Week 6 - Forensic Psychology

Question 1

What are the 3 approaches to detecting deception?

Answer 1

Behavioural Markers (non-verbal)
Speech analysis (verbal)
Physiological Markers

Question 2

What do people think are signs of deception? (2)

- Verbal and Non Verbal

Answer 2

Non-Verbal
= Signs of nervousness (gaze aversion, fidgeting)

Verbal
= Reduction in speech content
= Errors in speech

Question 3

What is the typical method of seeing if someone is lying?

Answer 3

Get them to tell lies and truths and get someone to try and pick the lies

Question 4

How good are ordinary people at detecting lies?

Answer 4

57% accuracy

Question 5

How good are police, customs officers etc at detecting lies?

Answer 5

56% accuracy

Question 6

How good are secret service agents at detecting lies?

Answer 6

64% accuracy

Question 7

How good are CIA’s at detecting lies?

Answer 7

74% accuracy

Question 8

Why are professionals not really better at detecting lies? (2 reasons)

Answer 8

Lack of interaction with the suspect

Stakes are not high enough

Question 9

Where do we go wrong when detecting lies? (2)

Answer 9

We rely on the wrong cues (gaze aversion/fidgeting are NOT signs of lying)

Giving incorrect explanations for behaviour (acting nervous = lying OR worried about proving innocence)

Question 10

What are the 3 signs of lying? Examples of each

Answer 10

EMOTIONS eg guilt, fear (Higher pitch voice, micro-expressions)

COGNITIVE EFFORT eg complex details (more errors, less detail but more structure)

ATTEMPTED BEHAVIOUR CONTROL eg don’t fidget (More rigid, less expression)

Question 11

How can lie detection be improved? (2)

Answer 11

Train people to look for specific markers (eg pauses and errors)

Active Interviewing Techniques (increase cognitive load, strategic use of info)

Question 12

Explain Active Interviewing Techniques 2 main aspects

Answer 12

AIT use the aspect of INCREASING COGNITIVE LOAD
eg telling suspect to tell the story in reverse order (more difficult to lie)
eg increase amount of information generated (evidence from another witness)

AIT uses the aspect of UNANTICIPATED QUESTIONS
- Liars prepare well for interviews
- People do not anticipate Q’s with spatial and temporal
information

Question 13

What are the drawbacks of AIT?

Answer 13

It may increase the amount of information generated by truth tellers during the interview (especially when memory for the event is poor)

May be ineffective for high WM liars
Problematic for low WM truth tellers

Question 14

Summarise the key points of deception and lying (2)

Answer 14

People are not great at lie detection because they rely on the wrong cues

There are no unique signatures of lying
- However, lying may trigger processes that produce markers