2023-2025 Year 12 A-Level Psychology Memory: Improving EWT: The Cognitive Interview
This flashcard set focuses on how the Cognitive Interview helps improve the accuracy of eyewitness testimony (EWT). It explains the police technique used to enhance memory recall and ensure more reliable eyewitness accounts.
The police use which type of interview to gain the most accurate eyewitness testimonies?
The Cognitive Interview
Key Terms
The police use which type of interview to gain the most accurate eyewitness testimonies?
The Cognitive Interview
What does the cognitive interview facilitate in terms of eyewitness testimony?
Most accurate EWT
What type of questions are used in a cognitive interview?
Open
Open questions are used so witnesses can … on their own answers
Expand
What type of questions are NOT used in a cognitive interview?
Closed/Leading Questions
Who created the cognitive interview?
Fisher & Geiselman
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| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
The police use which type of interview to gain the most accurate eyewitness testimonies? | The Cognitive Interview |
What does the cognitive interview facilitate in terms of eyewitness testimony? | Most accurate EWT |
What type of questions are used in a cognitive interview? | Open |
Open questions are used so witnesses can … on their own answers | Expand |
What type of questions are NOT used in a cognitive interview? | Closed/Leading Questions |
Who created the cognitive interview? | Fisher & Geiselman |
Name the 4 techniques in the cognitive interview: | Recall Everything |
How many techniques does the cognitive interview contain? | 4 |
In recall everything, witnesses are encouraged to recall all details including… | trivial details |
What may trivial details do to an eyewitness testimony? | Trigger recall/memories |
Participants are encouraged to recall all details of the event including minor/trivial details - what technique is this? | Recall Everything |
Asking a witness to mentally place themselves back at the scene of the crime is which technique of the cognitive interview? | Context Reinstatement |
In context reinstatement, witnesses are asked to mentally place themselves where? | At the scene of the crime |
When mentally placing themselves back at the scene of the crime, what 2 factors are witnesses asked to report on? | What they can see and how they felt (emotion) |
Asking a witness how they felt on the morning prior to a crime e.g. a robbery is an example of what technique? | Context Reinstatement |
What type of cue does asking the participant to mentally place themselves back at the scene of the crime and report on what they could see trigger? | External cues |
What type of reinstatement does asking the participant to mentally place themselves back at the scene of the crime and report on what they could see trigger? | Context |
What type of cue does asking the participant to mentally place themselves back at the scene of the crime and report on what they felt? | Internal Cues |
What type of reinstatement does asking the participant to mentally place themselves back at the scene of the crime and report on what they felt? | Context Reinstatement |
In recall in reverse, the witness is asked to report what happened in a different | Chronological order |
What technique of the cognitive interview is asking the witness to recall events of the crime in a different chronological order? | Recall in Reverse |
What is prevented by asking the witness to recall in a different chronological order? | Schema/Expectations |
What is it harder for the witness to do when recalling in reverse? | Lie |
Which 2 techniques of the cognitive interview are effective in preventing schema/expectations? | Recall in Reverse Recall from a Changed Perspective |
Which technique of the cognitive interview is asking the witness to recall the crime from another person's perspective e.g. the perpetrator? | Recall from changed perspective |
Recall from changed perspective asks the witness to recall the event from…. | Another person's perspective |
Recalling the events of a crime from another person's perspective is effective in preventing? | Schema/Expectations |
What technique is the following question from in the cognitive interview: | Recall Everything |
What technique is the following question from in the cognitive interview: | Context Reinstatement |
What technique is the following question from in the cognitive interview: | Recall in Reverse |
What technique is the following question from in the cognitive interview: | Recall from a Changed Perspective |
Describe 'recall everything' | The witness is asked to report all details of the event, even if it seems irrelevant. |
How might 'recall everything' improve eye witness testimony? | Might act as a trigger to a memory and additional information. |
Give an example of a question that might be asked when witnesses are being asked to recall everything. | "Start from the beginning, what happened on the morning of the robbery." |
Describe 'context reinstatement' | Witness is asked to mentally place themselves back at the scene of the event and imagine the environment such as the weather and what they could see, and their emotions. |
How will context reinstatement improve eyewitness testimony? | Using context and state dependent cues might trigger memories of the event that might appear forgotten but are inaccessible due to retieval failure. |
Give an example of a question that might be asked in context reinstatement. | "Close your eyes…what do you see, what is the weather like, what was X wearing, how were you feeling?" |
Describe 'recall in reverse' | The witness is asked to report what happened in a different chronological order |
How does recall in reverse improve eyewitness testimony? | Prevents witnesses reporting what they expected to happen (schema) rather than what happened. It also prevents dishonesty, as it is harder to lie when having to reverse a story. |
Describe 'recall from a changed perspective' | The witness is asked to recall the incident from another person's perspective who witnessed the crime e.g. another witness or the perpetrator. |
How will recall from a changed perspective improve eyewitness testimony? | May prevent witnesses reporting what they expected to happen (schema) rather than what happened. |
Give an example of a question that demonstrates recall from a changed perspective. | "Imagine you're the bank robber…what do you see?" |
Who provides research to support the effectiveness of the cognitive interview in improving the accuracy of EWT? | Köhnken et al (1999) |
What did Köhnken et al report in their meta analysis? | Cognitive interview had an increase of 41% in correct information compared to the standard interview. |
What did Köhnken et al suggest about false positives in cognitive interview? | As well as correct information, often more incorrect iterms are also recalled in cognitive interview, with a 61% increase of incorrect information reported in a cognitive interview compared to a standard interview. |
What limitation of the cognitive interview to Milne and Bull (2002) suggest? | Not all techniques in the CI are equally as effective. Milne and Bull found that each technique produced more information than the standard interview, but also found that using a combination of report everything and context reinstatement produced better recall than any of the other elements. |