summary Specific cognitive changes elicit before psychosis. As soon as they cause complaints they can be considered as risk symptoms. These cognitive changes can be assessed reliably by means of a diagnostic interview. If this specialistic assessment can be preceded by a screener, a stepped procedure to assess cognitive risk symptoms can be realized: first screen, than assess. For this purpose the self-report screening list for Self-Experienced Cognitive changes (SEC) has been developed. A study on reliability and validity of this instrument has started recently.