Improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony- Cognitive interview

Context reinstatement

Recall from a changed perspective

Recall in reverse order

Report everything

The Enhanced Cognitive Interview

The individual’s emotional state including their feelings at the time of the incident.

Trying to mentally recreate an image of the situation

including details of the environment, such as the weather conditions

e.g. describing what another witness would have seen.

Trying to mentally recreate the situation from different points of view

The witness is asked to describe the scene in a different chronological order

e.g. from the end to the beginning.

The interviewer encourages the witness to report all details about the event.

Eventhough these details may seem unimportant

The main additional features are...


Offer comments to help clarify witness statements.


Encourage the witness to relax and speak slowly.


Adapt questions to suit the understanding of individual witnesses

Evaluation

weaknesses

some elements may be more less valuable than others.

it's time consuming

Time consuming to train police officers to use this method.

takes much longer than a standard police interview

Research = using a combination of 'report everything' and 'context reinstatement' produced better recall than any of the conditions individually.