Which cognitive interview technique involves reordering the sequence of events to enhance retrieval?

Which cognitive interview technique involves reordering the sequence of events to enhance retrieval?

• A. Keep the events in strict chronological order only.
• B. Rely solely on a single sensory cue.
• C. Use multiple prompts from the same angle.
• D. Change the order of events – disrupts scripts and improves retrieval.

Answer: (D)

Changing the order of events is designed to disrupt how a witness normally organizes a memory and to open up different retrieval routes. When you ask someone to recount what happened in a nonsequential way, it weakens reliance on a scripted, expectations-based narrative and invites details that fit various memory fragments to surface. Reordering prompts can trigger links to specific moments, places, or sensory cues that might not come out when the story is told strictly in chronological sequence, leading to more complete and accurate recall and reducing the chance of omissions driven by a single storyline. Keeping events in strict chronological order keeps retrieval tied to one conventional flow, which can limit access to details that don’t fit neatly into that sequence. Relying on a single sensory cue or using prompts from the same angle narrows the focus to specific cues or perspectives and doesn’t leverage the broader retrieval benefits gained by changing the sequence.

Changing the order of events is designed to disrupt how a witness normally organizes a memory and to open up different retrieval routes. When you ask someone to recount what happened in a nonsequential way, it weakens reliance on a scripted, expectations-based narrative and invites details that fit various memory fragments to surface. Reordering prompts can trigger links to specific moments, places, or sensory cues that might not come out when the story is told strictly in chronological sequence, leading to more complete and accurate recall and reducing the chance of omissions driven by a single storyline.

Keeping events in strict chronological order keeps retrieval tied to one conventional flow, which can limit access to details that don’t fit neatly into that sequence. Relying on a single sensory cue or using prompts from the same angle narrows the focus to specific cues or perspectives and doesn’t leverage the broader retrieval benefits gained by changing the sequence.