Abstract

The concealed information test (CIT) presents various probe (familiar) items amidst irrelevant (unfamiliar) items. When the probe items appear, reaction time (RT) slows down. This RT-CIT effect has been accounted for by a conflict resulting from the need to deny familiarity of the familiar probes. The present pre-registered study (n = 292) examined whether response conflict is sufficient to account for the RT-CIT effect, using city and name items. Specifically, we compared the common conflict condition, where the response buttons emphasized familiarity of CIT items (“unfamiliar” versus “familiar”), to a novel no conflict condition, where the buttons emphasized categorical membership (“city” versus “name”). In line with our expectations, the RT-CIT effect was substantially stronger in the conflict condition; yet, it remained significant even in the no conflict condition. This implies a critical role for response conflict, but also suggests that other mechanisms (e.g. orientation to significant stimuli) may contribute to the RT-CIT effect.

Details

Title
The role of response conflict in concealed information detection with reaction times
Author
klein Selle, Nathalie 1 ; Or, Barak 2 ; Van der Cruyssen, Ine 3 ; Verschuere, Bruno 4 ; Ben-Shakhar, Gershon 2 

 Bar-Ilan University, Department of Criminology, Ramat Gan, Israel (GRID:grid.22098.31) (ISNI:0000 0004 1937 0503) 
 Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Department of Psychology, Jerusalem, Israel (GRID:grid.9619.7) (ISNI:0000 0004 1937 0538) 
 Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Department of Psychology, Jerusalem, Israel (GRID:grid.9619.7) (ISNI:0000 0004 1937 0538); University of Amsterdam, Department of Clinical Psychology, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (GRID:grid.7177.6) (ISNI:0000 0000 8499 2262) 
 University of Amsterdam, Department of Clinical Psychology, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (GRID:grid.7177.6) (ISNI:0000 0000 8499 2262) 
Pages
17856
Publication year
2023
Publication date
2023
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20452322
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2878925860
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2023. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.