EYEWITNESS MEMORY: ITS PROBLEMS & SOLUTIONS

(3) The officer may try alternative ways to go through the crimes timeline. The incident can be recounted in different orders such as a reverse or normal timeline.

(4) A final technique is to recall the situation through multiple perspectives. The witness may be asked to recount what other prominent characters and witnesses perspectives of the event may have been. Whether they were different perspectives or not.

These final principles follow the perspective that information that has been observed can be retrieved through multiple routes. If one can do this it is productive to maximize the number of retrieval routes used.

Several studies (available if requested) have empirically validated the increased effectiveness of the cognitive interview. This technique does work, and for that reason a number of policing organizations have incorporated it into there questioning techniques. Hopefully, by using such methods the dire consequences of inaccurate eyewitness testimony can be minimized. However, eyewitness memory, no matter how accurate it seems, should always be taken critically in the face of no other evidence.

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