Encoding Specificity
Definition
Tulving's principle that memory retrieval is most effective when the retrieval context matches the encoding context. Mental reinstatement of context is a direct application of this principle.
- Originator
- Endel Tulving
- Principle
- Retrieval works best matching encoding context
- Applied via
- Mental context reinstatement
Common questions
How does an interviewer apply encoding specificity in practice?+
By asking the witness to mentally recreate the environmental and emotional context of the event, such as the sights, sounds, and feelings present, before recalling details, since matching that context improves retrieval.
Why can this technique introduce risk in an interview?+
Poorly managed context reinstatement can shade into suggestive prompting, so interviewers must guide the recall of context without introducing details the witness did not originally report.
Related terms
- Cognitive Interview (CI)
- An evidence-based interview technique developed by Fisher and Geiselman that uses memory-enhancement strategies including mental reinstatement of context, free recall, temporal variation,...
- Free Recall
- The CI phase in which a witness reports everything they can remember without interruption or directing questions from the interviewer, producing a...
- Mental Reinstatement of Context
- A CI technique in which the witness is asked to mentally return to the setting of the event, imagining what they saw,...
- Misinformation Effect
- The incorporation of misleading post-event information into the original memory trace, documented by Loftus and Palmer (1974) and subsequent studies. Distinguished from...
- PEACE
- Preparation and Planning, Engage and Explain, Account, Closure, Evaluation: the five-stage interview framework adopted in England and Wales from 1992, used for...