Detecting deception in second‐language speakers

Purpose. We examined whether language proficiency had an impact on lie detection. Methods. We collected video footage of 30 targets who spoke English as their native or second language and who lied or told the truth about a transgression. Undergraduate students (N = 51) then judged the veracity of these 30 clips and indicated how confident they were in their ratings. Results. Participants were more confident when judging native‐language truth‐tellers than second‐language truth‐tellers. In addition, participants were more likely to exhibit a truth‐bias when observing native‐language speakers, whereas they were more likely to exhibit a lie‐bias when viewing second‐language speakers. Conclusions. Given the difficulties and biases associated with second‐language lie detection, further research is needed.     

‘Any friend of yours is a friend of mine’: investigating the utilization of an interpreter in an investigative interview

Premised on a body of literature suggesting target-interviewer rapport is a critical component of successful interviews, we explored the effect of two interpreter-related variables – the physical placement of the interpreter in the room, and the nature of the relationship between the interpreter and the target – on target-interviewer rapport. A total of 125 bilingual (Spanish/English) participants viewed a mock crime video and were then interviewed, via an interpreter (or not). Interpreters either built rapport with the participant immediately prior to the interview or did not, and were either seated beside the interviewer or behind the target, commensurate with recommendations from training manuals. When the interpreter and target engaged in a short rapport-building session prior to an investigative interview, the target rated their interaction with the interviewer less negatively compared to when rapport building did not occur. Furthermore, when the interpreter sat behind the target, the target viewed the interaction more negatively than when the interpreter sat beside the interviewer (triangular configuration). These findings suggest ways in which interpreters can be utilized more effectively, especially in terms of seating configuration, rapport development between a target and interpreter, and importantly, the potential for that target-interpreter rapport to transfer to the target-interviewer relationship.     

Observers’ Real-Time Sensitivity to Deception in Naturalistic Interviews

This study tested the ability of experienced interviewers and novice observers to detect deception while watching mock interviews featuring experimental or control questioning methods and different detainee languages. The protocol featured a complex, realistic critical event and naturalistic interviews in which mock detainees could report unconstrained. Experimenters recorded these interviews and presented them to observers who judged veracity in real time. In general, experienced interviewers were no more sensitive to deception than were novices and both groups set conservative response criteria. Observers were more sensitive to deception when viewing control versus experimental questioning methods. Observers were more sensitive to deception when viewing Arabic speakers interviewed through an interpreter. Results imply that not all trained interviewers exhibit a lie bias; additional research should examine how best to transition lab-tested interview methods into the field, and language and interpreter factors may impact the ability to assess veracity in multiple ways.     

Language Proficiency and Police Officers’ Lie Detection Performance

We examined lay persons’ and police officers’ abilities to detect lying in second-language speakers. Participants (N?=?121) viewed targets who were lying or telling the truth about an event in either their first or second languages. Overall, participants were better able to detect deception in native-language speakers than second-language speakers. In addition, they tended to believe that native-language speakers were telling the truth. However, contrary to our hypotheses, expertise did not affect lie detection performance. Implications will be discussed.     

Two heads are better than one? How to effectively use two interviewers to elicit cues to deception

Background. We examined the effect of a second interviewer's demeanour on cues to deception. We predicted that a supportive demeanour would be the most beneficial for eliciting verbal cues to deceit, as it would encourage truth tellers, but not liars, to say more. In addition, we examined the extent to which interviewees deliberately made eye contact with the interviewers. Liars take their credibility less for granted than truth tellers, and therefore have a greater drive to be convincing. Liars are thus more likely to monitor the interviewer to determine if the interviewer appears to believe them. Method. Participants appeared before two interviewers: the first asked all the questions and the second remained silent. The second interviewer exhibited either a supportive, neutral, or a suspicious demeanour. Results. Truth tellers provided significantly more detail than liars, but only in the supportive second interviewer condition. The effect of a second interviewer's demeanour on detail was perhaps remarkable given that the interviewees hardly looked at the second interviewer (less than 10% of the time). Liars displayed more deliberate eye contact (with the first interviewer) than truth tellers did. Conclusions. A supportive second interviewer has a positive effect on interviewing. We discuss this finding in the wider contexts of investigative interviewing and interviewing to detect deception.     

