What is confabulation, and how can it be mitigated in interviews?

• A. Confabulation is a memory lapse that cannot be mitigated.
• B. Confabulation is deliberate lying with intent to deceive.
• C. Confabulation is memory gaps filled with plausible but false details; mitigated by non-leading prompts and corroboration.
• D. Confabulation occurs only during written statements.

Answer: (C)

Confabulation is when a person’s memory gaps are filled with plausible-sounding details that aren’t true, and this usually happens without any intent to deceive. In interviews, it comes from the brain trying to make a coherent story out of partial or unclear memories, especially under stress or when recalling complex events.

The best way to reduce confabulation is to use non-leading prompts and seek corroboration. Non-leading prompts encourage the person to tell the story in their own words without steering them toward a specific detail. For example, asking for a narrative of the event from start to finish, rather than yes/no questions or questions that hint at particular details, helps prevent implanting memories. Corroboration means checking the details against independent sources, records, or other witnesses, which helps identify memory gaps and separate genuine recall from fabrications. Together, these approaches promote more accurate recall and reduce the chance that someone fills in missing pieces with believable but false information.

It's not simply a memory lapse that cannot be mitigated, nor is it deliberate lying. It’s a memory reconstruction process that can be mitigated with careful interviewing techniques. And it can occur in oral interviews as well as written statements, so the emphasis is on how to elicit memories carefully and verify them.