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Cognitive Approach

Contemporary debate: the reliability of eye-witness testimony — the evidence and conclusion

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  • Component 1

Overview

Recall questions on the reliability of eye-witness testimony — the evidence and conclusion.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Evaluation

Give one argument that eyewitness testimony is more reliable than laboratory studies suggest.

Key term

Which distinction helps explain why witnesses can be both accurate and inaccurate?

Key term

Which interview technique is designed to improve the accuracy of witness recall?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Give one argument that eyewitness testimony is more reliable than laboratory studies suggest.

    Model answer

    Witnesses to real crimes have given accurate accounts months later and resisted deliberately misleading questions, which film-based laboratory studies fail to capture.

  2. 2

    Which distinction helps explain why witnesses can be both accurate and inaccurate?

    Model answer

    Central details closely tied to the event are usually recalled well, whereas peripheral details are the ones most vulnerable to distortion.

  3. 3

    Which interview technique is designed to improve the accuracy of witness recall?

    Model answer

    The cognitive interview, developed by Fisher and Geiselman.

  4. 4

    State two techniques used in the cognitive interview.

    Model answer

    Mentally reinstating the context of the event, and reporting everything recalled however trivial it may seem.

  5. 5

    What does the evidence on the cognitive interview show?

    Model answer

    It substantially increases the amount of correct information recalled, although some studies find a smaller increase in incorrect details as well.

  6. 6

    Give two ways an identification procedure can be made fairer.

    Model answer

    Using foils who genuinely match the witness's description, and having the procedure run by an officer who does not know which person is the suspect.

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