scholarly journals Speed versus accuracy instructions in the response time concealed information test

2022 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Till Lubczyk ◽  
Gáspár Lukács ◽  
Ulrich Ansorge
Keyword(s):  
Response Time ◽  
Concealed Information Test ◽  
Relevant Item ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Accuracy Instruction ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Concealed Information ◽  
Murder Weapon ◽  
Information Test

AbstractThe response time concealed information test (RT-CIT) can reveal that a person recognizes a relevant item (probe) among other, irrelevant items, based on slower responding to the probe compared to the irrelevant items. Thereby, if this person is concealing knowledge about the relevance of this item (e.g., recognizing it as a murder weapon), this deception can be unveiled. In the present paper, we examined the impact of a speed versus accuracy instruction: Examinees (N = 235) were either presented with instructions emphasizing a focus on speed, with instructions emphasizing a focus on accuracy, or with no particular speed or accuracy instructions at all. We found that although participants responded to the probe and the irrelevants marginally faster when they had received instructions emphasizing speed, there was no significant difference between RTs of the different experimental groups and crucially no significant difference between the probe–irrelevant RT differences either. This means that such instructions are unlikely to benefit the RT-CIT, but it also suggests that related deliberate manipulation (focusing on speed on or accuracy) is unlikely to decrease the efficiency of the RT-CIT—contributing further evidence to the RT-CIT’s resistance to faking.

scholarly journals Speed Versus Accuracy Instructions in the Response Time Concealed Information Test

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Till Lubczyk ◽  
Gáspár Lukács ◽  
Ulrich Ansorge
Keyword(s):  
Response Time ◽  
Concealed Information Test ◽  
Relevant Item ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Accuracy Instruction ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Concealed Information ◽  
Murder Weapon ◽  
Information Test

The Response Time Concealed Information Test (RT-CIT) can reveal that a person recognizes a relevant item (probe) among other, irrelevant items, based on slower responding to the probe compared to the irrelevant items. Thereby, if this person is concealing knowledge about the relevance of this item (e.g., recognizing it as a murder weapon), this deception can be unveiled. In the present paper, we examined the impact of a speed versus accuracy instruction: Examinees (N = 235) were either presented with instructions emphasizing a focus on speed, with instructions emphasizing a focus on accuracy, or with no particular speed or accuracy instructions at all. We found that, although participants responded to the probe and the irrelevants marginally faster when they had received instructions emphasizing speed, there was no significant difference between RTs of the different experimental groups and crucially, no significant difference between the probe-irrelevant RT differences either. This means that such instructions are unlikely to benefit the RT-CIT, but it also suggests that related deliberate manipulation (focusing on speed on or accuracy) is unlikely to decrease the efficiency of the RT-CIT – contributing further evidence to the RT-CIT’s resistance to faking.

scholarly journals Addressing Selective Attrition in the Enhanced Response Time-Based Concealed Information Test: A Within-Subject Replication

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gáspár Lukács
Keyword(s):  
Response Time ◽  
Original Version ◽  
Current Experiment ◽  
Concealed Information Test ◽  
Relevant Item ◽  
Subject Design ◽  
Large Enhancement ◽  
Concealed Information ◽  
Murder Weapon ◽  
Information Test

The response time‐based concealed information test can reveal when a person recognizes a relevant item among other, irrelevant items, based on comparatively slower responding. Thereby, if a person is concealing the knowledge about the relevance of this item (e.g., recognizing it as a murder weapon), this deception can be revealed. A recent study, conducted online and using a between‐subject design, introduced a significantly enhanced version by including additional items in the task. While this modified version outperformed the original version, it also resulted in a much higher rate of participant dropouts (i.e., participants leaving the experiment's website without completing the task). The grave implication is that the perceived enhancement is perhaps merely due to selective attrition. Therefore, the current experiment replicates the original one, but using a within‐subject design. The results show that there is a large enhancement even when selective attrition is prevented.

scholarly journals Prolonged Response Time Concealed Information Test Decreases Probe-Control Differences but Increases Classification Accuracy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gáspár Lukács
Keyword(s):  
Response Time ◽  
Classification Accuracy ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Test Length ◽  
Concealed Information Test ◽  
Key Variables ◽  
Concealed Information ◽  
Murder Weapon ◽  
Information Test

