36
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
0 collections
    0
    shares
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: found
      Is Open Access

      The “Good Cop, Bad Cop” Effect in the RT-Based Concealed Information Test: Exploring the Effect of Emotional Expressions Displayed by a Virtual Investigator

      research-article

      Read this article at

      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          Concealing the possession of relevant information represents a complex cognitive process, shaped by contextual demands and individual differences in cognitive and socio-emotional functioning. The Reaction Time-based Concealed Information Test (RT-CIT) is used to detect concealed knowledge based on the difference in RTs between denying recognition of critical ( probes) and newly encountered ( irrelevant) information. Several research questions were addressed in this scenario implemented after a mock crime. First, we were interested whether the introduction of a social stimulus (facial identity) simulating a virtual investigator would facilitate the process of deception detection. Next, we explored whether his emotional displays (friendly, hostile or neutral) would have a differential impact on speed of responses to probe versus irrelevant items. We also compared the impact of introducing similar stimuli in a working memory (WM) updating context without requirements to conceal information. Finally, we explored the association between deceptive behavior and individual differences in WM updating proficiency or in internalizing problems (state / trait anxiety and depression). Results indicated that the mere presence of a neutral virtual investigator slowed down participants' responses, but not the appended lie-specific time (difference between probes and irrelevants). Emotional expression was shown to differentially affect speed of responses to critical items, with positive displays from the virtual examiner enhancing lie-specific time, compared to negative facial expressions, which had an opposite impact. This valence-specific effect was not visible in the WM updating context. Higher levels of trait / state anxiety were related to faster responses to probes in the negative condition (hostile facial expression) of the RT-CIT. These preliminary findings further emphasize the need to take into account motivational and emotional factors when considering the transfer of deception detection techniques from the laboratory to real-life settings.

          Related collections

          Most cited references56

          • Record: found
          • Abstract: found
          • Article: not found

          The Nature and Organization of Individual Differences in Executive Functions: Four General Conclusions.

          Executive functions (EFs)-a set of general-purpose control processes that regulate one's thoughts and behaviors-have become a popular research topic lately and have been studied in many subdisciplines of psychological science. This article summarizes the EF research that our group has conducted to understand the nature of individual differences in EFs and their cognitive and biological underpinnings. In the context of a new theoretical framework that we have been developing (the unity/diversity framework), we describe four general conclusions that have emerged from our research. Specifically, we argue that individual differences in EFs, as measured with simple laboratory tasks, (1) show both unity and diversity (different EFs are correlated yet separable); (2) reflect substantial genetic contributions; (3) are related to various clinically and societally important phenomena; and (4) show some developmental stability.
            Bookmark
            • Record: found
            • Abstract: found
            • Article: not found

            Positive affect increases the breadth of attentional selection.

            The present study examined the thesis that positive affect may serve to broaden the scope of attentional filters, reducing their selectivity. The effect of positive mood states was measured in two different cognitive domains: semantic search (remote associates task) and visual selective attention (Eriksen flanker task). In the conceptual domain, positive affect enhanced access to remote associates, suggesting an increase in the scope of semantic access. In the visuospatial domain, positive affect impaired visual selective attention by increasing processing of spatially adjacent flanking distractors, suggesting an increase in the scope of visuospatial attention. During positive states, individual differences in enhanced semantic access were correlated with the degree of impaired visual selective attention. These findings demonstrate that positive states, by loosening the reins on inhibitory control, result in a fundamental change in the breadth of attentional allocation to both external visual and internal conceptual space.
              Bookmark
              • Record: found
              • Abstract: found
              • Article: not found

              Arousal-biased competition in perception and memory.

              Our everyday surroundings besiege us with information. The battle is for a share of our limited attention and memory, with the brain selecting the winners and discarding the losers. Previous research shows that both bottom-up and top-down factors bias competition in favor of high priority stimuli. We propose that arousal during an event increases this bias both in perception and in long-term memory of the event. Arousal-biased competition theory provides specific predictions about when arousal will enhance and when it will impair memory for events, accounting for some puzzling contradictions in the emotional memory literature.
                Bookmark

                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Role: Academic Editor
                Journal
                PLoS One
                PLoS ONE
                plos
                plosone
                PLoS ONE
                Public Library of Science (San Francisco, CA USA )
                1932-6203
                20 February 2015
                2015
                : 10
                : 2
                : e0116087
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Applied Cognitive Psychology Center, Department of Psychology, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
                [2 ]Developmental Psychology Lab, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
                [3 ]COGNITROM Ltd, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
                University of Udine, ITALY
                Author notes

                Competing Interests: One of the authors, Prof. Mircea Miclea, is affiliated with COGNITROM Ltd, a private company which supports the publishing costs for this article. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

                Conceived and designed the experiments: MV LVP MM GVP. Performed the experiments: MV GVP. Analyzed the data: MV. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: LVP MM. Wrote the paper: MV LVP MM GVP.

                Article
                PONE-D-13-31334
                10.1371/journal.pone.0116087
                4336287
                7dda6d74-25c1-48cd-9ad5-aaca2d5868b1
                Copyright @ 2015

                This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

                History
                : 2 August 2013
                : 4 December 2014
                Page count
                Figures: 6, Tables: 2, Pages: 27
                Funding
                This work was supported by a POSDRU/107/1.5/S/76841 grant awarded to the first author and by a PN-II-RU-TE-2012-3-0323 grant awarded to the corresponding author by the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research, CNCS – UEFISCDI. The publishing fee for the article will be covered by COGNITROM Ltd. The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.
                Categories
                Research Article

                Uncategorized
                Uncategorized

                Comments

                Comment on this article