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.
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...
Explained in
- Forensic Interviewing TechniquesThe mental effort required to process and respond. Some interview approaches deliberately increase cognitive load on the basis that maintaining a fabricated ac...