cognitive interview

• 4 main techniques 


  reinstate the context

  recall everything

  recall from another perspective

  recall in a different order
• reinstate the context


  witness return to original crime scene in their mind and imagine the environment and their emotions.

  • what the weather was like
  • what they could see
  • happy or bored
• recall everything

  include every single detail of the event even if it may seem irrelevant. trivial details may be important and may trigger other important memories
• recall from another perspective 


  describe what occurred from another perspective (what did the victims see) prevents witness from using existing schemas. can distort a memory.
• recall in a different order 


  recall incident in a different order - moving backwards and forwards in time. prevents us from using normal narrative of a story resorting back to using existing schemas in order to confabulate information