Orienting to guilty knowledge

The Guilty Knowledge Test (GKT; Lykken, 1959) assesses whether suspects conceal information about a crime ( “guilty knowledge”). Previous studies have demonstrated larger physiological reactions to guilty knowledge compared to unknown information. In three experiments, we investigated whether guilty knowledge also demands attention. During an alleged polygraph examination, participants were presented with to‐be‐detected pictures ( “guilty knowledge”), nonsignificant, familiar pictures ( “mere knowledge”), and previously unseen pictures ( “neutral information”) for 250 ms in a modified dot probe task. In all three experiments, probe responses were slower on guilty knowledge trials as compared to the neutral trials. Results are discussed in terms of an information‐processing view on orienting to guilty knowledge.     

A quantitative review of the guilty knowledge test

The guilty knowledge polygraph test (GKT; D. T. Lykken, 1959, 1960) is a psychophysiological method of identifying suspects with concealed information about a crime. A meta-analysis of 50 treatment groups drawn from 22 laboratory simulation studies (total N = 1,247) was conducted to provide a comprehensive estimate of GKT accuracy under controlled conditions. Electrodermal measures correctly identified 76% of participants with concealed knowledge and 83% of those without information. Informed participants were detected at rates significantly in excess of chance, with a mean weighted effect size of .57. Enactment of mock crimes increased the hit rate to 82%. The rates of false-positive error among noninformed treatment groups did not significantly exceed chance. Applications and research directions are discussed.     

Abstracts

McDaniel, S. H. (1990) Marital therapy and the resolution of gender role conflict. Journal of Family Psychotherapy
Storm, C. L. and Heath, A. W. (1991) Problem-focused supervision: rationale, exemplification, and limitations. Journal of Family Psychotherapy
Burkett, L. P. (1991) Parenting behaviours of women who were sexually abused as children in their families of origin. Family Process
Palmer, R. L., Chaloner, D. A. and Oppenheimer, R. (1992) Childhood sexual experiences with adults reported by female psychiatric patients. Journal of Psychiatry
Brewin, C. R., MacCarthy, B., Duda, K. and Vaughn, C. E. (1991) Attribution and expressed emotion in the relatives of patients with schizophrenia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology     

The influence of FMRI lie detection evidence on juror decision-making

In the current study, we report on an experiment examining whether functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) lie detection evidence would influence potential jurors' assessment of guilt in a criminal trial. Potential jurors (N = 330) read a vignette summarizing a trial, with some versions of the vignette including lie detection evidence indicating that the defendant was lying about having committed the crime. Lie detector evidence was based on evidence from the polygraph, fMRI (functional brain imaging), or thermal facial imaging. Results showed that fMRI lie detection evidence led to more guilty verdicts than lie detection evidence based on polygraph evidence, thermal facial imaging, or a control condition that did not include lie detection evidence. However, when the validity of the fMRI lie detection evidence was called into question on cross-examination, guilty verdicts were reduced to the level of the control condition. These results provide important information about the influence of lie detection evidence in legal settings. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Guilty Knowledge Test and the modified Stroop task in detection of deception: an exploratory study

The current study tested whether a simple Stroop paradigm can be used to detect deceptive behavior. 40 university students (34 women), half of whom committed a mock crime, were administered a Guilty Knowledge Test and modified Stroop task to detect guilt or innocence. The Guilty Knowledge Test is a well-known psychophysiological detection method, which consists of multiple-choice questions about details of the crime while skin conductance is recorded. Subjects possessing guilty knowledge are expected to show enhanced differential responses to the relevant stimuli. The modified Stroop task required color-naming of colored words related to the mock crime or an irrelevant crime. Each version of the Stroop task was presented in story form. Subjects possessing guilty knowledge were expected to produce larger reaction times to the relevant version relative to the irrelevant version. The test correctly identified 100% of innocent participants and 78% of guilty participants. In contrast, Stroop interference. i.e., reaction times for irrelevant crime details subtracted from those for mock crime details, did not differentiate between the two groups, suggesting that the story form of the Stroop paradigm is not suitable for lie detection.     

汉字多音字加工过程中的重复知盲效应

以汉语中的多音字为研究材料, 采用RSVP任务, 探讨重复知盲的发生水平。采用三因素混合设计。结果是重复情况、位置和呈现时间有主效应。重复状况和呈现时间有交互效应：完全重复条件下, 呈现时间为100 ms和200 ms时都会产生重复知盲, 但同音重复和不同音重复条件下, 只有在呈现时间为100 ms时才产生重复知盲效应。结果表明：1)刺激的重复性和呈现时间是产生重复知盲的重要条件; 2)重复知盲的产生并未上升到语义加工水平, 而是处于知觉加工水平。     

Use of antianxiety drugs as countermeasures in the detection of guilty knowledge.