The Response Time Concealed Information Test (RT-CIT) can reveal that a person recognizes a relevant item (probe, e.g. a murder weapon) among other, irrelevant items (controls), based on slower responses to the probe compared to the controls. The present paper assesses the influence of test length (due to practice, habituation, or fatigue) on two key variables in the RT-CIT: (a) probe-control differences and (b) classification accuracy, through a meta-analysis (using 12 previous experiments), as well as with two new experiments. It is consistently demonstrated that increased test length decreases probe-control differences but increases classification accuracies. The main implication for real-life application is that using altogether at least around 600 trials is optimal for the RT-CIT.

scholarly journals Importance-related fillers improve the classification accuracy of the Response Time Concealed Information Test in a crime scenario

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerzy Wojciechowski ◽  
Gáspár Lukács
Keyword(s):  
Response Time ◽  
Diagnostic Efficiency ◽  
Concealed Information Test ◽  
Single Probe ◽  
Episodic Information ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Open Question ◽  
Concealed Information ◽  
Murder Weapon ◽  
Information Test

Purpose. The Response Time Concealed Information Test (RT-CIT) can reveal when a person recognizes a relevant item among other irrelevant items, based on comparatively slower responding. Therefore, if a person is concealing knowledge about the relevance of this item (e.g., recognizing it as a murder weapon), this deception can be revealed. A recent study introduced additional “familiarity-related fillers”, and these items substantially enhanced diagnostic efficiency in detecting autobiographical data. However, the generalizability of the efficiency of fillers to other scenarios remains an open question. We empirically investigated whether new importance-related fillers enhanced diagnostic efficiency in an imaginary crime scenario. Methods. Two hundred and thirty-nine volunteers participated in an independent samples experiment. Participants were asked to imagine either committing a crime (“guilty” group) or to imagine visiting a museum (“innocent” group). Then, all participants underwent RT-CIT testing using either a standard single probe or an enhanced single probe (with importance-related fillers) protocol.Results. The enhanced RT-CIT (with importance-related fillers) showed high diagnostic efficiency (AUC = .810), and significantly outperformed the standard version (AUC = .562). Neither dropout rates nor exclusion criteria influenced this enhancement.Conclusions. Importance-related fillers improve diagnostic efficiency when detecting episodic information using the RT-CIT, and seem to be useful in detecting knowledge in a wide range of scenarios.

scholarly journals Response Time Concealed Information Test on Smartphones

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gáspár Lukács ◽  
Bennett Kleinberg ◽  
Melissa Kunzi ◽  
Ulrich Ansorge
Keyword(s):  
Response Time ◽  
Index Finger ◽  
Concealed Information Test ◽  
Probe Item ◽  
Desktop Computers ◽  
First Time ◽  
Large Groups ◽  
Concealed Information ◽  
Murder Weapon ◽  
Information Test

The Response Time-Based Concealed Information Test (RT-CIT) can reveal when a person recognizes a relevant (probe) item among other, irrelevant items, based on comparatively slower responding to the probe item. Thereby, if a person is concealing the knowledge about the relevance of this item (e.g., recognizing it as a murder weapon), this deception can be revealed. So far, the RT-CIT has been used only on desktop computers. In Experiment 1 (n = 72; within-subject), we compare the probe-irrelevant differences when using the conventional desktop-based CIT to using a smartphone-based CIT, demonstrating practical equivalence. In Experiment 2 (n = 116; within-subject), we demonstrate that using thumbs for responses (while holding the smartphone) leads to equally efficient CIT results as using conventional index finger responses. At the same time, this second experiment also demonstrates how smartphone-based studies may be efficiently run in large groups, using the participants’ own smartphones. Finally, as an interesting addition, here for the first time we also measured keypress durations (i.e., the time durations of holding down the response keys) in the RT-CIT, which we found to be significantly shorter for probe than for irrelevant items.

scholarly journals The mechanism of filler items in the response time concealed information test

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gáspár Lukács ◽  
Ulrich Ansorge
Keyword(s):  
Response Time ◽  
Significant Influence ◽  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Present Series ◽  
Original Structure ◽  
Concealed Information Test ◽  
Item Types ◽  
Concealed Information ◽  
Murder Weapon ◽  
Information Test

