A faculty member’s research has generated some generous publicity and placed National University in the national spotlight.
Cheryl Hiscock-Anisman, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology in the College of Letters and Sciences was featured in the New York Times, Science Section last year, as well as in a segment on National Public Radio. Both stories focused on interviewing techniques, called the ACID test, Assessment Criteria Indicative of Deception, that she and her colleague, Kevin Colwell, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Psychology at Southern Connecut have developed to help detect deception.
Professor Anisman isn’t looking for the usual signs of anxiety that many typically expect from a guilty suspect during a police interrogation. In fact, she points out that innocent people are likely to be more anxious in such as threatening situation.
“Non verbal cues such as sweating, facial movements and fidgeting may be indices of nervousness, not of lying,” she explains. “These cues are often misinterpreted. One of our concerns is that investigators sometimes, once they believe a suspect is guilty, push for a confession rather than furthering the investigation by collecting additional and meaningful evidence.”
Dr. Anisman indicates, “What is so disturbing is that that police as a result of this misinformation may elicit false confessions, sometimes resulting in innocent people being convicted and sentenced for crimes they didn’t commit. By training law enforcement officials to employ more accurate techniques using investigative strategies, rather than interrogation techniques the investigators will have more efficient methods of information gathering. Professor Anisman says justice will be better served.
“One important key,” she adds, “Is for the interviewer to build rapport with the suspect; to establish a comfortable dialog which invites the recounting of vivid memories.” Professor Anisman says that people telling the truth will include up to 30 percent more details than those who are lying over several retellings of the event.
Once interviewers capture more complex, detail-oriented testimonies, then according to Professor Anisman, they have the witness or suspects describe everything several times in a variety of ways, for example, in reverse order, recounting the stories backward, and telling the story from another’s perspective. There are also questions, interspersed throughout the interview to distract the individual from their scripted testimony. This interviewing strategy was implemented this past summer when Drs. Anisman and Colwell, trained the San Diego Police Department and other law enforcement agencies. Additionally they were invited to Yale and Columbia Universities to address forensic scientists, attorneys, educators and social workers.
Recently, The University of California System had Dr. Anisman train their Title IX compliance officers. “These investigators are on the frontline dealing with sexual harassment and sexual assault allegations, in which it is one person's word against another's,” Professor Anisman explains. “They face many situations where there are no witnesses, and they are being asked to make a judgment that may seriously alter one's career or life.”
A clinical psychologist who is licensed to practice in four states, Professor Anisman teaches courses in marriage and family therapy graduate program at National University in San Diego.
To hear about her research on National Public Radio, click here. To read about her research in the New York Times, click here.
