Cognitive Load
Definition
The mental effort required to process and respond. Some interview approaches deliberately increase cognitive load on the basis that maintaining a fabricated account under high-load conditions is harder than recalling a genuine one; this theory is used but its evidential basis is mixed.
- Definition domain
- Mental effort to process and respond
- Applied context
- Forensic interviewing technique
- Premise
- Sustaining a fabricated account is harder under high load than recalling a true one
- Evidence status
- Mixed, contested in the research literature
Common questions
What interview techniques deliberately increase cognitive load?+
Approaches such as asking for an account in reverse chronological order, maintaining eye contact demands, or requiring simultaneous secondary tasks are used on the theory that a truthful account, retrieved from memory, holds up better under this added strain than a constructed lie.
Why is the evidential basis for cognitive-load-based deception detection considered mixed?+
Replication studies show the effect is inconsistent across populations, question types, and stakes, and individual differences in working memory capacity or anxiety can produce load effects unrelated to honesty, so courts and researchers treat it as an investigative tool rather than a validated lie-detection method.
Related terms
- Behavior Analysis Interview (BAI)
- An interview technique developed by John Reid that involves a structured diagnostic question sequence and claims to differentiate truthful from deceptive subjects...
- Cognitive Interview
- A structured witness interview technique developed by Geiselman and Fisher that uses four retrieval aids: mental reinstatement of context, reporting everything without...
- Free Narrative
- The uninterrupted portion of an interview in which the subject recounts events in their own words and order. Research consistently shows that...
- PEACE Model
- A structured interview framework used by UK law enforcement and increasingly by private investigators: Preparation and Planning, Engage and Explain, Account, Closure,...
- Reid Technique
- The dominant North American police interrogation method developed by John E. Reid and Fred Inbau (1962; 5th edition 2013). Characterised by a...