cognitive interview- memory

• Cognitive Interviews


  A method of interviewing witnesses that uses cognitive techniques within a planned structure to overcome problems caused by inappropriate sequencing of questions, which hinders memory retrieval
• A Miami woman walking through the lobby of an office building casually noticed two men standing together. Several minutes after her departure, the men murdered a person working in the building.


  1991
• Police investigators determined that the woman was the only person who had observed the two suspects and could possibly describe them.
• In an initial standard interview with police, her memory of the men proved disappointingly sketchy.
• Ronald Fisher


  Psychologist brought in to help the witness remember more detail
• Fisher's interview


  Consisted of a series of memory-enhancing strategies which produced a breakthrough in the case: The woman reported a clear image of one of the suspects as which she recalled by describing how she noticed that he brushed the hair from in front of his eyes and swept it back off his face.
• How the cognitive interview works

  1. The interviewer tries to make the witness relax and adapt their language to the witness

  2. The witness mentally recreates the environmental context (sights/ sounds) and internal context (mood) of the crime scene - CONTEXT DEPENDENT

  3. The witness reports everything that they can remember about the crime, even if it feels irrelevant to them (it may not be)

  4. The interviewer avoids any judgmental and personal comments
• The interviewer tries to take the witness back to the scene in their memory. To do this they might ask them about their general activities and feelings on the day. This could include asking them about sights, sounds, feelings and emotions, the weather etc..

  1. Witnesses are asked to report the incident from the view of someone else who was present. Describing what they think other witnesses (or even the criminals themselves) might have seen.

  2. The witness might be asked to describe what they saw in a different order for example 'starting from when you heard the gunfire can you work backwards to when you arrived at the car park'

  3. Witnesses are asked to describe absolutely everything that they saw, even if they think that detail is trivial. In this way, apparently unimportant details might act as a trigger for key information about the event.
• Report everything


  • Recall from a changed perspective
  • Recall in reverse order
  • Mental context reinstatement
• • You are a police officer
  • You have a witness in front of you
  • They have just witnessed a mugging on the street
• Enhanced cognitive interview


  An edited and improved version of the original 'cognitive interview' by Fisher et al (1987).
• Fisher et al (1987) Recommendations:

  1. interviewer should minimize distractions.
  2. They should also actively listen to the witness, ask open ended questions and pause after every response.
  3. The interviewer should also avoid disruption of the participants
  4. The language should be edited to suit the particular witness.