Improving EWT

• The cognitive interview

  • Context reinstatement
  • Report every detail
  • Change the order
  • Change the perspective
• The enhanced cognitive interview

  • Eye contact
  • Reduce anxiety
  • Speaking slowly
  • Open questions
• Eyewitnesses are told not to guess and admit when they do not know the detail
• Support from Geiselman's lab experiment


  • Cognitive interviewees remembered more correct items (41) than standard interviewees (29), with no difference in incorrect items
• Support from Fisher's field experiment


  • Interviews with Florida detectives generated significantly more correct information (47% more) after they had been trained in using the cognitive interview compared to before their training when they were just using the standard police interview
• Milne and Bull found that the first two features of the cognitive interview (context reinstatement and report every detail) were significantly more effective than changing the order and changing the perspective