Selective memory for social information, alertness, and physiological arousal in the detection of deception

Abstract

Examined the role of selective attention, as indexed by subsequent memory, in the social stress of a lie detection test. 74 male college students randomly assigned to deceptive or truthful conditions attempted to convince a polygraph examiner, who was blind as to each S's condition, that they were not lying. Without warning, 75 min after the test an experimenter tested S's recall of the questions that had been asked. Questions that were recalled had evoked significantly larger skin conductance responses (SCRs) than those that were not recalled. Deceptive Ss were detected (i.e., gave a larger SCR to relevant than to control questions) mainly on the basis of relevant questions they recalled compared with control questions they did not recall; the greater a deceptive S's tendency to recall control questions rather than relevant questions, the less likely he was to be detected. Innocent Ss were correctly classified mainly on the basis of SCRs to relevant questions they did not recall compared with SCRs to control questions they did recall. (36 ref) (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)