A01

• The cognitive interview was developed by

  • Fisher and Giselman
  • as a technique for interviewing witnesses to crime.There are 4 key features
• What are the 4 key features

  1. Mental reinstatement of original context​
  2. Report everything​
  3. Change order​
  4. Change perspective
• Mental Reinstatement of original context

  • The witness is encouraged to recreate both the physical and psychological environment at the time.
  • This is to provide appropriate contextual and emotional cues and to make memories accessible.
• The interviewer may say things like

  I would like you to try and think back to that day… What had you been doing that day… what was the weather like
• Report everything

  • The interviewer encourages the witness to report every single detail they can remember.
  • Witnesses should not leave out anything, even if they believe it is irrelevant.
• The interviewer may say things like

  • Some people hold back information because they are not quite sure that it is important or you may believe I already know the information.
  • Please do not leave out anything, just tell me anything that pops into your head.
• Because memories are interconnected

  • it could be that one detail is a cue to recollecting even more information.
• Change/Reverse the order

  • The interviewer may try alternative ways around the timeline of an incident, for example reversing the order. This is to try and prevent distortion due to your expectations of an event (schema).
• The interviewer may say things like

  • I would like to try something which sometimes helps people to remember more. I would like you tell me what happened backwards.
  • What is the very last thing you remember happening and what happened just before that.
• Change perspective

  • The interviewee is asked to recall event from a variety of perspectives to imagine how it may have appeared to other people at the time.
  • This is also done to disrupt the effect of schema.
• The interviewer may say things like

  • Try to recall the incident from the perspective of_________. Think about he/she was an isolate everything that you can remember about them, as if they are in a spotlight.
  • Describe what he/she would have seen.