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
- An evidence-based technique developed by Geiselman and Fisher in the 1980s that uses specific memory-retrieval strategies (context reinstatement, report everything, mental reinstatement,...
- 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 five-stage interview framework developed in England and Wales in 1992 as an alternative to confession-focused interrogation: Preparation and Planning, Engage and...
- 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...