Educing Information: Interrogation - National Intelligence University

Venue 3: Experiments with SERE Students
The U.S. military puts several hundred students through survival, evasion,
resistance, escape (SERE) training annually. SERE students receive resistance
training under conditions that are made as stressful as practical. They provide an
excellent subject pool for investigating eduction practices involving stress: both
practices intended to induce stress and methods that do not induce stress but may
lead to results that differ from those obtained under non-stress conditions.
Unlike the objective analyses described above, research with students
undergoing SERE training provides an opportunity for controlled experimentation
where the effect of an EI practice can be carefully separated from other variables.
This will be particularly useful for evaluating individual techniques intended to
have immediate impact or results, such as detection of deception, interpretation
of behaviors, behavioral tricks, etc.
However, since the SERE program only lasts a few weeks, research with
SERE students would not help in assessing practices based on building certain
longer term relationships with the subject. For example, the general claim that
rapport-based approaches are superior to coercive methods cannot be tested in
this setting.
Venue 4: Experiments with Other Military Personnel
Eduction practices that do not involve coercion or stress could be tested in
the general military population. Experiments with military personnel would be
particularly appropriate for research on practices whose effectiveness depends on
the subject’s ignorance of the specifics of the technique. For example, subjects
could defeat questioning strategies that derive information from what a subject
does not say, or the manner in which a subject responds to a question, if they knew
which behaviors the interrogators were seeking.
Venue 5: University Research
While ethical or secrecy concerns preclude university research on some
practices, many eduction practices are entirely benign and open. Research into
new and innovative approaches to educing information could and should proceed
in a traditional university setting. Indeed, as some of the reviews in this study have
documented, a wealth of ideas and approaches have already been investigated in
this setting. 696
Venue 6: Research with Foreign Personnel
The extent to which culture and language influence the efficacy of various
eduction practices remains an open question. It is not at all clear, for example,
whether any behavioral indicators of deception cross cultural boundaries. As new
techniques are developed, researchers must test them with people from diverse
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In particular, see G. Hazlett, “Detection of Deception Research Review,” and R. Borum,
“Approaching Truth: Behavioral Science Lessons on Educing Information from Human Sources,” both
prepared under the auspices of this ISB study.
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