Abstract : Describing a face impairs the later recognition of this same face. This effect, known as the verbal overshadowing effect (Schooler & Engstler-Schooler, 1990), is especially observed when the description is complete (Meissner, Brigham, & Kelley, 2001). This is an actual dilemma for investigators: choosing between an efficient search of the suspect from the eyewitness's description or an accurate identification of the perpetrator by the eyewitness. The Person Description Interview offers a solution to this issue (Demarchi & Py, 2009). With this interview protocol, descriptions of the perpetrator are more complete than those obtained with a series of precise closed questions, and face recognition performance is higher.