Deception Detection, Child Witnesses, and Eyewitness Memory Review

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering deception detection, polygraphy, child witness testimony, memory reconstructive stages, and eyewitness identifications.

Truth-Bias

The general psychological tendency to believe that what another person is saying is the truth, making deception detection difficult.

Polygraph

A device used in lie detection that measures physiological responses during questioning, specifically heart rate, respiratory rate, and electro-dermal activity (galvanic skin response).

Relevant/Irrelevant Test

A legacy polygraph method that compares physiological responses to crime-relevant questions against non-crime-relevant background questions.

Control Question Test (CQT)

A polygraph method comparing arousal levels across irrelevant questions, crime-relevant questions, and emotionally charged control questions about past honesty.

Positive Control Test (PCT)

An alternative polygraph procedure where a suspect is asked the same crime-relevant question twice—once instructed to lie and once to tell the truth—to directly compare physiological responses.

Concealed Information Test (CIT)

A polygraph technique, also known as the Guilty Knowledge Test, that uses multiple-choice questions to determine if a suspect recognizes details known only to the perpetrator.

Event-Related Brain Potentials (ERP)

A brain-based deception measurement technique that tracks electrical brain responses (such as the P300-MERMER) when presented with significant stimuli.

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

A neuroimaging method used in deception research to measure blood flow changes in the brain, identifying differential activation during lying versus truth-telling.

Thermal Imaging

A physiological deception detection method that measures facial warming and localized changes in blood flow.

Micro-expressions

Facial expressions lasting only a fraction of a second, which are often mistakenly assumed to indicate lying.

Stereotype Threat

Anxiety caused by fear of conforming to a negative stereotype, such as the belief that liars avert their gaze, squirm, or stutter.

Cognitive Load Approach

An interviewing strategy designed to make lying mentally demanding (e.g., asking for an account in reverse order) to elicit behavioral cues resulting from cognitive effort.

Reconstructive Memory

The memory process occurring through perception/attention, encoding, retention/storage, and retrieval, in which stored information can be altered or filled in over time.

System Variables

Factors affecting eyewitness accuracy that are under the direct control of the criminal justice system, such as lineup procedures and police questioning techniques.

Estimator Variables

Factors affecting eyewitness accuracy over which the criminal justice system has no control, such as witness stress, lighting, weapon presence, and race.

Show-Up

A lineup procedure where police present only the suspect to an eyewitness, typically leading to an absolute judgment but carrying higher bias.

Simultaneous Lineup

A lineup procedure in which all lineup members (suspect and fillers) are displayed at the same time, encouraging relative judgments.

Sequential Lineup

A lineup procedure in which members are shown individually in a series, forcing the witness to make a decision on each photo before viewing the next.

Relative Judgment

A witness's decision-making process in simultaneous lineups, where they select the individual who looks most like the perpetrator relative to other lineup members.

Absolute Judgment

A witness's decision-making process where each lineup member is evaluated independently against the witness's memory of the perpetrator.

Cross-Race Effect (CRE)

The phenomenon in which eyewitnesses recognize faces of their own race more accurately than faces of other races.

Weapon-Focus Effect (WFE)

The phenomenon in which the presence of a weapon draws witness attention away from other perpetrator features, reducing overall recall accuracy.

Foil Bias

A lineup bias where the suspect is the only member who matches the verbal description provided by the eyewitness.

Clothing Bias

A lineup bias that occurs when the suspect is the only person wearing clothing similar to that described by the witness.

Instruction Bias

A lineup bias occurring when police fail to notify the witness that the perpetrator may not be present, or suggestively imply a selection.

Infantile Amnesia

A term introduced by Sigmund Freud in 1905 to describe the general absence of recall for autobiographical memories from early childhood.

Cognitive Scripts

Mental frameworks formed from experiencing repeated events that help organize and retrieve typical sequence details.

Intrusion Errors

Memory mistakes in reporting repeated events, where details from non-target episodes are erroneously described as occurring in the target episode.

False Memory

An episodic memory phenomenon where a person genuinely recalls specific events or details that never took place.

Primary Lies

Lies typically told by children aged 2 to 3 years to hide transgressions, made without considering the listener's mental state.

Secondary Lies

Plausible lies told by children aged 4 to 6 years that account for and consider the mental state of the listener.

Tertiary Lies

Consistent and sophisticated lies told by children aged 7 to 8 years that maintain logical coherence throughout questioning.

NICHD Prompts

A child interview protocol using four prompt types: facilitators ('ok'), open invitations ('tell me everything'), cued-invitations ('tell me more about…'), and directive questions.

Testimonial Aids

Accommodations provided under Bill C-2 for witnesses under 18 years, including screens, CCTV, support persons, and pre-recorded interviews.

Child Maltreatment Categories

The four official Health Canada categories of child maltreatment: physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, and emotional abuse.