Comprehensive Tactical Interviewing

Verbal content analysis (aka Statement Analysis) and behavioral indicator training have been taught separately as powerful investigative tools for law enforcement officers.

This course covers both techniques into a single, more powerful investigative interviewing and interrogation tool by combining Humintell’s Tactical Interviewing, I: Verbal Content Analysis and Tactical Interviewing, II: Behavioral Indicators courses.

Comprehensive Tactical Interviewing involves interviews tactically driven by the verbal and nonverbal indicators of veracity, deception, and other mental states that are observed in real time during the interview. This technique makes investigators more efficient and effective while instilling greater confidence in their beliefs regarding veracity and deception.

The course will teach students to identify evidence-based behavioral indicators that occur when an individual lies under high-stakes situations. These indicators include nonverbal “hotspots” – the micro and subtle facial expressions and other nonverbal behaviors that are part of the emotional leakage, and linguistic and grammatical cues based on statement analysis techniques learned concurrently. Once the indicators are identified, strategies are employed to conduct more in-depth interviews. This course is designed to provide administrators and investigators with a structured method of examining behavioral indicators during investigative interviewing.

Learning Objectives

Participants in this course will:

1. Identify meaningful behavioral indicators associated with specific emotions, cognitions, and cognitive processes (and distinguish them from less meaningful behavior) in order to
   1. Gain insights about the personalities, mindsets, motivations, and intentions of interviewee
   2. Identify meaningful content areas of the interview to the interviewee
   3. Assess veracity from deception
   4. Identify suspicious behavior and hostile intent
2. Identify specific linguistic and grammatical features of speech that have been validly associated with hidden thoughts, feelings, ideas, motivations, and intentions.
3. Practice applying their newfound knowledge and skills in a template that helps them understand what they identified
4. Practice the newfound knowledge, skills, and template application in order to facilitate interviewing efficacy
5. Practice how to leverage the insights gained in navigating interviews and interrogations.

Scientific Background

Verbal content analysis has its roots in the work of Undeutsch (1989). While there are many different types of statement analysis techniques available, Humintell’s course focuses on an eclectic, practitioner-focused approach that combines linguistic and grammatical features of speech documented as valid indicators of mental states by multiple scientific studies (Hwang et al., 2016; Matsumoto et al., 2015a, 2015b; Porter & Yuille, 1996; Sandoval, 2003, 2008; Sandoval et al., 2015; Zaparniuk et al., 1995).

The analysis of nonverbal behavior has its roots in decades of published scientific studies documenting the ability of the face to display universality of facial expressions of emotion and signs of cognition (Ekman, 1979, 1993; Ekman & Friesen, 1969; Hwang & Matsumoto, 2016); the meanings, classifications, and functions of different types of gestures (Cartmill & Goldin-Meadow, 2016; Goldin-Meadow & Beilock, 2010; Goldin-Meadow et al., 2001), voice and vocal characteristics (Frank et al., 2013; Sauter & Eimer, 2010; Sauter et al., 2010; Scott & McGettigan, 2016; Simon-Thomas et al., 2009), and whole body movements (Matsumoto & Kudoh, 1987; Mehrabian, 1968a, 1968b, 1969). This body of evidence is also complemented by studies demonstrating the ability of clusters of nonverbal behaviors to differentiate veracity and deception (Hartwig & Bond, 2014; Matsumoto & Hwang, 2018a, 2018b, 2020), that individuals can be trained to reliably identify these behavioral indicators (Hurley et al., 2014; Matsumoto & Hwang, 2011), and that individuals trained in these validated behavioral indicators do better at detecting deception (Matsumoto & Hwang, 2011; Matsumoto et al., 2014).

Typical Length

Five (5) days.

Topics Covered

Refer to content described in Humintell’s Tactical Interviewing, I: Verbal Content Analysis and Tactical Interviewing, II: Behavioral Indicators courses.

References

Cartmill, E. A., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2016). Gesture. In D. Matsumoto, H. C. Hwang, & M. G. Frank (Eds.), APA handbook of nonverbal communication (pp. 307-333). American Psychological Association.

Ekman, P. (1979). About brows: Emotional and conversational signals. In M. von Cranach, K. Foppa, W. Lepenies, & D. Ploog (Eds.), Human ethology. Cambridge University Press.

Ekman, P. (1993). Facial expression and emotion. American Psychologist, 48(4), 384-392.

Ekman, P., & Friesen, W. V. (1969). The repertoire of nonverbal behavior: Categories, origins, usage, and coding. Semiotica, 1, 49-98. https://doi.org/10.1515/semi.1969.1.1.49

Frank, M. G., Maroulis, A., & Griffin, D. J. (2013). The voice. In D. Matsumoto, M. G. Frank, & H. S. Hwang (Eds.), Nonverbal communication: Science and applications (pp. 53-74). Sage Publications.

