8. Cognitive Interview

• Who proposed the cognitive interview?

  Gieselman
• What is the aim of the cognitive interview?

  To achieve more detailed and accurate EWTs
• What happens at the beginning of the cognitive interview?

  • Interviewer attempts to make the witness feel relaxed
  • Tailors their language to suit the individual
• What are the 4 techniques involved in the cognitive interview?

  • Report everything
  • Reinstate the context
  • Reverse the order
  • Change perspective
• What happens during the 'report everything' technique?

  Witnesses are encouraged to include every single detail of the event, even if it may seem irrelevant or the witness doesn't feel confident about it
• What is the purpose of the 'report everything' technique?

  • Trivial details may highlight something that has been overlooked that may be important
  • May trigger other memories
• What happens during the 'reinstate the context' technique?

  • Witness should return to the original crime scene in their mind and imagine the environment and their emotions
  • Links to context and state dependent forgetting
• What is the purpose of the 'reinstate the context' technique?

  Reinstating the physical and mental context may act as cues or triggers to recall
• What happens during the 'reverse the order' technique?

  Events must be recalled in a different chronological order to the original sequence e.g. from the end to the beginning
• What is the purpose of the 'reverse the order' technique?

  • Helps to verify accuracy
  • Prevents people from reporting their expectations of how the event must have happened rather than the actual event
  • Helps reveal dishonesty as it's harder to produce an untruthful account in a different order
• What happens during the 'change perspective' technique?

  Witnesses should recall the incident from other people's perspective e.g. from another witness
• What is the purpose of the 'change perspective' technique?


  • Promotes a holistic view of the event which may enhance recall
  • Disrupts the effect of expectations and schema on recall
• What does the cognitive interview focus on utilising?

  • Retrieval cues
  • Recalling details of an event in a variety of different contexts is key to cueing retrieval of a large amount of accurate information from memory
• What does the enhanced cognitive interview focus on?

  • Focuses on the social dynamics of the interaction e.g. the interviewer knowing when to establish eye contact
• Evaluation of the cognitive interview

  • Helpful when interviewees are older
  • Each element if equally valuable
  • Cognitive interviews can increase the amount of inaccurate information given