Memory Detection: Theory and Application of the Concealed Information Test

Traditional techniques for detecting deception, such as the ‘lie-detector test’ (or polygraph), are based upon the idea that lying is associated with stress. However, it is possible that people telling the truth will experience stress, whereas not all liars will. Because of this, the validity of such methods is questionable. As an alternative, a knowledge-based approach known as the ‘Concealed Information Test’ has been developed which investigates whether the examinee recognizes secret information – for example a crime suspect recognizing critical crime details that only the culprit could know. The Concealed Information Test has been supported by decades of research, and is used widely in Japan. This is the first book to focus on this exciting approach and will be of interest to law enforcement agencies and academics and professionals in psychology, criminology, policing and law.

Table of Contents

Part I: Introduction
1 Encouraging the use of the Guilty Knowledge Test (GKT): what the GKT has to offer law enforcement

Part II: The laboratory: theoretical and empirical foundations of the Concealed Information Test
2 Detecting concealed information using autonomic measures
3 Detecting concealed information in less than a second: response latency-based measures
4 P300 in detecting concealed information
5 Detecting of deception and concealed information using neuroimaging techniques
6 New and old covert measures in the Concealed Information Test
7 Theory of the Concealed Information Test

Part III: Field applications of concealed information detection: promises and perils
8 Limitations of the Concealed Information Test in criminal cases
9 Validity of the Concealed Information Test in realistic contexts
10 Leakage of information to innocent suspects
11 Countermeasures
12 Psychopathy and the detection of concealed information
13 Clinical applications of the Concealed Information Test
14 Daily application of the Concealed Information Test: Japan
15 The Concealed Information Test in the courtroom: legal aspects

Part IV: Conclusions
16 Practical guidelines for developing a CIT