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Police interviewers require a new investigative interviewing tool to facilitate the discrimination between children’s true and false reports. This thesis investigated whether cognitive lie detection techniques could fill this gap in current practice. Chapter 1 introduces the cognitive lie detection paradigm, highlighting the lack of research within the child deception literature and the paradigm’s potential as a means for detecting deceit in children. Chapter 2 explores imposing cognitive load through the use of gaze maintenance to exaggerate differences between child truth-tellers and child lie-tellers. In Experiment 1, maintaining gaze (either with the interviewer’s face or a teddy bear’s face) resulted in truth-tellers providing significantly more detailed reports than lie-tellers. This finding was not apparent for the control condition where children were given no gaze instruction. In Experiment 2, this exaggerated difference between the accounts of the truth- and lie-tellers facilitated deception detection when the children were instructed to look at interviewer’s face, but not at the teddy bear’s face. Poor discrimination for the latter group was discussed with regard to the gaze behaviour of the children being regarded as ‘fishy’ by the evaluators. Chapter 3 investigates whether playing an example of a detailed free recall provided by a peer (referred to as another child’s model statement, AMS) elicits longer statements that contain more cues to deceit in an eyewitness context than when no model statement is used. Both child truth-tellers and child lie-tellers provided more details and more new information following AMS. However, truth-teller accuracy decreased. In Chapter 4, interview clips from Chapter 3 were judged by adult evaluators who found it difficult to differentiate between children’s true and false reports. This could be a consequence of quantity of detail not being a reliable indicator of veracity for this sample of interviews. Chapter 5 tests the use of children’s practice interviews as their own model statements (OMS) compared to AMS and having no model statement (NMS). Only AMS encouraged children to include more details and more new information in their post-model statement true and false reports. Further research is required to understand the socio-cognitive mechanisms that create this behavioural difference. Chapter 6 describes a field study that presented the cognitive lie detection techniques investigated in the previous chapters to police officers who interview child witnesses regularly. Of all the techniques, OMS was considered to be the most viable option, although police officers suggested that all of the interview techniques would require adaptation for use in the real world. The practitioners provided an insightful look at the current child-interviewing context in the UK, which provides a basic framework that could be considered when designing child deception detection strategies in the future. Finally, Chapter 7 summarises the main findings of this doctoral thesis, discusses their theoretical and practical implications, and puts forward ideas for future research.

Time is objectively measurable, but is subjectively understood within our own time perspective (Zimbardo & Boyd, 1999) and representations of time (Margolies & Crawford, 2008; McGlone & Harding, 1998). The present thesis is in two parts. Part 1 explored how our perceptions and representations of time may influence our emotions. Study 1 sought to validate a measure of two time representations (ego-moving and time-moving) and found that people think about time in a metaphor-consistent manner across clock, calendar, and spatial questions (N=94). Study 2 (N=128) found that those choosing an ego-moving representation were more likely to see themselves approaching events, reported higher levels of personal agency and scored higher in the Future time perspective. Those who choose a time-moving representation saw the event as approaching them, had significantly lower scores on personal agency and scored highly on Present Fatalism. Study 3 (N=199) found that those who reported an ego-moving representation were significantly happier, whereas those reporting a time-moving representation were significantly more anxious and depressed. Study 4 (N=232) found that when happiness is induced, participants report significantly more ego-moving representations, whereas when anxiety or sadness are induced, participants report significantly more time-moving representations. Study 5 (N=106) found that when ego-moving representations were induced, participants reported significantly higher happiness scores, whereas when time-moving was induced participants report significantly higher anxiety and sadness/depression. Part 2 explored one aspect of ego-moving representations of time, that of goal-getting and perceptions of time morem closely. In study 6 (N=139), time perspective was explored in relation to non-achievement of goals. Findings suggest those high in Present Fatalism procrastinate significantly more frequently and often only form the intention towards achieving their goals, and were significantly more upset at past failures. Fatalists also tended not to use cognitive reappraisal strategies to enable them to think differently about how to achieve their goal in future attempts. Those high in the Future time perspective were less likely to procrastinate, less upset at non-attainment of goals, and did tend to use cognitive reappraisal. Study 7 (N=162) examined time perspective, self-efficacy, and goal achievement. For those who achieved their goal within 7 days, the Past Positive and Future time perspectives positively predicted self-efficacy, whereas Present Fatalism negatively predicted self-efficacy. Finally, study 8 (N=76) sought to determine whether focussing on different time perspectives were of help in achieving goals. Results revealed that by focusing on what we have achieved in the past and thinking about managing our future time in the same way we think about our present time may help us to achieve our goals by increasing self-efficacy.

Although some research has suggested that the use of a more humane, or empathic, interviewing style with suspected sex offenders is likely to bring about more admissions (Holmberg & Christianson, 2002; Kebbell, Hurran & Mazzerole, 2006; see also Kassin & Gudjonsson, 2004 for a review), much of this research has been conducted with offenders long after they had been interviewed by the police. Thus, the main aims of this thesis were to examine whether the use of empathy by interviewers had any measurable benefit during an interview as well as identifying interviewers’ beliefs and understanding about what empathy is. Chapter one outlines the impact of empirical research on investigative interviewing in recent decades, including the meaning and definitions of different question typologies and the way in which research could move forward. The chapter also details the advances in police training in England and Wales, including the Professionalising the Investigation Programme (PIP), designed to enhance and professionalise police investigations per se. The current literature concerning empathy and its efficacy in relation to investigative interviewing is reviewed in Chapter two. The chapter concludes with a summary outlining the lack of training for police officers in the area of empathy and proposes a more refined model for measuring empathy. Chapter three outlines the findings from an empirical study which focuses on police officers’ perceptions and the challenges associated with interviewing suspects of different types of crime. Interviews with suspects of crimes against children were shown to be the most difficult for police officers to conduct. Officers reported that they would show the least amount of empathy towards interviewees suspected of child rape. Furthermore, participants’ qualitative responses revealed that many officers did not believe empathy should be used at all in interviews with suspects, regardless of the crime. Chapter four examines the use of empathy and the impact of question type on the amount of Investigation Relevant Information (IRI) obtained by examining transcripts of actual police interviews with suspects of child rape. The use of appropriate questions led to significantly higher amounts of information elicited that may be relevant to the investigation, while empathy (calculated by counting the number of examples of spontaneous empathy, empathic opportunities that were continued) did not have any impact on the amount of IRI elicited. The study outlined in Chapter five extended this methodology and analysed the effects of empathy and question type on the amount of IRI obtained from interviews with suspects of three different high stakes crimes: adult murder; filicide; and child rape. As in the previous analysis (Chapter four), no direct effects of empathy on the amount of IRI elicited were found. However, in interviews classified as empathic, interviewers asked significantly more appropriate questions than they did in interviews classified as non-empathic, and significantly more items of IRI were elicited from appropriate questions. The study outlined in Chapter six investigates police officers’ beliefs about what determines the ‘quality’ of investigative interviews. The questionnaire consisted of four excerpts from real life interviews, which varied on two dimensions – the balance of appropriate to inappropriate question, and whether they contained examples of empathy. Analysis revealed that officers were mostly able to detect which interviews contained appropriate questions, and that they used the appropriateness of questions as a determinant of overall ‘quality’ in interviews. However, one reason why respondents may have used appropriate questions as a proxy for quality is that, as revealed by their qualitative responses, empathy was difficult to identify. The final Chapter provides an overview of the findings, outlines the limitations and challenges associated with this kind of research, suggests recommendations for future research and discusses the implications for police practice.