Extracting Unknown Crime Information by Psychophysiological Responses

2021 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 21F21012
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Institution: Aoyama Gakuin University
• Principal Investigator: 松田 いづみ 青山学院大学, 教育人間科学部, 准教授 (80356162)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): ORTHEY ROBIN 青山学院大学, 教育人間科学部, 外国人特別研究員
• Project Period (FY): 2021-09-28 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: Concealed Information / Autonomic Nervous System / Stimulus Similarity / Stimulus Generalization / Psychophysiology

Outline of Annual Research Achievements

The purpose of this research project is to broaden the application of the Concealed Information Test (CIT) as a knowledge detection tool. The CIT is used by the Japanese police for two purposes. First, to identify perpetrators by demonstrating that a suspect has factual knowledge about a crime, and second, to elicit novel information from a suspect to aid the investigators, also known as searching CIT (sCIT). In principle, the examinee is presented with a question followed by multiple plausible answers while physiological indices are recorded. The test follows a simple logic, if you have no knowledge of the crime all answers produce the same response, but if you know the truth, the correct answer will elicit an elevated response compared to the rest.
In this project I focus on expanding the sCIT. Specifically, I intent to examine the effects of stimulus similarity among the answer alternatives. I do so by examining if answers similar to the correct answer elicit larger responses respective to their degree of similarity. Furthermore, I examine if the traditional set of distinct answer alternatives can be applied to continuous stimuli, such as routes and maps.
The results of this project are directly applicable to the CIT practices used in Japan today. The findings could help CIT practitioners to better understand how answer alternatives should be selected to maximize the detection accuracy of the CIT and they may allow practitioners to use the sCIT in situations that are difficult for the traditional sCIT, such as finding the location of a stolen item with a map of the city.

Current Status of Research Progress

3: Progress in research has been slightly delayed.

Reason

We started the project in late September of 2021. The first few months were spent in preparing the laboratory rooms, psychophysiological recording equipment, and experimental materials. In our first experiment, we combine the recording system from my host and another European system, I brought with me. First, we had to run several pilots to verify the validity of our measurements when using both systems in conjunction. In addition, we piloted the experimental materials and all preparations finished around late January. Since then, we are in the process of collecting data (~50%) and finalizing the preregistration of the analysis plan, as well as the code used for the data transformation and analysis.

Strategy for Future Research Activity

We aim to finish the data collection for the first experiment and continue with the follow-up experiment. We aim to write the manuscript for the results of the first experiment. In addition, I am presenting my work at an international conference (iiiRG 2022; Winchester UK) and I intend to make more connections with other Japanese researchers and research institutes.