This week we have Dr. Aldert Vrij, Professor of Applied Social Psychology, University of Portsmouth, UK, visiting and giving a talk in our colloquium (see abstract below). 

A cognitive approach to lie detection

This talk starts with a literature review of a new, cognitive, approach to nonverbal and verbal lie detection. The core of the approach is that investigators can magnify the difference in cognitive load that liars and truth tellers experience through specific interventions, resulting in liars displaying more diagnostic cues to deception. A discussion of the cognitive lie-detection approach, which consists of three techniques, (a) imposing cognitive load, (b) encouraging interviewees to say more, and (c) asking unexpected questions, is followed by a qualitative analysis of the available cognitive lie detection research examining whether the approach results in more cues to deceit.