Cognitive interview

• What is cognitive interview

  Police technique where it encourages individuals to recreate the original context of the crime scene
• 4 techniques of cognitive interview

  context reinstatement, report everything, change perspective, reverse order
• Context reinstatement

  Interviewee is asked to mentally recreate the environment eg the weather and how they were feeling before during and after the event
• Why does context reinstatement work

  It provides mental consistency between the actual incident and mental recreation of the incident which increases witness recall of the crime thus the accuracy of detail too
• Report everything

  Recalling every detail that can be recalled even if it seems trivial and has no bearing to the crime
• Why does report everything work?

  Unrestrained recall to express any details that could have been filtered out subconsciously. The interviewer decides the relevance of information and makes a judgement on it so that information can be uncovered from cues
• Changed perspectives

  Mentally recreating the event of the crime from a different perspective such as from the viewpoint of others that were present at the time of crime
• Why does changed perspectives work

  When recreating it from another perspective, we are lies likely to use schemas since we are forced to recreate from the perspective of others thus producing more accurate recall
• Recall in reverse order

  To recall the details of the crime in reverse order of the last thing that has been seen regarding the crime or from the most memorable moment and from that point on backwards
• Why recall in reverse order work

  Less likely to use schemas since we are forced to recreate event in a different order thus more accurate recall. Also used to verify the origami testimony in the correct order from the reverse order