Behavioral Lie Detection Part 6 (conclusion)

Behavioral Assessment Interview. One training model and deception assessment instrument in common use today is J.E. Reid and Associates Behavioral Analysis Interview (BAI). The BAI is a 30-45 minute long empirically derived structured interview designed to elicit verbal and non-verbal behaviors and attitudinal characteristics of the suspect in a non-accusatory manner (Horvath, Jayne, & Buckley, 1993). Initially, questions concern only the suspects background. This is done to establish a relationship with the suspect and to determine normative (baseline) information for the behavioral cues of interest. The second phase consists of investigative questions used to assess the individual's opportunity, motivation, and involvement with the issue at hand. Finally, the investigator uses behavior provoking questions to elicit differential verbal and non-verbal behaviors. Validation studies of the BAI have been promising. Horvath, Jayne, and Buckley (1993) reported a 91% accuracy in assessing honest responses, and a 80% accuracy in predicting deception. The BAI allows one to evaluate substantially more information then is typically assessed without such an instrument or in laboratory research. Its high rates of success in validation studies, along with its ease of application and training, have made it a very popular instrument and in increasing demand.

Conclusion The ability to detect deception is an area of particular interest to a number of unique environments. In criminal investigations competent interrogation techniques are often fundamental to the successful gathering of evidence for further scientific analysis. The failure of many popular deception detection techniques to provide a valid measure with limited false positives (false identification of deception), along with the ethical concerns surrounding other methods of deception analysis, has led to a great deal of interest in the assessment of deception via behavioral observations (Lubow & Fein, 1996). Research has consistently shown that a combination of autonomic arousal and cognitive processing failures can create a number of identifiable non-verbal cues of deception (Horvath, Jayne, & Buckley, 1994). Factors such as, non-linguistic voice characteristics, microexpressions, and body-movement are all predictive of a deceptive individual. Walters (1996) notes, however, that there is no single universal cue of deception. He postulates that one must examine an individual's non-aroused behavior prior to any emotionally stressful and arousing interrogation is undertaken, so that a baseline of normative behavioral responses can be formulated for comparison with any observed behavioral cues. The usage of deception detection training programs and structured interviews, most notably the BAI, have shown a dramatic increase in the ability to detect detection, particularly when applied to real world interrogations (Horvath, Jayne, & Buckley, 1994). The applicability of lie-detection research to real world contexts is currently in high demand and appears to be a possible avenue of significant contribution to many forensic contexts.

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