Finding the Truth: Interview and Interrogation Training Simulations

In order for investigators to conduct effective interviews and interrogations they must carefully interpret the verbal and non-verbal communication of their subjects. When investigators can interpret both types of communication they are said to be able to “see” the “whole picture” or the “whole truth.” The interpretation of non-verbal communication such as body language, facial expressions and gestures is called Kinesics. Studies have shown that Kinesics account for 55-93% of all communication. For instance, sometimes investigators can see that a subject may be lying if the subject's words and Kinesics do not agree. Studies have also shown that interpretation of Kinesics can improve with practice. This paper will present a visual, interaction and instructional design approach employed to develop interview and interrogation Immersive Learning Simulations (ILS). We will provide examples of the use of Kinesics within the interview and interrogation simulations being developed for the United States Army Criminal Investigation Command (USACIDC) Military Police Investigators. The paper will discuss concurrent research of body language, facial expression and Proxemics relative to the interview and interrogation process. Within the area of facial expression we will discuss brief (1/25 th of a second), involuntary facial expressions called “micro expressions” and how they are portrayed to learners within the simulation. A study of the interpretation of micro expressions by Ekman and O’Sullivan has shown that only 50 out of 20,000 participants, or 0.25% of the study’s population, were able to successfully interpret these expressions with an accuracy of 80%.