To evaluate whether antianxiety drugs enable guilty subjects to appear innocent on polygraph tests, we compared the effects of diazepam, meprobamate, and propranolol on the outcome of a guilty knowledge test (GKT). Seventy-five undergraduate students were evenly divided among one innocent and four guilty groups. Subjects in each of the guilty groups received either one of the drugs or a placebo prior to the administration of the GKT and after viewing a videotape that depicted a burglary as seen from the perspective of the burglar. The results showed that drug status had no influence on the outcome of the GKT. Innocent subjects who coincidentally obtained high scores on a recognition memory test covering details of the mock crime tended to obtain higher guilt scores on the GKT.     

Screening for malingering in a criminal-forensic sample with the personality assessment inventory

In this study, the authors examined how overreporting of psychopathology indices on the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; L. C. Morey, 1991) performed as screening measures for malingering in a sample of 166 defendants undergoing pretrial court-ordered evaluations in the federal criminal justice system. Using results from the Structured Interview of Reported Symptoms (SIRS; R. Rogers, R. M. Bagby, & S. E. Dickens, 1992) as the criterion measure of malingering, the authors found that the Negative Impression scale (NIM) was the most effective PAI screening measure (cut score > or = 81 T). NIM performed as well as an established comparison measure from the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory--2 (J. N. Butcher, W. G. Dahlstrom, J. R. Graham, A. Tellegen, & B. Kaemmer, 1989; Infrequency [F] cut score > or = 95 T), supporting the use of either of these indices as reasonable screening measures to identify potential malingerers for subsequent evaluation.     

Sawyer's review of artists all

This study explored the extent to which ideational behavior (IB; Runco, Plucker, &; Lim, 2000–2001), an indicator of creativity, is related to established individual differences in personality traits (Five Factor Model or FFM; Costa &; McCrae, 1992 Costa , P. T. , &; McCrae , R. R. ( 1992 ). Revised NEO Personality Inventory and NEO Five-Factor Inventory Professional Manual . Odessa , FL : Psychological Assessment Resources . [Google Scholar]), fluid (gf) and intelligence (IQ). A total of 158 (112 female) college students from British and American universities took part in this study. Bivariate correlations showed that IB was significantly associated with Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness (negatively), and gf. Hierarchical regression analysis showed personality to be a better predictor of IB than was intelligence. Cognitive ability measures only accounted for 4% of the variance in IB, whereas the Big Five superfactors explained an additional 22% of the variance (with gender explaining a further 3%). Furthermore, selected personality facets of Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness, explained the largest amount of variance in IB, namely 35%. Results are discussed with regard to the theoretical implications of the taxonomic place of IB in the wider realm of individual differences constructs.     

Abstracts

Veevers, J. E. (1990) Traumas versus strens: a paradigm of positive versus negative divorce outcomes. Journal of Divorce and Remarriage Kiser, L.J., Pugh, R.J., McColgan, E. B., Pruitt, D. B. and Edwards, N. B. (1991) Treatment strategies for victims of extra-familial child sexual abuse. Journal of Family Psychotherapy Bloch, S., Sharpe, M. and Allman, P. (1991) Systemic family therapy in adult psychiatry. British Journal of Psychiatry Crisp, A. H., Norton, K., Gowers, S., Halek, C., Bowyer, C., Yeldham, D., Levett, G. and Bhat, A. (1991) A controlled study of the effect of the therapies aimed at adolescent and family psycho-pathology in anorexia nervosa. British Journal of Psychiatry Dunn, J. and Plomin, R. (1991) Why are siblings so different? The significance of differences in sibling experiences within the family. Family Process     

Vocabularies

Negative emotionality is considered to be the core of the difficult temperament concept (J. E. Bates, 1989; R. L. Shiner, 1998). In this correlational study, the authors examined whether the relations between children's negative emotionality and problematic behavior (internalizing and externalizing) were partially mediated by parenting style (authoritative and authoritarian) in a community sample of 196 3-year-old children and their mothers. The authors assessed maternal perception of child negative emotionality using the Children's Behavior Questionnaire (M. K. Rothbart, S. A. Ahadi, K. L. Hershey, &; P. Fisher, 2001) and assessed problematic child behavior by means of maternal report using the Child Behavior Checklist (T. M. Achenbach, 1992). The results showed that the relations between child negative emotionality and internalizing and externalizing behaviors were partially mediated by mothers' authoritative parenting style. Moreover, when the authors used confirmatory factor analysis to decontaminate possible overlap in item content between measures assessing temperament and problematic behavior, the association between negative emotionality and internalizing behavior was fully mediated by authoritative parenting.     

