| Description |
The ocular-motor deception test (ODT) detects deception from patterns of reading behavior and pupil enlargement. This mock crime study manipulated guilt, blocking, practice with or without feedback, and interevent intervals to assess their effects on ocular-motor and behavioral measures of deception. To test whether longer intervals disattenuate pupil responses, the present study also manipulated the time between the answer and the onset of the following statement. Half of the participants were guilty of stealing $20 from a secretary's wallet, and the other 80 participants were innocent. Guilt was crossed with presentation format and feedback. Half of the participants received feedback in their ODT practice session and half did not. Half of the participants received statements of the same type presented in immediate succession (blocked), and half the participants received a distributed presentation. The interval between the participant's answer and the presentation of the next statement was manipulated within-subjects. There were two repetitions of the 48 True/False statements at each of three interevent intervals (500 ms, 1500 ms, and 3000 ms). Guilty participants showed the largest pupil diameter while reading the cash statements. A discriminant functions of four ocular-motor measures correctly classified 86.3% of participants in the distributed condition, and another function of two measures correctly classified 83.3% of participants in the blocked condition. All participants completed Behavioral Inhibition/Behavioral Activation Scales (BIS/BAS) and the Emotionality, Activity, Sociability and Impulsivity scale (EASI) prior to learning their group assignment, and all participants completed a working memory test and post-ODT questionnaire after the ODT. None of the individual difference measures moderated effects of guilt on ocular-motor measures. There were main effects of guilt on realism, concern about the cash items, and general worry about passing the ODT. |
