Ronald Fisher and Edward Gieselman (1992) argued that EWT could be improved if the police used different techniques when interviewing eyewitnesses. Fisher and Gieselman recommended that such techniques should be based on psychological insights into how memory works, and called these techniques collectively the cognitive interview to indicate its foundation in cognitive psychology. There are 4 main techniques that are used.
Report everthing
Witnesses are encouraged to include every single detail of the event, even if it seems irrelevant or unimportant. Seemingly trivial details may be important and they may trigger other important memories.
2. Reinstate the context
The witness should return to the original crime scene in their mind and imagine the environment and their emotions they felt at the time. This is related to context-dependent forgetting.
3. Reverse the order
Events should be recalled in a different order from the original sequence, for example, from last to first. This is done to prevent people from reporting their expectations of how the event must have played out rather than what actually happened. It also prevents dishonesty as it's harder for people to produce an untruthful account if they have to reverse it.
4. Change perspective
Witnesses should recall the event from other people's perspective. For example, how it would have appeared to other witnesses or the perpetrator. This again is done to disrupt the effect of expectations and also the effect of schema on recall. The schema you have for a particular setting generate expectations of what would have happened and it is the schema that is recalled rather than what actually happened.
The enhanced cognitive interview (ECI)
Fisher et al. (1987) developed some additional elements of the CI to focus on the social dynamics of the interaction. For example, the interviewer needs to know when to establish eye contact and when to relinquish it. The ECI also includes areas such as reducing eyewitness anxiety, minimising distractions, getting the witness to speak slowly and asking open questions.