时间对犯罪隐藏信息记忆的影响

记录模拟犯罪者和阅读报纸后对案件知情的无辜者接受隐藏信息测试时的皮肤电活动,探讨时间对犯罪隐藏信息记忆的影响。结果发现：(1)延迟条件下,模拟犯罪组的再认率和皮肤电活动变化显著高于知情无辜组,但两组在立即条件下无差异;(2)知情无辜组在延迟条件下的甄别率显著低于立即条件下,而模拟犯罪者在两种条件下无差异。结果表明,延迟测试比立即测试更容易区分模拟犯罪组和知情无辜组;犯罪甄别率在延迟条件下减少,但也减少了知情无辜者被判断为犯罪者的风险。     

Does assimilation into schemas involve systems or cellular consolidation? It’s not just time

A comment by Rudy and Sutherland [Rudy, J. R., &; Sutherland, R. J. (2008). Is it systems or cellular consolidation? Time will tell. An alternative interpretation of the Morris Group’s recent Science Paper. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory] has suggested an alternative account of recent findings concerning very rapid systems consolidation as described in a recent paper by Tse et al [Tse, D., Langston, R. F., Kakeyama, M., Bethus, I., Spooner, P. A., &; Wood, E. R., et al. (2007). Schemas and memory consolidation. Science, 316, 76–82]. This is to suppose that excitotoxic lesions of the hippocampus cause transient disruptive neural activity outside the target structure that interferes with cellular consolidation in the cortex. We disagree with this alternative interpretation of our findings and cite relevant data in our original paper indicating why this proposal is unlikely. Various predictions of the two accounts are nonetheless outlined, together with the types of experiments needed to resolve the issue of whether systems consolidation can occur very rapidly when guided by activated neural schemas.     

Exploring the Assessment of the DSM–5 Alternative Model for Personality Disorders With the Personality Assessment Inventory

Section III of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed. [DSM–5]; American Psychiatric Association, 2013) contains an alternative model for the diagnosis of personality disorder involving the assessment of 25 traits and a global level of overall personality functioning. There is hope that this model will be increasingly used in clinical and research settings, and the ability to apply established instruments to assess these concepts could facilitate this process. This study sought to develop scoring algorithms for these alternative model concepts using scales from the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI). A multiple regression strategy used to predict scores in 2 undergraduate samples on DSM–5 alternative model instruments: the Personality Inventory for the DSM–5 (PID–5) and the General Personality Pathology scale (GPP; Morey et al., 2011 Morey, L. C., Berghuis, H., Bender, D. S., Verheul, R., Krueger, R. F., &; Skodol, A. E. (2011). Toward a model for assessing level of personality functioning in DSM–5, Part II: Empirical articulation of a core dimension of personality pathology. Journal of Personality Assessment, 93, 347–353.[Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). These regression functions resulted in scores that demonstrated promising convergent and discriminant validity across the alternative model concepts, as well as a factor structure in a cross-validation sample that was congruent with the putative structure of the alternative model traits. Results were linked to the PAI community normative data to provide normative information regarding these alternative model concepts that can be used to identify elevated traits and personality functioning level scores.     

A Review of the Office of Technology Assessment Report on Polygraph Validity

This article reviews the assessment of polygraphic lie detection produced by the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) in November 1983. The review argues that use of the lambda statistic to summarize polygraph accuracy in the OTA report was inappropriate because the studies examined differ widely in base rates of guilt and innocence. Using Lykken's (1981) average accuracy statistic and avoiding overlapping data sets found in the OTA report, the review finds that field studies, analog studies, and guilty knowledge studies produce very similar average accuracy (82% to 88%). Guilty knowledge tests tend to be biased toward false negatives, whereas control question tests tend to be biased toward false positives. The striking similarity of results for field and analog studies using control question tests contradicts the common belief that results of analog testing are weak and not generalizable to field practice. It is argued that analog studies are in fact the only hope for improving the validity of polygraph testing.     

Investigating true and false confessions within a novel experimental paradigm

The primary goal of the current study was to develop a novel experimental paradigm with which to study the influence of psychologically based interrogation techniques on the likelihood of true and false confessions. The paradigm involves guilty and innocent participants being accused of intentionally breaking an experimental rule, or "cheating." In the first demonstration of this paradigm, we explored the influence of two common police interrogation tactics: minimization and an explicit offer of leniency, or a "deal." Results indicated that guilty persons were more likely to confess than innocent persons, and that the use of minimization and the offer of a deal increased the rate of both true and false confessions. Police investigators are encouraged to avoid interrogation techniques that imply or directly promise leniency, as they appear to reduce the diagnostic value of any confession that is elicited.     

Retrieval-induced forgetting occurs in tests of item recognition

Using the retrieval-practice paradigm (Anderson, R. A. Bjork, & E. L. Bjork, 1994), we tested whether or not retrieval-induced forgetting could be found in item recognition tests. In Experiment 1, retrieval practice on items from semantic categories depressed recognition of nonpracticed items from the same categories. Similar results were found in Experiment 2 in a more stringent source test for practiced, nonpracticed, and new items. These results conceptually replicate those of previous retrieval-induced forgetting studies done with cued recall (e.g., Anderson et al., 1994). Our findings are inconsistent with the hypothesis that item-specific cues during retrieval will eliminate retrieval interference in the retrieval-practice paradigm (Butler, Williams, Zacks, & Maki, 2001). We discuss our results in relation to other retrieval interference and inhibition effects in recall and recognition.