Novel applications of response time-based memory detection

Even professionals cannot accurately distinguish truth from lie without technological aids. The Concealed Information Test, a questioning protocol designed to reveal memory, has been shown to validly detect feigned ignorance. This dissertation addresses restrictions limiting the applied viability of the response time-based Concealed Information Test (RT-CIT) by investigating possible remedies.
First, previous research has shown that the RT-CIT’s validity is reduced when only one testable piece of information is available. The findings suggest this is a result from examinees approaching the task differently when there is only one testable piece of information, but also that the presentation in different modalities increases the validity. Second, the RT-CIT does not detect the source of the tested knowledge. Therefore, critical information available to uninvolved people leads to false positive classifications. Contrary to the inventor’s initial publication, the modified Inducer RT-CIT protocol was not immune to this information contamination, but an alternative RT-based test, the autobiographical Implicit Association Test, was. Third, until now, the evaluation of RT-CIT data requires knowledge of critical information on the examiner’s side. I investigated two novel analytic methods that allow the RT-CIT to be used as an information gathering tool. Fourth, a technological innovation to test RT-CIT theory and to explore new RT-CIT measures, an analog keyboard that is sensitive to minimal finger movements, was introduced. Concealed information was marked by more partial errors – though they were quite rare.
Taken together, the current dissertation demonstrates new applications of response time-based memory detection and thereby increases their appeal for practice.