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Improving the accuracy of eye witness testimony - Coggle Diagram
Improving the accuracy of eye witness testimony
Cognitive Interview
Fisher and Geiselman to be used to improve accuracy of police interviews
To help them retrieve more accurate memories
Limitaion
Cognitive interviews may sacrifice quality of EWT in favour of quantity
Particular issue in the ECI which produced more incorrect details than CI
Police officers should treat eyewitness evidence from Cis/ECIs with caution
Kohnken also found an increase in the amount of inaccurate information recalled by participants
Techniques
2) Reinstate the context
Mentally returning to the scene of the crime, including psychical environment and emotional state → based on context dependent forgetting to act as cues
3) Reverse the order
Events are recalled in a different chronological order → to prevent people using their expectations and prevent dishonesty
1) Report everything
Include all details, even if seen irrelevant→ done to trigger other memories
4) Change perspective
Witnesses recall the incident from other people's perspectives → preventing the influence of expectation and schema on recall
Strengh
Four studies in the analysis showed no difference between the type of interview
CI is an effective technique in helping witnesses to recall information that is stored in memory but not immediately accessible
CI have an average of 41% increase in inaccurate information compared with SPI
Metro analysis by Kohnken et al. combined data from 55 studies comparing Ci with the standard police interview
Strengh of evidence that it works
Enhanced Cognitive Interview
Further developed by Fisher into ECI focusing on building trust in the interviewer
Reducing the eyewitness's anxiety
Minimising distractions
Getting the witness to speak slowly
Asking open ended questions
Focus on the social dynamics of the interaction