英语成语探源

英语成语是以英语为母语的民族在长期的生产、生活实践中积累下来的带有丰富文化内涵的语言成分。英语成语的源头十分广泛,有些成语的源头是很难探寻,甚至是无法确定的,但我们不能简单地根据它首次出现在《圣经》上,就认为《圣经》是该成语的源头。     

Do Defense Attorney Referrals for Competence to Stand Trial Evaluations Depend on Whether the Client Speaks English or Spanish?

Criminal defense attorneys (N = 142) responded to a survey asking them to read a vignette describing a Hispanic defendant charged with assault and rate the severity of the defendant’s mental illness and likelihood of referring him for an evaluation of competence to stand trial (CST). The vignettes varied in terms of whether the defendant spoke English or Spanish, and whether his mental illness symptoms were obvious or ambiguous. Overall, attorneys rated the Spanish-speaking defendant as less mentally ill than the English-speaking defendant, and were less likely to refer the Spanish-speaking defendant for a CST evaluation. Attorneys who perceived more logistical barriers to seeking a CST evaluation in their local communities were less likely to refer the defendant for a CST evaluation, but only when the defendant spoke Spanish. These findings suggest attorney decisions were influenced by language, although further research is needed to identify the mechanism of this influence.     

The interaction of truthful and deceptive information

ABSTRACT

Research consistently shows that truthful accounts are richer in detail than deceptive accounts. It is unknown, however, how interviewees strategically regulate the information they provide when their accounts contain both truthful and deceptive information. This study examined how truths and lies interact, and whether interviewees’ self-reported strategies reflect such interactions. Participants (n?=?144) provided one statement consisting of two elements. We manipulated the veracity of these elements, with participants allocated to either both truthful, both deceptive, or one truthful and the other deceptive conditions. Results indicated that interviewees calibrate the richness of detail provided in the first element of their statement based on the veracity of the following element. Moreover, our exploratory tests revealed that lies become more detailed when they are flanked by truthful information relative to when they are flanked by other deceptive information. The finding that truthful and deceptive information interacts to influence detail richness provides insight into liars’ strategic manipulation of information when statements contain a mixture of truths and lies. Strategic manipulations of this kind could potentially threaten the reliability of commonly used verbal lie detection tools. This study also offers insight to legal practitioners who rely on baseline deviations to assess credibility.     

Relational Violence in Women's Prison: How Women Describe Interpersonal Violence and Gender

Using data from interviews with former female inmates, I focus on how women describe aggression and violence in prison. Interviewees outline the connection between prison violence, gender, and interpersonal relationships. Similar to in previous studies on adolescent girls, women describe ostracism and rumors as a form of aggression. Furthermore, they detail how some inmates fight over correctional officers as the only men in their lives. I define this form of aggression as relational violence, which is commonly described as adolescent behavior. This article broadens the current work on gender and inmate conflict by focusing on violence used by adult female offenders. Moreover, it extends understanding of inmate culture by allowing interviewees to verbally construct the social reality of prison violence from their perspective to evaluate how they connect violence to gender roles.     

Freedom of Expression and Choice of Language*

This paper argues that sound principles of freedom of expression protect an individual's choice of which language to speak. They do so, not to guarantee against mistranslation, but rather to ensure that speakers are able to reach their intended audiences and, more importantly, to allow for the expressive value of speaking a particular language as a symbol of ethnic or political identification. The example of Quebec's Charter of the French Language and the resulting litigation is considered in some detail.     