AbstractThe response time concealed information test (RT-CIT) can reveal that a person recognizes a relevant (probe) item among other, irrelevant items, based on slower responding to the probe compared to the irrelevant items. Therefore, if this person is concealing the knowledge about the relevance of this item (e.g., recognizing it as a murder weapon), this deception can be unveiled. Adding familiarity-related filler items to the task has been shown to substantially increase the validity of the method, but assumptions for this effect have never been tested before. In the present series of three experiments (N = 511), we tested several factors, most of which were found to indeed influence the enhancing effects of fillers. First, larger enhancement is achieved when a smaller proportion of fillers shares the response key with the target. Second, familiarity context does play a role in the enhancement, and the target sharing its response key with the familiarity-referring fillers leads to larger enhancement. Third, mere symbolic fillers (such as simple arrow-like characters) also lead to enhancement, but filler words without task-relevant meaning are not effective. Fourth, small visual differences (lettercase or underlining) between fillers and the rest of the items have no significant influence. All this provides justification for the original structure of the fillers and also demonstrates that the enhancement is highly generalizable: Fillers have a potential to improve the RT-CIT regardless of deception scenario, item types, or the examinee's language comprehension.

scholarly journals The Mechanism of Filler Items in the Response Time Concealed Information Test

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gáspár Lukács ◽  
Ulrich Ansorge
Keyword(s):  
Response Time ◽  
Significant Influence ◽  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Present Series ◽  
Original Structure ◽  
Concealed Information Test ◽  
Item Types ◽  
Concealed Information ◽  
Murder Weapon ◽  
Information Test

The Response Time Concealed Information Test (RT-CIT) can reveal that a person recognizes a relevant (probe) item among other, irrelevant items, based on slower responding to the probe compared to the irrelevant items. Therefore, if this person is concealing the knowledge about the relevance of this item (e.g., recognizing it as a murder weapon), this deception can be unveiled. Adding familiarity-related filler items to the task has been shown to substantially increase the validity of the method, but assumptions for this effect have never been tested before. In the present series of three experiments (N = 511), we tested several factors, most of which were found to indeed influence the enhancing effects of fillers. First, larger enhancement is achieved when a smaller proportion of fillers shares the response key with the target. Second, familiarity context does play a role in the enhancement, and the target sharing its response key with the familiarity-referring fillers leads to larger enhancement. Third, mere symbolic fillers (such as simple arrow-like characters) also lead to enhancement, but filler words without task-relevant meaning are not effective. Fourth, small visual differences (lettercase or underlining) between fillers and the rest of the items has no significant influence. All this provides justification for the original structure of the fillers and also demonstrates that the enhancement is highly generalizable: Fillers have a potential to improve the RT-CIT regardless of deception scenario, item types, or the examinee's language comprehension.

scholarly journals Response Time Concealed Information Test on Smartphones

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gáspár Lukács ◽  
Bennett Kleinberg ◽  
Melissa Kunzi ◽  
Ulrich Ansorge
Keyword(s):  
Response Time ◽  
Index Finger ◽  
Concealed Information Test ◽  
Probe Item ◽  
Desktop Computers ◽  
First Time ◽  
Large Groups ◽  
Concealed Information ◽  
Murder Weapon ◽  
Information Test

The Response Time-Based Concealed Information Test (RT-CIT) can reveal when a person recognizes a relevant (probe) item among other, irrelevant items, based on comparatively slower responding to the probe item. Thereby, if a person is concealing the knowledge about the relevance of this item (e.g., recognizing it as a murder weapon), this deception can be revealed. So far, the RT-CIT has been used only on desktop computers. In Experiment 1 (n = 72; within-subject), we compare the probe-irrelevant differences when using the conventional desktop-based CIT to using a smartphone-based CIT, demonstrating practical equivalence. In Experiment 2 (n = 116; within-subject), we demonstrate that using thumbs for responses (while holding the smartphone) leads to equally efficient CIT results as using conventional index finger responses. At the same time, this second experiment also demonstrates how smartphone-based studies may be efficiently run in large groups, using the participants’ own smartphones. Finally, as an interesting addition, here for the first time we also measured keypress durations (i.e., the time durations of holding down the response keys) in the RT-CIT, which we found to be significantly shorter for probe than for irrelevant items.

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