Cognitive Interviewing

The cognitive interview method is a proven technique which is effective and helpful to criminal lawyers because it provides a structured approach that helps retrieve greater detail of any event which is being investigated.

For many criminal lawyers responses such as ‘I don’t remember’, ‘That’s all I saw’, or ‘I can’t recall’ regularly cause considerable frustration and often impedes the effectiveness of their efforts on behalf of their clients. It is now generally recognised that the main problem is not in any lack of observation by the witness, but in their inability to remember.

The cognitive interviewer is fully aware of this and is able to increase the quantity of information obtained without jeopardising the witness’ credibility in court, as hypnosis does.

This is done specifically by assisting the witness’ memory recall in three vital areas: encoding, storage and retrieval. The interviewer will also use other specific techniques and time factors to increase yet further the effectiveness of the interview.

Experiments with cognitive interviewing have indicated that interviewers can extract between 50% and 90% more information than with ordinary structured interviewing techniques.

Most victims and witnesses try to co-operate, but their inability to recall vital details can be discouraging and they need trained help in remembering. This help comes from the cognitive interviewer. Merely asking the right questions does not suffice. Enhancing someone’s memory requires active involvement and it is the cognitive approach to interviewing that has proven more effective than the traditional one by increasing the quality and quantity of information obtained from both witnesses and victims.

A cognitive interview offers a new approach to memory recall and as most crimes are solved by information furnished by people, there is no doubt that the interview remains the foremost investigative tool for gaining information.

This is a very specialist area of work and must be handled with great expertise. It does NOT involve the use of hypnosis.