Increasing Cognitive Load to Facilitate Lie Detection: The Benefit of Recalling an Event in Reverse Order

In two experiments, we tested the hypotheses that (a) the difference between liars and truth tellers will be greater when interviewees report their stories in reverse order than in chronological order, and (b) instructing interviewees to recall their stories in reverse order will facilitate detecting deception. In Experiment 1, 80 mock suspects told the truth or lied about a staged event and did or did not report their stories in reverse order. The reverse order interviews contained many more cues to deceit than the control interviews. In Experiment 2, 55 police officers watched a selection of the videotaped interviews of Experiment 1 and made veracity judgements. Requesting suspects to convey their stories in reverse order improved police observers' ability to detect deception and did not result in a response bias.     

Living and learning in Tacna,Peru

I spent the summer after my first year of college in Tacna, Peru. I lived in community with five Peruvian nuns and worked in the school where they were the administrators. I was completely immersed in the culture and language as no one spoke English. It was an experience that allowed me to connect with new ideas about community and social justice, ideas that have contributed to the way I have come to understand my position and my responsibilities in my global community. When I returned home from Peru, I wrote this reflection about my experience adapting and living in this wonderful and vibrant community.     

The acquisition and retention of Job-specific Spanish vocabulary by English-speaking law enforcement officers

In the United States, law enforcement officers may need to communicate with suspects or witnesses who are not native speakers of English. We assessed the effectiveness of the Officer Safety and Communication Spanish, Level I course (Alentado, 1995), a three-day workshop designed specifically for law enforcement personnel. Both role-play performance and perceived ability of the officers to use Spanish at work increased as a result of participation, and effectiveness did not decrease significantly six months after the course. Assessment of the effectiveness of study aids was inconclusive. Job-specific short courses in a second language can be effective for teaching limited language skills. Authors’ Note: This research was supported by a Saint Vincent College Faculty Development Grant. The researchers would like to especially thank and acknowledge the work of Jose M. Alentado, creator of the Officer Safety and Communication Spanish Level I course, President, Partners in Training Consultants, Inc. We would like to express recognition and gratitude to Captain Kevan Dugan of the Pennsylvania State Police for his contribution to the design of the role-play evaluation scales and for coordinating the logistics for this research. We are extremely grateful to all the law enforcement officers who participated in this study, especially those from Pennsylvania. Without their cooperation and the interest and support from Sergeant Clifford Jobe of the Pennsylvania State Police Southwest Training Center, this research would not have been possible.     

Remembering remotely: would video-mediation impair witnesses' memory reports?

Witnesses often experience lengthy delays prior to being interviewed, during which their memories inevitably decay. Video-communication technology – favored by intergovernmental organizations for playing larger roles in judicial processes – might circumvent some of the resourcing problems that can exacerbate such delays. However, whereas video-mediation might facilitate expeditious interviewing, it might also harm rapport-building, make witnesses uncomfortable, and thereby undermine the quality and detail of their reports. Participants viewed a crime film and were interviewed either one day later via video-link, one day later face-to-face, or 1–2 weeks later face-to-face. Video-mediation neither influenced the detail or the accuracy of participants' reports, nor their ratings of the quality of the interviews. However, participants who underwent video-mediated interviews after a short delay gave more accurate, detailed reports than participants who waited longer to be interviewed face-to-face. This study provides initial empirical evidence that video-mediated communication (VMC) could facilitate the expeditious conduct of high-quality investigative interviews.     

The devil is in the detail: deception and consistency over repeated interviews

ABSTRACT

Research indicates that truthful statements typically contain more details than fabricated statements, and that truth tellers are no more consistent than liars over multiple interviews. In this experiment, we examine the impact of (i) multiple interviewers and (ii) reverse order recall on liars’ and truth tellers’ consistency and amount of reported detail over repeated recall attempts. Participants either took part in a mock crime (lying condition) or an innocent event (truth telling condition) which they were subsequently interviewed about in two separate interview phases. Truth tellers provided more details overall, and more reminiscent details than liars. There were no differences between veracity groups for the number of omissions made or repetitions reported. Despite the popular belief that inconsistency is a cue to deception, we found little support for the notion that consistency (or lack of consistency) offers a diagnostic cue to deception. We found little evidence that switching interviewer or recalling in reverse order induced inconsistencies in liars. In fact, due to the number of reminiscent details in truth tellers’ accounts, our findings suggest that accounts provided by liars tend to be slightly more consistent than those provided by truth tellers. Materials for this paper can be found at osf.io/hgvmk/.     

