Exposing Suspects to Their Sketches in Repeated Interviews to Elicit Information and Veracity Cues

Abstract

Background/Aim: has shown that sketching while narrating facilitates the elicitation of information and verbal veracity cues in single interviews. We examined if these effects are retained when suspects are shown their sketch after one week in a repeated interview. Method: Participants (N = 173) completed a mock mission and then told the truth or lied about it in an immediate interview (interview 1). Participants either verbally reported the mission (Free recall condition) or sketched it while describing what they were sketching (sketch condition). After one week, all participants were asked for a free recall without sketching (interview 2). Half of the participants in the Sketch condition had access to their sketch while they verbally reported the event whereas the remaining half did not access the sketch. Results: Truth tellers provided more information than lie tellers in both interviews, and sketching elicited more information than a free recall but only in Interview 1. Participants who had access to their sketch in interview 2 repeated more information than those who did not have access, but accessing the sketch did not have an effect on veracity cues. Conclusions: Thus, sketching enhanced the elicitation of information in Interview 1 and access to the sketch in interview 2 seemed helpful for recalling previously reported information.

Keywords

• lie detection
• deception
• sketch
• access
• repeated interview