Cognitive Interview

• A set of instructions that the police give to witnesses after a crime or an accident to enhance their recall of events + eye witness testimony, better than the standard police interview
• Techniques

  • report everything
  • recall from a changed perspective
  • recall in reverse order
  • context reinstatement
• Report everything

  • interviewer encourages the reporting of every single detail of the event, even though it may seem irrelevant
  • such detail may trigger other memories, witnesses use their own words so it avoids leading questions/language
• Recall from a changed perspective

  • recall from several people's viewpoints e.g. how it would have appeared to other witnesses
  • reduce influences of schema
• Recall in reverse order

  • interviewers try alternative ways through the timeline of the incident
  • reduces the possibility that recall may be influenced by schema/expectations, it is also hard to lie backwards
• Context reinstatement

  • interviewee mentally reinstates the environmental and personal context of the incident e.g. sights, sounds, weather etc.
  • based on the principle of retrieval failure/cue dependent forgetting that cues may trigger recall
• Features of enhanced cognitive interview to facilitate recall

  • allowing concentration -> quiet room/environment
  • witness compatible questioning -> aimed at good social reaction