Training in the Strategic Use of Evidence technique: Improving deception detection accuracy of American law enforcement officers

The Strategic Use of Evidence (SUE) approach is a framework for planning and executing suspect interviews with the aim of facilitating judgments of truth and deception. US law enforcement officers (N = 59) either received training in the SUE approach or did not. Each officer interviewed a mock suspect (N = 59) who had either committed a simulated security breach or had completed a benign task. The officers who received SUE training interviewed in line with the training: They questioned the suspect systematically, withheld the evidence and critical case information until after questioning, and relied on statement-evidence inconsistency to detect deceit. Consequently, SUE-trained interviewers achieved a higher deception detection accuracy rate (65%) compared to untrained interviewers (43%).     

三、五年级学英语起点和语音发展的实验研究

本研究比较三、五年级起点的学生英语语音语调的发展.研究采用准实验设计,样本包括198名中国小学三、五年级学生和15名美国小学生.学年结束时,对被试施行朗读测验、单人单盒磁带录音并将录音带匿名编号、随机混合,由3名英美人以随机顺序各自独立评分.结果表明:无论是按学校分类、按性别分类、还是按任课教师分类,五年级被试的平均分都显著地高于三年级被试,且处于最高分数段者也多是五年级被试.     

The gender warrior: Reformed batterers on abuse,treatment, and change

Reformed batterers were interviewed about their perceptions on the nature of their abuse and how they stopped their abuse. The interviewees were 12 men from a men's counseling program who were nonviolent for 10 months or more. The men explained their abuse as a reaction to their failed macho complex. They viewed the counseling program as a reinforcement for their self-determination to change. And they described the process of change in terms of personal growth, in which they accepted responsibility, became empathetic, and redefined their manhood. The implications of the reformed batterer's perceptions for program development are discussed in the conclusion.     

Fading lies: applying the verifiability approach after a period of delay

ABSTRACT

We tested the utility of applying the Verifiability Approach (VA) to witness statements after a period of delay. The delay factor is important to consider because interviewees are often not interviewed directly after witnessing an event. A total of 64 liars partook in a mock crime and then lied about it during an interview, seven days later. Truth tellers (n?=?78) partook in activities of their own choosing and told the truth about it during their interview, seven days later. All participants were split into three groups, which provided three different verbal instructions relating to the interviewer’s aim to assess the statements for the inclusion of verifiable information: no information protocol (IP) (n?=?43), the standard-IP (n?=?46) and an enhanced-IP (n?=?53). In addition to the standard VA approach of analysing verifiable details, we further examined verifiable witness information and verifiable digital information and made a distinction between verifiable details and verifiable sources. We found that truth tellers reported more verifiable digital details and sources than liars.     

Clusters of Nonverbal Behaviors Differ According to Type of Question and Veracity in Investigative Interviews in a Mock Crime Context

Evaluating truthfulness and detecting deception is a capstone skill of criminal justice professionals, and researchers have long examined nonverbal cues to aid in such determinations. This paper examines the notion that testing clusters of nonverbal behaviors is a more fruitful way of making such determinations than single, specific behaviors. Participants from four ethnic groups participated in a mock crime and either told the truth or lied in an investigative interview. Fourteen nonverbal behaviors of the interviewees were coded from the interviews; differences in the behaviors were tested according to type of question and veracity condition. Different types of questions produced different nonverbal reactions. Clusters of nonverbal behaviors differentiated truth tellers from liars, and the specific clusters were moderated by question. Accuracy rates ranged from 62.6 to 72.5% and were above deception detection accuracy rates for humans and random data. These findings have implications for practitioners as well as future research and theory.