Educing Information: Interrogation - National Intelligence University

eliefs as to what might be effective cues to deception included behaviors such
as gaze aversion or level of eye contact; movements of the legs, feet, head and
trunk; shifting body positions; and “covering gestures” such as placing a hand
over the mouth while talking, ear tugging, etc. None of these was rigorously
substantiated by the research, although a small subset demonstrated reasonable
power. They included fewer hand and finger movements while talking, fewer
illustrating gestures accompanying speech, dilation of the pupils, 42 and some
elements of a system developed by Ekman and associates 43,44 for evaluating
subtle, small, and short-lived shifts in facial expression. However, analysis
of microfacial expressions and pupillary dilation generally requires the use of
recording equipment and represents methods that may not be practicable for field
operatives.
Verbal Cues
We should listen closely to what people say. Verbal cues to deception
involve what people actually say, i.e., the content of their communication.
Researchers have attempted to develop methods for evaluating verbal behaviors
more systematically. 45 Two approaches frequently cited are Statement Validity
Assessment and Reality Monitoring, both of which have been extensively
reviewed by Vrij. 36 Overall, these methods seek to validate statements on
the assumption that true statements differ from fabricated ones in a variety of
significant dimensions. 41,46
Statement Validity Assessment involves the use of criteria-based content
analysis, 47, 48 which attempts to provide some common methodology for evaluating
the content of verbal communications. These criteria include analyses of the logic
and structure of verbal reports along with the presence or absence of various
types of details, context, and spontaneous, qualitative evaluations by the speaker
of his or her own recall. Reality Monitoring attempts to determine the validity of
statements by assessing the clarity and realism of a story, along with contextual
information that indicates the presence or absence of details that link elements
of time, space, and sensory perceptions with the primary content of a subject’s
story. 49 These techniques were originally developed to gauge whether allegations
by children represented true statements, but laboratory studies using college
students indicated that they could also be used with adults. Over time they were
used to assess the likely truthfulness of statements made by criminal defendants
vs. victims. The most recent analysis of their effectiveness, conducted by Vrij, 46
was restricted to field studies involving real-world criminal cases.
The results of studies on verbal behavioral cues appear rather positive.
Generally, they indicate that deceptive narratives contained less content (e.g., fewer
overall details, fewer unusual details, less contextual and sensory information,
fewer quotations or descriptions of interactions), more logic problems (e.g.,
unstructured reproductions, less logical structure, less plausible relations), and
differences in the subjects’ expressed evaluations of their own stories (e.g., less
expressed self-doubt, fewer tentatively phrased statements, more absolutely
48