EWT : cognitive interview

• Based on psychological understanding of memory

  Fisher and Geiselman claimed that eyewitness testimony could be improved 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 is established with interviewee using four main techniques
• 1. 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 act as cues.
• 2. Reinstate the context

  The witness returns to the original crime scene 'in their mind' and imagines the environment and their emotions. 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. 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.
• 4. Change perspective

  Witnesses recall the incident from other people's perspective. This prevents the influence of expectations and schema on recall. Schemas are packages of information developed through experience. They generate a framework for interpreting incoming information
• Enhanced cognitive interview

  Fisher developed additional elements of the cognitive interview. This includes a focus on the social dynamics of the interaction. The enhanced cognitive interview also includes ideas such as reducing the witnesses anxiety, minimising distractions, getting the witness to speak slowly and asking open questions.
• Evaluation

  One strength is research support for the effectiveness of the cognitive interview. A meta-analysis by Kohneken combined 55 studies comparing the cognitive interview with the standard police interview. The cognitive interview produced an average of 41% more correct information than the standard interview. Only 4 studies showed no difference. This shows that the cognitive interview is effective in helping witnesses recall information tat is available but not accessible. However, Kohneken also found an increase in inaccurate information given when using the cognitive interview
• Evaluation

  One limitation of the cognitive interview is that it is time consuming. Police are reluctant to use the cognitive interview as it takes more time than the standard police interview. The cognitive interview also requires specialist training but many forces do not have the resources to provide more than a few hours training. This suggests that the complete cognitive interview is not realistic for the police officers to use and it may be better to focus on just a few key elements.
• Evaluation

  One strength is the variations of the cognitive interview. Police forces take a 'pick and mix' approach in practice which makes it hard to compare effectiveness in studies. However, this approach makes the cognitive interview more flexible as police forces evolve their own approaches depending on what they think works best. This variation is a benefit of the cognitive interview as it can be adapted to different situations, increasing its credibility for officers, through not for empirical research
• Four main techniques in establishing rapport

  1. report everything
  2. reinstate the context
  3. reverse the order
  4. change perspective