Goldin-Meadow, S., & Beilock, S. L. (2010). Action’s infuence on thought: The case of gesture. Psychological Science, 5(6), 664-674. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691610388764

Goldin-Meadow, S., Nusbaum, H., Kelly, S. D., & Wagner, S. (2001). Explaining math: Gesturing lightens the load. Psychological Science, 12(6), 516-522.

Hartwig, M., & Bond, C. F. (2014). Lie detection from multiple cues: A meta-analysis. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 28(5), 661-676. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3052

Hurley, C. M., Anker, A. E., Frank, M. G., Matsumoto, D., & Hwang, H. C. (2014). Background factors predicting accuracy and improvement in micro expression recognition [journal article]. Motivation and Emotion, 38(5), 700-714. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-014-9410-9

Hwang, H. C., & Matsumoto, D. (2016). Facial expressions. In D. Matsumoto, H. C. Hwang, & M. G. Frank (Eds.), APA Handbook of Nonverbal Communication (pp. 257-287). American Psychological Association.

Hwang, H. C., Matsumoto, D., & Sandoval, V. A. (2016). Linguistic cues of deception across multiple language groups in a mock crime context. Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling, 13(1), 56-69. 

Matsumoto, D., & Hwang, H. C. (2011). Evidence for training the ability to read microexpressions of emotion. Motivation and Emotion, 35(2), 181-191.

Matsumoto, D., & Hwang, H. C. (2018a). Clusters of nonverbal behaviors differ according to type of question and veracity in investigative interviews in a mock crime context. Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, 33(4), 302-315. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-017-9250-0

Matsumoto, D., & Hwang, H. C. (2018b). Microexpressions differentiate truths from lies about future malicious intent. Frontiers in psychology, 9(2545).

Matsumoto, D., & Hwang, H. C. (2020). Clusters of nonverbal behavior differentiate truths and lies about future malicious intent in checkpoint screening interviews. Psychiatry, Psychology and Law.

Matsumoto, D., Hwang, H. C., & Sandoval, V. A. (2015a). Cross-language applicability of linguistic features associated with veracity and deception. Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, 30, 229-241.

Matsumoto, D., Hwang, H. C., & Sandoval, V. A. (2015b). Ethnic similarities and differences in linguistic indicators of veracity and lying in a moderately high stakes scenario. Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, 30(1), 15-26. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-013-9137-7

Matsumoto, D., Hwang, H. C., Skinner, L. G., & Frank, M. G. (2014). Positive effects in detecting lies from training to recognize behavioral anomalies. Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, 29, 28-35.

Matsumoto, D., & Kudoh, T. (1987). Cultural similarities and differences in the semantic dimensions of body postures. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 11(3), 166-179.

Mehrabian, A. (1968a). Inference of attitudes from the posture, orientation, and distance of a communicator. Journal of Consulting & Clinical Psychology, 32(3), 296-308.

Mehrabian, A. (1968b). Relationship of attitude to seated posture, orientation, and distance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 10(1), 26-30.

Mehrabian, A. (1969). Significance of posture and position in the communication of attitude and status relationships. Psychological Bulletin, 71(5), 359-372.

Porter, S., & Yuille, J. C. (1996). The language of deceipt: An investigation of the verbal clues to deception in the interrogation context. Law and Human Behavior, 20, 443-459. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01498980

Sandoval, V. A. (2003). Strategies to avoid interview contamination. FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, 72(10), 1-13.

Sandoval, V. A. (2008). Interview clues: Words that leave an investigative trail. FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, 77(1), 1-9.

Sandoval, V. A., Matsumoto, D., Hwang, H. C., & Skinner, L. (2015). An investigative tool for cross-cultural interviewing. FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, Jul, 1-9.

Sauter, D. A., & Eimer, M. (2010). Rapid detection of emotion from human vocalizations. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 22(3), 474-481.

Sauter, D. A., Eisner, F., Ekman, P., & Scott, S. K. (2010). Cross-cultural recognition of basic emotions through nonverbal emotional vocalizations. Proceedings from the National Academy of Sciences, 107(6), 2408-2412. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0908239106

Scott, S., & McGettigan, C. (2016). The voice: From identity to interactions. In D. Matsumoto, H. C. Hwang, & M. G. Frank (Eds.), APA handbook of nonverbal communication (pp. 289-306). American Psychological Association.

Simon-Thomas, E. R., Keltner, D., Sauter, D. A., Sinicropi-Yao, L., & Abramson, A. (2009). The voice conveys specific emotions: Evidence from vocal burst displays. Emotion, 9(6), 838-846.

Undeutsch, U. (1989). The development of statement reality analysis. In J. C. Yuille (Ed.), Credibility Assessment (pp. 101-119). Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.

Zaparniuk, J., Yuille, J. C., & Taylor, S. (1995). Assessing the credibility of true and false statements. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 18, 343-352. https://doi.org/10.1016/0160-2527(95)00016-B

Featured Instructor

Our featured instructor for this workshop is Lisa Skinner, a retired Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Supervisory Special Agent.