it seems irrelevant or the witness is not confident enough about it.
Seemingly trivial details could be important and may trigger other memories.
2. Reinstate the context
The witness returns to the original crime scene ‘in the mind’ and imagins the environment (e.g what they felt).
This is based on the concept of context-dependent forgetting. Cues from the context may trigger recall.
3. 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).
4. Change perspective
Witnesses recall the incident from other people’s perspectives. How would it have appeared to another witness or to th perpetrator?
This prevents the influence of expectations and schema on recall.
Plus the enhanced cognitive interview (ECI)
FISHER ET AL (1987) developed additional elements of the CI.
This includes a focus on the social dynamics of the interaction (e.g knowing when to establish and relinquish eye contact).
The enhanced CI also includes ideas such as reducing the eyewitness’s anxiety, minimising distractions, getting the witness to speak slowly and asking open-ended questions.
