eyewitness testimony

• Eyewitness testimony


  The use of eyewitnesses in court to give evidence for the identity of someone who has committed a crime
• Eyewitness memory


  The term psychologists use when carrying out research to test the accuracy of eyewitness testimony
• Eyewitness testimony is a legal term
• Factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony

  1. Misleading information including leading questions, post-event discussion and anxiety

  2. Improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony including the use of the cognitive interview
• Cognitive interview


  • A technique developed by Fisher & Gieselman (1992) that is now used by the police when interviewing witnesses of a crime
• Techniques used in the cognitive interview

  1. Report everything

  2. Mental reinstatement

  3. etc.
• When there is high anxiety

  Eyewitness focus is drawn to the weapon, making it difficult to recall other details (weapon focus effect)
• Procedure of Johnson & Scott (1976) study

  • Low anxiety condition: Heard argument, saw man with pen and grease/oil
  • High anxiety condition: Heard argument, saw man with bloody paper knife
• 49% of participants in low anxiety condition correctly identified the man, compared to only 33% in high anxiety condition
• Evaluation points


  • Ecological validity
  • Demand characteristics
  • Reliability
  • Validity
• Cognitive interview has been shown to increase accuracy of recall by 34% compared to standard interview (Kohen et al, 1999)
• Milne and Bull (2002) found that using 'report everything' and 'mental reinstatement' techniques in the cognitive interview led to significantly higher recall compared to a normal interview