These Words – Counselling and Consultancy

Date of publication: 31st March 2025

When it comes to retelling an event or story, it’s impossible for everyone to tell us everything. In order to say what they want to say, a person must first determine, based on all their given knowledge of the event, that which they wish to share.

If the information is important enough to them to share, they will share it. If not, they will leave it out. This is the editing process and is evidenced in every written or verbal communication.

In order to be able to share specific information, before it is imparted, a person has to decide how to phrase it.

Firstly, they have to think of the memory and then determine which words they will use to describe it, in addition to the order they will put the words to have the sentences make sense. For this to happen, syntax is required.

Both processes, the editing and phrasing process are supremely quick and measured in milliseconds. The human brain has in excess of 300 billion cells, which creates 100 trillion connections, making for a lot to process in an instant. This is known as the speed of transmission, whereby information is assimilated and structured before it reaches the mouth. This process being so fast means that the person who gives a statement will struggle to answer specific questions about their own statement.

For example, upon completion of what they are saying, we can ask:

1. Did you know that you changed your language when you were speaking and used different words to describe the same thing?

2. Do you know what caused you to change your language?

The individual who gave the statement will likely not know but will likely be able to affirm or deny the specific reason for the cause if suggested to them by the analyst.

The person is able to do this as when recalling from memory, the event is present.

They are consciously aware of the reason when prompted (having time to think) but not at the time of giving the statement or saying what they did. They struggle however, to connect the words they used in their statement with memory recall in real time. The lack of connection is due to the high speed of transmission in presenting the statement.

A person often has little or no control over their word choice when speaking in real time and without interrupting the flow of information. A natural conversation will flow with little thought being given to the words used.

If we try it and think why we used specific word choices after we have said them, we will often struggle to explain the reason. Therefore, this high speed means that the ability of the person speaking and the analyst to explain the statement, differ.

The focus is always on what is said in the statement and not the person making it.

We can help you to differentiate between the content and the language used. If you look for one, you might miss the other. Please contact us to help you to see what is hidden in plain sight and compliment your strategy.

All blog subjects are identified, validated and written by the DDL Team.

See www.ddlltd.com for more on Deception Detection Lab Ltd.