EWT: Cognitive interview

• Who was the cognitive interview developed by?

  Geislman
• What are the 4 principles to enhance accuracy of EWT?


  Mental reinstatement

  Change the perspective

  Report everything

  Change the order
• What is mental reinstatement?


  Asking witnesses to recall their emotions during an event to make memories more accessible as they act as a cue for recall
• What is the changing of perspective principle of enhancing EWT?


  If participants recall scenes from different perspectives, the kind of details they recall vary
• What does it mean by record everything as 1 of the 4 principles of enhancing the accuracy of EWT?

  Interviewees are asked to recall every single insignificant little detail in case it acts as a cue for something else
• What does it mean by change the order as 1 of the 4 principles of enhancing the accuracy of EWT?


  Recalling events backwards to focus on details rather than a specific set of events
• Who developed the enhanced cognitive interview?

  Fisher et al
• What is focused on during the enhanced cognitive interview?


  Minimising witness anxiety

  Minimising distractions

  Social aspects are considered (e.g. eye contact)
• Useful

  Was found that the cognitive interview produced more info than the standard police interview

  Used to improved police interviews even if only 2 principles are used

  Increases accuracy of EWT

  Positive of the cognitive interview
• Not effective for everyone

  Not effective when questioning young children, but more successful for older people's memory

  May be because children find the instructions difficult to understand

  Limited usefulness

  Negative of cognitive interviews
• Research support

  Meta-analysis by Kohnken et al combined 50 studies

  Enhanced cognitive interview consistently provided more correct information than the standard interview

  Study shows real practical benefits

  Positive of CI
• Cognitive interview created an increase in inaccurate information

  More information recalled= recall of incorrect information is more likely

  81% increase of incorrect information compared to the standard interview

  Still not sufficient to abandon CI

  Negative of CI