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Deception Detection

This thematic series, published in Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, focuses on the detection of deception.

How easily can one person tell when another person is lying to them? It is a question that has been investigated for the better part of a century. This special issue focuses on knowledge that has accumulated over the years and on the questions that researchers are trying to answer today. Can an untrained individual detect another’s “high-stakes” lie through passive observation? How much better is a trained individual at detecting deception when actively interviewing a witness or when interrogating a suspect? Are polygraph tests useless aids for detecting deception, as they are often perceived to be? And what might fMRI have to offer in this area? 

Edited by:

  • John Wixted, UC San Diego 

This collection of articles has not been sponsored and articles have undergone the journal’s standard peer-review process. The Guest Editors declare no competing interests.

  1. In criminal investigations, uncooperative witnesses might deny knowing a perpetrator, the location of a murder scene or knowledge of a weapon. We sought to identify markers of recognition in eye fixations and ...

    Authors: Ailsa E. Millen, Lorraine Hope and Anne P. Hillstrom
    Citation: Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications 2020 5:38
    Content type: Original article Published on:

  2. Deception is a prevalent component of human interaction. However, meta-analyses suggest that discriminating between truthful and deceptive statements is a very arduous task and accuracy on these judgments is a...

    Authors: Daniella K. Cash, Rachel E. Dianiska and Sean M. Lane
    Citation: Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications 2019 4:38
    Content type: Original article Published on:

  3. In general, people are poor at detecting deception. Older adults are even worse than young adults at detecting deceit, which might make them uniquely vulnerable to certain types of financial fraud. One reason ...

    Authors: Jennifer Tehan Stanley and Britney A. Webster
    Citation: Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications 2019 4:26
    Content type: Original article Published on:

  4. While the Concealed Information Test (CIT) can determine whether examinees recognize critical details, it does not clarify the origin of the memory. Hence, when unknowledgeable suspects are contaminated with c...

    Authors: Linda Marjoleine Geven, Gershon Ben-Shakhar, Merel Kindt and Bruno Verschuere
    Citation: Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications 2019 4:11
    Content type: Original article Published on:

  5. What can theories regarding memory-related gaze preference contribute to the field of deception detection? While abundant research has examined the ability to detect concealed information through physiological...

    Authors: Tal Nahari, Oryah Lancry-Dayan, Gershon Ben-Shakhar and Yoni Pertzov
    Citation: Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications 2019 4:10
    Content type: Original article Published on:

  6. In five experiments, we examined the conditions under which participants remembered true and false information given as feedback. Participants answered general information questions, expressed their confidence...

    Authors: Janet Metcalfe and Teal S. Eich
    Citation: Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications 2019 4:4
    Content type: Original article Published on: