Chapter 4: Deception Flashcards
Dry Rice Test
Physiological method used by the Chinese to detect deception
- got them to suck on rice and if it came out dry the idea was that they were lying
- dry mouth = anxious = lying
What idea is polygraphy based on
That deception is associated with pysiological change
What did William Marston do?
- invented the lie detector
Polygraph Test
Device for recording someones autonomic nervous system responses
LO1: What are some of the uses of a polygraph test?
- help in criminal inverstigations
- determine whether the crime occurred
- insurance companies may use it to verify claims
- assess and monitor sex offenders on probation (are they violating probation and/or committing crimes again?)
- periodic testing of employees to see if anyone is stealing from the store
- some police departments use it as a general screening tool
What parts of the autonomic nervous system are measured by the polygraph test?
Heart rate, respiration, sweat
Who can get polygraph test trained?
Police, military, intelligence personnel
Polygraph Disclosure Tests
Uncover information about an offenders past
Why is the polygraph test not a real lie detector?
- measures physiological states
- these states share a lot in common with many other states such as anger, anxiety, embarrassment, fear
LO1: What are the two main types of polygraph tests?
1) Comparison Question Test
2) Concealed Information Test
The Comparison Question Test (CQT)
- most common in Canada
- asks neutral questions along with questions about the crime itself and about past behaviour
What is a comparison question
- accusatory but not about the crime
- about past behaviour
The Concealed Information Test (CIT)
(guilty knowlegde test)
Developed by Lykken (1960)
- guilty knowledge test
- not used to assess deception
- multiple choice questions
- idea that innocent people won’t react strongly to the answers (will react the same to all possible options)
- most common response: sweat
- very accurate at identifying innocent suspects
What are some problems with the CIT test?
- assumes someone who knows info of the crime will know the answer (suspect may forget details)
- suspect may know about the crime from the media
may classify guilty as innocent
Q: In Canada, what is the most common use of the polygraph test?
Police investigations
Q: What type of test is used to uncover information about an offender’s past offending behaviour?
Polygraph Disclosure Test
Q: What does the polygraph measure?
Changes in blood pressure, respiration, and palmar sweating
Q: “During the first 20 years of your life, have you ever thought of cheating on an exam?” This is an example of what type of polygraph exam question?
A comparison question
Q: What has the comparison question test been criticized for?
Assuming that innocent suspects will show larger responses to the comparison questions as compared to the relevant questions
Innocent people can fail and guilty can pass
Relevant = about crime
Comparison = about past behaviour
How are lab studies used to test the accuracy of polygraph tests?
What type of tests do they usually use?
- simulation of mock crimes
Ground Truth
(about a suspect)
Who is truly guilty or innocent
What are the problems with lab studies?
(mock simulations used to study polygraph tests)
- motivational and emotional differences between mock suspects and real-life suspects
- mock suspects don’t have genuine reasons to try and “beat” the polygraph and aren’t scared to “fail” it either because there are no true consequences
- doesn’t apply to the real world
How are field studies used to test the accuracy of polygraph tests?
- real-life situations and actual crime suspects
- compare the accuracy of original examiners and blind evaluators
What’s the difference between an original examiner and a blind evaluator
Original examiner: conduct evaluation of suspect
Blind evaluator: only provided with what the results and are given no info on the suspect or the case
What are the problems with field studies?
(observing current cases)
- ground truth unknown
Which type of polygraph test is more likely to falsely classify innocent suspects as guilty? (false positives)
CQT (guilty)
- pretty good at identifying guilty suspects (84-92%)
- accuracy of original examiners higher than blind evaluators
Which type of polygraph test is more likely to falsely classify guilty suspects as innocent? (false negatives)
CIT (innocent)
- very accurate at identifying innocent suspects (up to 95%)
- less accurate at identifying guilty suspects (76-85%)
Countermeasures for CQT
(ways to beat the polygraph test)
techniques used to try and conceal guilt
- physical (biting your lip, pressing your toes on the floor, etc.)
- mental (counting backwards in your head, etc.)
Can psychopaths “beat” a polygraph test? Considering they show emotion differently or not at all?
Nope
Can CIT tests be affected by anti-anxiety drugs?
Nope
Examiner can tell if patient is on drugs
LO2: Describe the research and scientific opinion about the polygraph
Conclusion:
- theoretical rationale is weak (there are many other reasons for physiological changes)
- validation studies have serious limitations
- no satisfactory field studies
- not scientific
What did R. v. Beland rule about the admissibility of polygraph tests in Canadian courts?
Can’t be used as valid evidence in court
Event-related brain potentials (ERPs)
Brain activity measured by placing electrodes on the scalp and recording electrical patterns related to presentation of a stimulus
- detect underlying electrical activity in the cerebral cortex
- guilty suspects respond with a larger P300 response
QQ: What is an advantage to ERPs?
It’s very difficult to try to “beat” or “fool” your responses while being tested
QQ: According to fMRIs, which 2 areas of the brain are most commonly associated with lying?
- prefrontal lobe
- anterior cingulate cortex
QQ: According to McCabe, Castel, and Rhodes (2011), which type of lie-detection test was associated with the most guilty verdicts?
fMRI lie detection
What are some verbal characteristics of deception?
(6 points)
- speech fillers (ah, um)
- speech errors (repeating words, slipping up, etc.)
- VOICE PITCH (liars have a higher pitch)
- speaking more slowly
- long pauses
- amount of details (liars provide fewer details)
What are some non-verbal characteristics of deception?
(four)
- smiling
- excessive gestures
- body movements
- shifting positions
Why is gaze aversion not a very good indicator of deception?
liars will most likely keep stronger eye contact in order to make it seem more truthful
Truth bias
Tendency for people to judge more messages as truthful than deceptive
Why do people think they can detect deception and why is it not true?
They are confident they can detect deception but it is mainly based on cues that are based on stereotypical liars that aren’t necessarily true
What are two ways that disorders of deception vary?
1) whether the person intentionally or consciously produces symptoms
2) whether motivation is internal or external
Somatic Symptom and Related Disorders: Conversion Disorder
A person has a neurological symptom (ex. paralysis, blindness) that can’t be explained by a medical condition
- unintentional symptoms
- psychological factors (ex. stress, conflict) initiate or exacerbate the symptoms
- no external incentive
Somatic Symptom and Related Disorders: Factitious Disorder
- making up illness or injury
- no external incentive
- intentional symptoms
- will likely want to be tested
Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (DSM-5 calls it: factitious disorder imposed on another)
- parents or caregivers falsify symptoms in their children (ex. purposefully overdose their kid for attention and sympathy at hospital)
Malingering
Intentionally faking psychological or physical symptoms for external gain/reward
- can be applied to any psychiatric or physical disorder (ex. milking it)
- caries in severity
- will avoid being tested
- external incentive
- intentional symptoms
What are the 2 key components of malingering
- psychological or physical symptoms are clearly voluntary
- there are external motivations
What are some criminal external motivations for malingering
- avoid punishment (insanity plea)
- want to be transferred to the psych ward for drugs, an easier sentence, or escape
- avoid going to the military
- financial gain from disability claims
- admission to a hospital for free room and board
Defensiveness
- opposite of malingering
- will deny that anything is wrong
Rogers models of malingering: Pathogenic
- lacks empirical evidence
- exaggerates existing symptoms or creates symptoms to maintain/obtain control
- people in bad circumstances are more likely to malinger
- due to mental disorder
Rogers models of malingering: Criminological
- attempting to avoid legal punishment
Rogers models of malingering: Adaptation
- used in stressful situations or when personal stakes are high
- creates symptoms to cope with situation
What is the most probable model of malingering?
Adaptation model
Simulation design for studying malingering and what is an issue with it?
People are told to pretend they have specific symptoms or a disorder (told to malinger)
- limited generalizability to the real world
Nonclinical experimental study of malingering
- doesn’t have the mental disorder that is being studied
- malingers symptoms
Nonclinical control
- doesn’t have the mental disorder being studied
- doesn’t attempt to malinger symptoms
Clinical experimental study of malingering
- has the mental disorder being studied
- malingers symptoms
Clinical control
- has the mental disorder being studied
- doesn’t malinger symptoms
Known-groups design for studying malingering and a problem with it
research that compares genuine malingerers and people who are attempting to fake the disorder
- difficult to decide on the criteria to determine who is genuine vs who isn’t and everyone is different (this method is rarely used)
What did David Rosenhan do?
- studied malingered psychosis
- studied accuracy of psychiatric diagnoses
- sent people to fake mental disorders and saw whether they were able to get into the psych ward (they were)
- investigated how the pseudo-patients were being treated
What are some possible indicators of malingering?
- overacting (thinking the more bizarre they look, the more crazy they’ll seem)
- willing to talk about their symptoms where people with real diagnoses are more likely to keep quiet about it
What does SIRS stand for?
What is it?
Structured Interview of Reported Symptoms
- 8 scales of strategies someone might use when malingering
1) Rare symptoms
symptoms that true patients endorse infrequently
2) Symptom combinations
atypical combinations/pairings of symptoms (uncommon)
3) Improbable or absurd symptoms
similar to rare symptoms
- unlikely to be true since they are rarely seen in true patients
4) Blatant symptoms
obvious signs of mental disorder
5) Subtle sumptoms
symptoms that contain what most people consider to be everyday problems
6) Selectivity of symptoms
ratio of endorsed vs not endorsed symptoms
7) Severity of symptoms
number of severe symptoms reported
8) Reported vs observed symptoms
disconnect between self-reported symptoms and observable symptoms
dark tetrad personality traits
Subclinical Narcissism
- egoism
- dominance
- self-centeredness
dark tetrad personality traits
Machiavellianism
- cynicism
- strategic manipulation
- exploitation of others
dark tetrad personality traits
Psychopathy
- callous nature
- empathy deficits
- impulsivity
dark tetrad personality traits
Sadism
- enjoying causing others psychological or physical harm
How is a decision made from the CQT test?
innocent: wave is bigger for comparison question vs relevant question
guilty: wave is smaller for comparison question vs relevant question
this is because it it is assumed that there will be a bigger physiological response to comparison questions if the suspect is innocent
5+ = truth
5- = guilt
