Cognitive interview techniques are used when interviewers require a more in-depth series of answers from the interviewee, particularly involving a particular event. When the person conducting the interview aids the subject with memory retrieval, he can achieve such things as better awareness of work requirements, more detailed recollection of a particular event, or further insight into the subject's personality. This can be helpful, for example, when a company needs to know more about a potential hire by hearing the candidate's true feelings on a situation, or wants to give a worker a helping hand in learning a complex process by aiding the recollection of an instructional seminar.
The first step in a cognitive interview is to prompt the interview subject to remember the context of the event. Mentally re-creating this context can help the subject remember in greater detail. By thinking about the details of the physical and environmental situation, such as a location or an attitude, the interviewee may be spurred to better recall.
The second step of the interview may call for an extensive, detailed recollection of the event. This may include prompting the subject to make multiple attempts at recall, or to discuss every detail that comes to mind. This way, a second or later attempt may produce a memory forgotten on the first try.
The next method used in conducting the interview may involve the interviewer asking a series of questions designed to elicit information in a varied order. For instance, a subject may be asked to recount events in a chronological order, then in reverse order, from end to beginning. In part, this plays up the tendency for people to remember more recent events more thoroughly.
Finally, the interview subject may be asked to consider an event from a different perspective. A subject may experience an important revelation when considering the situation through another participant's eyes. This technique may also take the form of a focus on a different sense -- what a person heard versus what he saw -- or a certain attitude, such as the humorous side of a serious lecture.
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