The Cognitive Interview

• Context reinstatement


  The interviewee needs to be returned, in their mind, to the situation in which the event occurred. Interviewee is encouraged to mentally recreate the environment, and how they were feeling, by asking the interviewee to think back to before, during and after the event.
• Report Everything


  Report every detail about the event that can be recalled even if it seems trivial or irrelevant. Information about the event should be reported on, even if it does not seem to have a bearing on the crime - may trigger other important memories
• Recall from changed perspective


  mentally recreate the situation from other people’s perspectives - describe the incident from the viewpoint of other witnesses who were present at the time (disrupts the effect of schemas)
• Recall in reversed order 


  describe the event in reverse order, or to start with an aspect of the scene which seems most memorable and work backwards from that point - prevents the use of schemas and dishonesty
• Strength (cognitive interview)


  Evidence has found the cognitive

  interview to be effective in improving eyewitness accounts. Geiselman et al (1985) showed participants police training videos of simulated violent crimes. 48 hours later they were interviewed about the films by an experienced Los Angeles police officer using cognitive interview, a standard police interview, or an interview using hypnosis. CI was mos effective
• Limitation (cognitive interview)


  One problem is research has found that the Cognitive interview can actually create an increase in inaccurate information. The techniques of the CI aim to increase the amount of correct information, but the recall of incorrect information may also be increased