The process of information concealment is more relevant than ever in this day and age. Using a modified concealed-information test (CIT), we aimed to unmask this process by investigating both the decision and the attempt to conceal information in 38 students. The attempt to conceal (vs. reveal) information induced a differential physiological response pattern within subjects—whereas skin conductance increased in both conditions, respiration and heart rate were suppressed only in the conceal condition—confirming the idea that these measures reflect different underlying mechanisms. The decision to conceal (vs. reveal) information induced enhanced anticipatory skin conductance responses. To our knowledge, this is the first study that observed such anticipatory responses in an information-concealment paradigm. Together, these findings imply that our physiological responses reflect, to some degree, both the decision and the attempt to conceal information. In addition to strengthening CIT theory, this knowledge sheds novel light on anticipatory responding in decision making.
AartsA. A.AndersonJ. E.AndersonC. J.AttridgeP. R.AttwoodA.AxtJ.. . . ZuniK. (2015). Estimating the reproducibility of psychological science. Science, 349, Article aac4716. doi:10.1126/science.aac4716
2.
BarryR. J. (1981). Signal value and preliminary processes in OR elicitation. Pavlovian Journal of Biological Science, 16, 116–150. doi:10.1007/BF03003219
3.
BecharaA.DamasioH.DamasioA. R.LeeG. P. (1999). Different contributions of the human amygdala and vent-romedial prefrontal cortex to decision-making. The Journal of Neuroscience, 19, 5473–5481. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.19-13-05473.1999
4.
BecharaA.DamasioH.TranelD.DamasioA. R. (1997). Deciding advantageously before knowing the advantageous strategy. Science, 275, 1293–1295. doi:10.1126/science.275.5304.1293
5.
BecharaA.TranelD.DamasioH.DamasioA. R. (1996). Failure to respond autonomically to anticipated future outcomes following damage to prefrontal cortex. Cerebral Cortex, 6, 215–225. doi:10.1093/cercor/6.2.215
6.
Ben-ShakharG.DolevK. (1996). Psychophysiological detection through the guilty knowledge technique: Effects of mental countermeasures. Journal of Applied Psychology, 81, 273–281. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.81.3.273
7.
Ben-ShakharG.ElaadE. (2002). Effects of questions’ repetition and variation on the efficiency of the guilty knowledge test: A reexamination. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87, 972–977. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.87.5.972
8.
BotvinickM. M.RosenZ. B. (2009). Anticipation of cognitive demand during decision-making. Psychological Research, 73, 835–842. doi:10.1007/s00426-008-0197-8
9.
CroneE. A.SomsenR. J.van BeekB.van der MolenM. W. (2004). Heart rate and skin conductance analysis of antecendents [sic] and consequences of decision making. Psychophysiology, 41, 531–540. doi:10.1111/j.1469-8986.2004.00197.x
10.
CroneE. A.van der MolenM. W. (2007). Development of decision making in school-aged children and adolescents: Evidence from heart rate and skin conductance analysis. Child Development, 78, 1288–1301. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.01066.x
11.
DavisT.LoveB. C.MaddoxW. T. (2009). Anticipatory emotions in decision tasks: Covert markers of value or attentional processes?Cognition, 112, 195–200. doi:10.1162/jocn.2009.21367
12.
DindoL.FowlesD. C. (2008). The skin conductance orienting response to semantic stimuli: Significance can be independent of arousal. Psychophysiology, 45, 111–118. doi:10.1111/j.1469-8986.2007.00604.x
13.
ElaadE. (2013). Effects of goal- and task-oriented motivation in the guilty action test. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 88, 82–90. doi:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2013.02.004
14.
ElaadE.GintonA.JungmanN. (1992). Detection measures in real-life criminal guilty knowledge tests. Journal of Applied Psychology, 77, 757–767. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.77.5.757
15.
ElvemoN. A.NilsenK. B.LandrøN. I.BorchgrevinkP. C.HåbergA. K. (2014). Patients with chronic pain lack somatic markers during decision-making. Journal of Pain Research, 7, 425–437. doi:10.2147/JPR.S62492
16.
FriedI.MukamelR.KreimanG. (2011). Internally generated preactivation of single neurons in human medial frontal cortex predicts volition. Neuron, 69, 548–562. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2010.11.045
17.
GamerM. (2011). Detecting concealed information using autonomic measures. In VerschuereB.Ben-ShakharG.MeijerE. H. (Eds.), Memory detection: Theory and application of the concealed information test (pp. 27–45). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511975196.003
18.
