eyewitness testimony & the cognitive interview

• what is an eyewitness testimony?

  an EWT refers to an account given by people of an event they have witnessed

  this includes identification of the perpetrators, details of the crime scene etc
• what makes a memory a reconstructive process?

  because memories are reconstructions based on schemas
• what’s a schema?

  they are units of knowledge that relate to everyday objects, situations or people

  they enable us to predict events and make sense of unfamiliar circumstances

  our recall of events is ‘matched’ with our schemas and understanding of the world, which if often based on what we have experienced in our particular culture so if new information doesn’t make sense, we unconsciously change it so it does match

  this means that memories can be distorted in several ways so that they are not always accurate and reliable accounts
• what did Wells report?

  40 ‘death row’ cases in the US where the individuals were convicted as a result of an EWT have later been cleared using DNA evidence
• what is an EWT affected by?

  misleading information

  anxiety
• what are the two types of misleading information?

  leading questions

  post-event discussions
• what’s a leading question?

  a question phrased in such a way that it prompts a particular type of answer
• what was the procedure of Loftus and Palmers study into leading questions?

  they examined the effects of leading questions on an eyewitnesses recall of a car accident

  the participants were asked on question; ‘How fast were the cars going when they ….. each other?’

  the blank was filled in by either smashed, collided, bumped, hit and contacted within the groups

  they were asked a week later ”did you see any broken glass?’
• what were the findings of Loftus and Palmers study of leading questions?

  when the verb ‘smashed‘ was used the mean estimate speed was 40.8mph compared to when ‘contacted’ was used with a mean speed estimate of 31.8mph

  aswell as this, the participants who were told the word ‘smashed’ were much more likely to say yes to the question about the broken glass compared to the other conditions
• what was the conclusion of Loftus and Palmers study into leading questions?

  the verb used implied certain details about the incident such as faster or slower speed
• what was the procedure of Loftus and Zannis into leading question?

  participants were shown a brief clip of a car accident and were asked questions about what they had seen

  half of the participants were asked: ‘did u see A broken headlight’ (open question)

  half of the participants were asked: ‘did you see THE broken headlight‘ (leading question)

  there was no broken headlight
• what were the findings of Loftus and Zannis study into leading questions?

  participants who received the open question: 7% said yes

  participants who received the leading question: 17% said yes
• what was the conclusion made by loftus and zannis study into leading questions?

  using ‘the‘ in place of the ’a’ implanted the idea to the witness that there was is infact a broken headlight. this led participants to change their recall in relation to the implied response
• what is a post event discussion?

  a potential source of misleading information where witnesses discuss what they saw after an event. this can affect the accuracy of their accounts
• what was the procedure of Gabberts study into post-event discussions?

  her sample consisted of 60 students and 60 older adults

  participants watched a video of a girl stealing money from a wallet but the participants were either tested individually (control group) or in pairs (co-witness group)

  the participants in the co-witness group were told that they had watched the same video but they had seen different perspectives of the crime and only one had seen the girl steal

  the participants in the co-witness group discussed the crime and completed a questionnaire of their recall of the crime
• what were the findings of Gabberts study into post-event discussions?

  71% of witnesses in the co-witness group recalled information that they had not seen

  60% said that the girl was guilty, despite the fact they had not seen her commit a crime
• what was the conclusion made of Gabberts study into post-event discussions?

  the results highlight the issue of post-event discussion and the powerful effects this can have on the accuracy of EWT
• what is anxiety?

  a physiological arousal in the body which prevents us paying attention to important cues
• what was the procedure of Johnson and Scotts study into anxiety?

  participants were taken into a waiting room as they though they were going to take part in a lab experiment but they heard an argument in the next room

  ‘low anxiety condition’: a man entered the room with a pen and grease on his hand

  ’hight anxiety condition’: overheard the same argument but heard glass break and the man entered the room with a paper knife covered in ‘blood’

  participants had to pick out the man from 50 photos
• what was the findings of Johnson and Scotts study into anxiety?

  low anxiety condition: 49% identified the man

  high anxiety condition: 33% identified the man

  the lower percentage in the high anxiety condition can be explained by the tunnel theory
• what is the tunnel theory?

  the tunnel theory of memory argues that a witnesses attention narrows to focus on the weapon because its a source of anxiety
• what was the procedure of Loftus and Burns study into anxiety?

  some participants were shown a violent film which included a boy being shot

  others were shown a non-violent film

  participants were later asked to recall the events of the film
• what were the findings of Loftus and Burns study into anxiety?

  participants had significantly impaired or reduced recall of the events leading up to the shooting compared to participants who watched the non-violent video
• what was the procedure and findings of Fischers study into police interviews?

  they studied police interview techniques and found that detectives often did not get the best information from witnesses because they:

  bombarded people with questions

  used closed ended questions

  asked questions out of sync

  interrupted witnesses

  didnt allow witnesses to talk freely about experiences
• what is the cognitive interview?

  the cognitive interview is an interview technique designed to improve the detail ad accuracy of witness recall
• what were the 4 components of the cognitive interview designed by Geiselman?

  report everything

  reinstate the context

  reverse the order

  change perspective
• what does it mean by ‘report everything’ in the cognitive interview?

  to ask the witness to report the maximum amount of information available even if it appears unimportant as this can trigger important memories
• what does it mean by ‘reinstate the context’ in the cognitive interview?

  try to return to both the environmental and emotional context of the scene as this is related to context-dependent forgetting
• what does it mean by ‘reverse the order’ in a cognitive interview?

  recount the scene in a different chronological order as this prevents witnesses reporting their expectations and prevents dishonesty
• what does it mean by ‘change perspective‘ in the cognitive interview?

  recount the scene from the point of view of another person involved as it prevents the witness from reporting expectations
• what was the procedure of Geiselmans study into the cognitive interview?

  they compared the number of correct items recalled by witnesses with a standard interview and a cognitive interview
• what was the findings of Geiselmans study into the cognitive interview?

  more correct details were elicited when using the cognitive interview

  however, there was no difference in the number of errors made
• what was the conclusion made of Geiselmans study into the cognitive interview?

  the standard interview does not offer the use of retrieval cues to aid recall
• what is the enhanced cognitive interview?

  its a modified version of the standard cognitive interview made for children as it aims to build a trusting relationship between interviewer and witness

  this can improve the quality of the communication and reduce witness anxiety and enhance recall