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The Influence of Gradual and Late Evidence Disclosure and Suspect Guilt on the Suspect’s Cognitive Load and Amount of Disclosed Information in Investigative Interviews
Moreitz, Moritz L. (2025) The Influence of Gradual and Late Evidence Disclosure and Suspect Guilt on the Suspect’s Cognitive Load and Amount of Disclosed Information in Investigative Interviews.
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| Abstract: | Recent research on the use of evidence in police interviewing shifted its primary focus from deception detection toward information elicitation. This study contributed to this shift by examining how different evidence disclosure timings and suspect guilt influence the amount of investigation-relevant information disclosed and how mentally demanding the interview becomes for the suspect. To do so, we employed a 2 (guilty vs. innocent) x 2 (late vs. gradual) between-participants design. Participants (n = 93) took part in an in-person mock police interview and were instructed to convince the interviewer of their innocence. Results showed that innocent suspects disclosed significantly more investigation-relevant information than guilty suspects, and that gradual evidence disclosure elicited more investigation-relevant information than late disclosure. An interaction effect between suspect guilt and evidence disclosure timing was near significance, suggesting that the benefits of the gradual disclosure may be driven primarily by innocent suspects. Guilty suspects reported higher levels of cognitive load than innocent suspects, while disclosure timing had no significant effect on cognitive load, nor was cognitive load associated with the amount of disclosed investigation-relevant information. These findings support the effectiveness of the gradual evidence disclosure for eliciting investigation-relevant information from cooperative suspects and challenge accounts that suggest cognitive load as the primary mechanism for explaining differences in suspect behaviours. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Bachelor) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 77 psychology |
| Programme: | Psychology BSc (56604) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/106626 |
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