What is the cognitive interview (CIT)?

The cognitive interview is a major part of interviewing witnesses. It's essentially an interview between a witness and detective where the detective uses cognitive techniques in the form of CIT to "extract" information from the witness in as much depth and accuracy as possible.

There are four stages of CIT:

1. Report everything. The witness is asked to recall everything they can remember about the event, regardless of how insignificant they perceive it to be. 
2. Context reinstatement. The witness is asked to give details on the context of the event, including where they were, what time of the day it was, what they'd been doing before that led them to this situation, etc.
3. Recall in a different order. The detective asks the witness to start from one point in the day and recall backwards or forwards from that point. It helps to reduce the "story-telling" tendencies we have when recalling information about a previous event. 
4. Recall from a different perspective. The detective asks the witness to say what they think others could have seen from a different point of view.