Cognitive Interview

Cognitive Interview

1. Mental Reinstatement (Context Reinstatement)

   • Witness encouraged to close their eyes
   • Mentally recreate the physical and psychological environment of the incident
   • Aim is to make memories more accessible by creating external and internal cues

2. Report Everything

   • Interviewer encourages the reporting of every single detail without editing even if it seems irrelevant
   • Trivial details may be important
   • Trivial details may trigger the recollection of further memories

3. Change Order

   • Interviewee asked to recall from the middle or end event
   • Prevents people reporting their expectations (schema)
   • Prevents dishonesty as it is harder to produce an untruthful account if you have to reverse it

4. Change Perspective

   • Witness asked to recall the event from another witness' perspective
   • Sometimes asked to recall from the perpetrators perspective
   • Disrupts the effects that schemas have on recall