The Effects of Aural Versus Visual Presentations of Questions During a Detection of Deception Task.

The purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship between accuracy of a detection of deception task and the stimulus mode of the question presentation. That is, will the presentation of questions on a computer screen change the accuracy rate when compared to exams conducted, more traditionally, in a verbal mode Eighty subjects were assigned to either a guilty or innocent condition. Guilty subjects were shown a video of a mock crime scenario while innocent subjects viewed a clip from a training video. Half of the innocent and half of the guilty groups were given the exams aurally using a tape recorder, and the other half were shown the questions on a computer terminal. Subjects were then given a guilty knowledge test by the experimenter using a Coulbourn polygraph. Overall accuracy of the decisions of the original examiner was 78, 74 for the blind examiner, and 76 for the Lykken system. Accuracy rates for subjects in the visual condition were 83 for the original examiner, 78 for the blind evaluator, and 70 for the Lykken system. The decisions for the aural condition were 73 accurate for the blind examiner, 70 accurate for the blind evaluator, and 83 accurate for Lykken scoring system. There was no significant association between an accurate decision and the stimulus mode condition for the original examiner, the blind evaluator, or the Lykken scoring decision.