Effects of Misinformation on the Concealed Knowledge Test

摘要

Misinformation effects occur in laboratory settings despite disagreement over themechanism(s) responsible for such effects. Both memory impairment and non-impairment hypotheses explain the phenomenon. The effects of misinformation were examined using the Concealed Knowledge Test (CKT), a psychophysiological detection of deception technique. Ninety-six subjects watched a videotaped crime used to induce guilt. One week later, subjects were given misinformation about three crime details, took a CKT inquiring about the three misled details and three non-misled crime details, and took a 20-item memory test concerning the crime. The six questions asked during the CKT were included in the memory test. Subjects who chose the misinformation on a misled detail were labeled as successfully misinformed. Significant differences were found between the misled and non-misled CKT series, with misinformation leading to a lower score (i.e., higher probability of being categorized as truthful). An interaction was found between CKT detail type and information manipulation with univariate procedures identifying skin resistance amplitude, skin resistance half-recovery time, and abdominal respiration as significant dependent measures. These findings support the memory impairment hypotheses.