Effectiveness Of Cognitive Interview Techniques AO1

• Cognitive interview


  (Geiselman and Fisher)
• Cognitive interview techniques

  • Report everything
  • Mental reinstatement of original context
  • Recall from changed perspective
  • Recall in reverse order
• Report everything


  Interviewer encourages witness to report all details about the event, even though these details may seem unimportant - this detail may trigger other memories
• Mental reinstatement of original context


  Mentally recreating an image of the situation e.g. the weather conditions/the individual's emotional state at the time. This is based on the principles of retrieval failure - cues may trigger recall
• Recall from changed perspective

  Trying to mentally recreate the situation from different points of view e.g. describing what another witness present may have seen - this reduces the influence of schema
• Recall in reverse order


  The witness is asked to recall the scene in a different chronological order to reduce the possibility of lying or being influenced by schema or expectations
• Enhanced cognitive interview

  Developed by Fisher, with a focus on social interaction, reducing anxiety/distractions, slow speech and use of open ended questions