Study cognitive interviews as a method for improving eyewitness recall, including context reinstatement, varied retrieval routes, open questions, accuracy, reliability and bias.
Francesco witnessed a robbery in his local shop. Three men entered the shop and held two employees at gun point. They stole money and valuables from the shop and then ran towards a parked car that drove them away.
Francesco was interviewed by the police at the scene. He could not recall much about what the three men looked like, but he could recall their weapons.
Describe how the police would use a cognitive interview with Francesco when interviewing him as a witness to the robbery.
AO2 (4 marks)
Credit up to four marks for accurate description in relation to scenario.
For example:
- The police would ask Francesco about features of the shop to
encourage him to revisit what he was doing (1). They could ask
Francesco about what he thinks the employees might have seen
from their perspective (1). He could describe the robbery
sequence backwards starting from when they drove off (1) which
may reduce the influence of Francesco's schema/prior knowledge
on the sequence of events during the robbery (1).
Look for other reasonable marking points.
Generic answers score 0 marks.
(4)