How Cognitive Load Influences Responses During a Polygraph Test
Cognitive load plays a critical role in the outcome of lie detector tests. How we process information impacts our responses to polygraph questions, particularly during the in-test phase.
It doesn’t matter if an examinee is honest or deceptive. Excessive cognitive load can often induce physiological stress, potentially impacting the quality of the data recorded by the polygraph machine.
Therefore, it takes a truly professional examiner to sift through the noise and determine if an examinee’s responses are natural or influenced by the way they process information.
Here’s an in-depth look at how cognitive load may impact the outcome of your next polygraph exam.
What Is Cognitive Load?
Cognitive load is a term for the mental effort our working memory requires to process information.
Now, the working memory is the part of our memory responsible for processing perceptual and linguistic information. It rapidly helps us analyze new data to determine if we should commit it to long-term memory or discard it.
When you bombard someone with excess information, you’re essentially straining their working memory. The individual must quickly process the new information to assess its relevance for present and future use.
The outcome of a polygraph test relies significantly on cognitive load.
Difficult questions exert more cognitive stress on an examinee, which could manifest physiologically. Unqualified examiners may inadvertently misconstrue such physiological arousal as evidence of deception.
Types of Cognitive Load
Cognitive load falls into three distinct categories, including;
1. Intrinsic Cognitive Load
This refers to the inherent complexity of a subject matter. In polygraphs, intrinsic cognitive load could result from an examinee’s sheer difficulty in comprehending the case under investigation.
2. Extraneous Cognitive Load
How we present a subject matter can constitute extraneous cognitive load. During lie detector tests, some examiners may ask unduly complex questions. This could throw the examinee off balance, even if they had clarity of the matter under investigation.
3. Germane Cognitive Load
Germane cognitive load relates to how we desire to process new information. It’s perhaps the only type of cognitive load that a polygraph examinee has near-absolute control over.
For instance, an examinee will respond more calmly during a lie detector test questioning if they had prior knowledge of the actual questions.
Potential Impact of Cognitive Load on Polygraph Outcome
Industry guidelines require polygraph examiners to schedule lie detector tests in comfortable settings.
An examinee must also be aware of the incident they’ll be questioned about. In fact, a qualified polygrapher should meet a would-be examinee and go over a few random questions to establish a physiological baseline.
But despite the amount of planning that goes into preparing lie detector tests, the risks of cognitive load are always there. One study notes non-verbal cues like silent pauses as synonymous with deception.
Simply analyzing physiological responses from verbal replies isn’t enough. Polygraph examiners must equally consider non-verbal cues that are consistent with cognitive load, with a particular focus on germane cognitive load.
Indicators to Beware Of
Paralysis, or silent pauses, is one of the most common indicators of cognitive load.
Being momentarily unable to answer a question might often indicate subject complexity. However, it could also suggest an examinee is trying to concoct a lie.
Anger is another tell-tale sign of cognitive load to look out for. If an examinee cannot effectively spin a falsehood, they may become angry when an examiner challenges their responses.
Other signs of cognitive load include;
- Passivity – Indifference to the process despite the potential outcome
- Pupil Dilation – A signature indication of increased mental effort or raging emotions
- Repetition – Repeating a lie to corroborate previous lies may indicate cognitive load
- Slips of the Tongue – When an examinee inadvertently reveals a fact they were trying to suppress
- Sentence Incompletion – An examinee discovers mid-speech that they’re about to incriminate themselves
Dealing With Cognitive Load During Polygraph Tests
Not all evidence of cognitive load implies deception. As mentioned, subject complexity, question presentation, and prior knowledge all impact how our working memory processes new information.
Adequate preparation is the most effective way to deal with cognitive load.
Besides, examiners must focus on framing the questions simply.
Questions shouldn’t be ambiguous, technical, or incriminatory. This enables an examinee to quickly process each query, minimizing cognitive load.
By implementing these measures, examiners are then able to analyze any non-verbal cues more objectively.
Final Word
Cognitive load remains pivotal to the efficiency of lie detector tests. Cognitive indicators like frequent pauses can provide examiners with crucial non-verbal cues of deception, improving post-test data analysis.
However, examiners must beware of the risks of misinterpretation.
Note that many individuals are slow-takers. When undergoing polygraph tests, such examinees may display certain cues that could be misconstrued as deception.
More importantly, polygraph data analysis should largely rely on the magnitude of response to the in-test questions relative to a subject’s physiological baselines captured during the pre-test phase.
