The initial interview with a client is critical, not only for information gathering, but for rapport building. A skillfully done interview should help the professional to: diagnose, estimate severity of problems, decide on a course of action, gain a dynamic understanding of the client, and engage the client in psychotherapy. Supportive, attentive, and nonjudgmental attitude can help pave the way toward a productive interview. As previously indicated, the MSE is a critical component of the initial diagnostic interview. The MSE serves not only to gauge a person's current level of functioning, but it also aids in diagnosis and can serve as a baseline for future reference.

When focusing on attention, two general areas are under consideration. The first is the individual's ability to "attend", or the ability to pay attention for short periods of time without being distracted. The second is the ability to "concentrate", or attend for long periods. The ability to concentrate is primary in testing higher levels of functioning.

Attention can be tested in several ways. One is to simply observe the interviewee's ability to stay focused and attend to the interview. A more structured assessment of attention may be gleaned with digit span or a non-numeric test. Digit span is simply listing a series of numbers (write them down as you say them), starting with three numbers. They should be spoken in a monotone voice, with one spoken every second in cadence. On the last number in the series, your voice should drop, indicating the end of the series. Start with three numbers (e.g. 3-7-1). Do two sets of three numbers. If at least one of the two series is repeated back, go to four numbers; do this until the client fails both trials. Then do the same in reverse. The average is five numbers remembered. The non-numeric test consists of reading a list of random letters and asking the client to tap his/or her finger when certain letters are stated. In this test, it is best to have a prepared list of letters.

Concentration can be assessed using serial number counting (subtracting 7, 5, or 3 from 100 consecutively). This may be hard for some people with lower educational levels, so days of the week or months said backward may be substituted. Simple multiplication problems may be useful, but they have the same limitations on premorbid intellectual functioning and general education level, as do the serial counting tests. Asking a person to draw a picture or do some math problems on paper will also give information as to his/or her concentration ability.

There are several different types of memory and ways of assessing them. In psychology, the terms short-term and long-term memory are used. The medical tradition refers to immediate, recent, and remote. Some also break this up to recent past and remote past. Unless you want to do a very comprehensive memory assessment (in that case use a memory assessment instrument), then the immediate, recent, and remote memory should be assessed. Immediate memory assessments are the digit span, asking the client to remember three objects (dog, house, ball) to be recalled after a five-minute delay. A counting test where one asks the client to count to a number (e.g. 27), stop for one minute, continue counting where he/or she left off, and stop at a specific number for one minute, (do this three times) is also useful. Recent memory is comprised of events from the last 24 hours, and remote memory is assessed with early memories or dates of employment, etc.