Awareness of crime-relevant information and the Guilty Knowledge Test

Abstract

The effects of awareness of crime-relevant information on the detection of deception with the Guilty Knowledge Test were examined. Student Ss were assigned to 1 of 3 groups: a guilty group, members of which committed a mock crime; an innocent group aware of details about the crime; or an innocent group unaware of such information. After following instructions, Ss were tested on the polygraph with a 10-item Guilty Knowledge Test and were offered $20 for an innocent test outcome. Skin resistance response scores of guilty Ss lying about crime-relevant information were higher than the scores of innocent informed Ss, whose scores in turn were higher than those of innocent unaware Ss. This replicated findings of an earlier study in which similar procedures were used and supported the view that Ss aware of crime-relevant information can appear less deceptive than Ss lying about crime-relevant information. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)