Article archive / February 1, 2014
Originally published: . Volume 5, No. 6. Source pages: 9.
LSU psychological scientist, Dr. Sean Lane, and his group at the Office of Applied Cognition continue to tease out nuances of lies, liars, and detection
Dr. Sean Lane, Associate Professor at the LSU Department of Psychology, and Co- Director of the Office of Applied Cognition, will be presenting research on some of the complex cognitive science behind lies and deception, at the upcoming conference of the American Psychology–Law Society to be held March 6-8, in New Orleans. The Society is Division 41 of the American Psych- ological Association.
Lane and his team delve into the convoluted nature of humans and their lies, how memory affects lies and truth, and the nuances of detection.
The team includes graduate students, undergraduates, and past graduates, Stephanie Martin, Rachel Dianiska, Kacie Mennie, and Lloyd Moffett. The group works with Dr. Emily Elliot, an LSU colleague and expert in the area of working memory and attention. Dr. Megan Papesh of the LSU faculty will also present at the conference.
“My laboratory studies the cognitive, particularly memory, processes that operate in complex, real-world situations,” Dr. Lane explained to the Times.
“Much of our work focuses on understanding cognitive processes in legal settings,” he said. “For example, we've recently been doing research examining people's memory for their lies.”
In a previous study, Lane and former graduate student Kathleen Vieria examined the difference in false descriptions and false denials, a topic important to forensic interrogators. The researchers examined how the two types of lies were different cognitively. False denials are less cognitively complex and easier to forget, making it harder to hold together during more intense interviewing. Their study was accepted for publication in the J. of Applied Research and Memory Cognition.
For the upcoming conference, Lane, Martin, Elliott, and Mennie will present Working memory capacity and cognitive load influence people’s veracity judgments of interviewees, and also, The impact of cognitive load and WMC on information elicitation and deception detection. Kacie Mennie and others will present research on The effect of maintaining eye contact on information elicitation and deception detection.
Dr. Papesh will present on Context-based criterion shifts in photo-ID verification.
“We will be presenting research on the strengths and weaknesses of a technique designed to enhance the ability to detect deception in interviews,” Lane said. “This line of research is designed to empirically answer questions that have arisen from law enforcement investigators using the tools of cognitive science. In ongoing and future work, we are examining meta- cognition in the context of investigative interviews –with post-doc Sarah Jordan– in laboratory and field studies.”
“One thing we'll be highlighting,” Lane said, “is how individual differences in working memory capacity can influence the interpretation of interviewee's behavior.”
“The conference draws an international group of researchers and practitioners to discuss the latest developments in this area,” said Lane. He explained that most of the research presented can be roughly grouped in forensic psychology, such as clinical determination of competency or prisoner mental health. And, the other topic is psychology and the law, which includes jury decision-making and eyewitness memory.
“One unique aspect of the conference is it's interdisciplinary flavor, as it is common for attorneys, judges, and law enforcement officials to join in the conversation about how psychology should inform public policy,” said Lane.
“Our research is conducted in both the lab and the field, and we attempt to use what we learn to improve performance in real- world settings and to refine basic theory,” Lane said.
Along this line, and with their other work, the group is beginning a collaboration with the National Center for Biomedical Research and Training at LSU to examine ways of enhancing law enforcement training.
Find more about the Office of Applied Cognition at http://www.lsu.edu/psychology/oac/ For information about the American Psychology– Law Society go to http://www.apadivisions.org/division- 41/index.aspx
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