HelfinsteinS. M.SchonbergT.CongdonE.KarlsgodtK. H.MufordJ. A.SabbF. W.. . . PoldrackR. A. (2014). Pre-dicting risky choices from brain activity patterns. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 111, 2470–2475. doi:10.1073/pnas.1321728111
19.
IaconoW. G. (2011). Encouraging the use of the guilty knowledge test (GKT): What the GKT has to offer law enforcement. In VerschuereB.Ben-ShakharG.MeijerE. H. (Eds.), Memory detection: Theory and application of the concealed information test (pp. 12–24). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
20.
klein SelleN.VerschuereB. J.KindtM.MeijerE. H.Ben-ShakharG. (2016). Orienting versus inhibition in the concealed information test: Different cognitive processes drive different physiological measures. Psychophysiology, 53, 579–590. doi:10.1111/psyp.12583
21.
klein SelleN.VerschuereB. J.KindtM.MeijerE. H.Ben-ShakharG. (2017). Unraveling the roles of orienting and inhibition in the concealed information test. Psychophysiology, 54, 628–639. doi:10.1111/psyp.12825
22.
LeeM. D.WagenmakersE.-J. (2013). Bayesian cognitive modeling: A practical course. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
23.
LieblichI.KugelmassS.Ben-ShakharG. (1970). Efficiency of GSR detection of information as a function of stimulus set size. Psychophysiology, 6, 601–608. doi:10.1111/j.1469-8986.1970.tb02249.x
24.
LykkenD. T. (1959). The GSR in the detection of guilt. Journal of Applied Psychology, 43, 385–388. doi:10.1037/h0046060
25.
LykkenD. T. (1974). Psychology and the lie detector industry. American Psychologist, 29, 725–739. doi:10.1037/h0037441
26.
MatsudaI.NittonoH. (2018). A concealment-specific frontal negative slow wave is generated from the right prefrontal cortex in the concealed information test. Biological Psychology, 135, 194–203. doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2018.04.002
27.
MatsudaI.NittonoH.OgawaT. (2013). Identifying concealment-related responses in the concealed information test. Psychophysiology, 50, 617–626. doi:10.1111/psyp.12046
28.
MatsudaI.OgawaT. (2011). Improved method for calculating the respiratory line length in the concealed information test. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 81, 65–71. doi:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2011.06.002
29.
MeijerE. H.klein SelleN.ElberL.Ben-ShakharG. (2014). Memory detection with the concealed information test: A meta analysis of skin conductance, respiration, heart rate, and P300 data. Psychophysiology, 51, 879–904. doi:10.1111/psyp.12239
30.
MorettoG.LàdavasE.MattioliF.di PellegrinoG. (2009). A psychophysiological investigation of moral judgment after ventromedial prefrontal damage. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 22, 1888–1899. doi:10.1162/jocn.2009.21367
31.
OsumiT.OhiraH. (2009). Cardiac responses predict decisions: An investigation of the relation between orienting response and decisions in the ultimatum game. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 74, 74–79. doi:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2009.07.007
32.
PennebakerJ. W.ChewC. H. (1985). Behavioral-inhibition and electrodermal activity during deception. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49, 1427–1433. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.49.5.1427
33.
PethJ.SuchotzkiK.GamerM. (2016). Influence of countermeasures on the validity of the concealed information test. Psychophysiology, 53, 1429–1440. doi:10.1111/psyp.12690
34.
RosenfeldJ. P.OzsanI.WardA. C. (2017). P300 amplitude at Pz and N200/N300 latency at F3 differ between participants simulating suspect versus witness roles in a mock crime. Psychophysiology, 54, 640–648. doi:10.1111/psyp.12823
35.
RouderJ. N.SpeckmanP. L.SunD.MoreyR. D.IversonG. (2009). Bayesian t tests for accepting and rejecting the null hypothesis. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 16, 225–237. doi:10.3758/PBR.16.2.225
36.
SoonC. S.BrassM.HeinzeH. J.HaynesJ. D. (2008). Unconscious determinants of free decisions in the human brain. Nature Neuroscience, 11, 543–545. doi:10.1038/nn.2112
37.
SoonC. S.HeA. H.BodeS.HaynesJ. D. (2013). Predicting free choices for abstract intentions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 110, 6217–6222. doi:10.1073/pnas.1212218110
38.
StuderB.ClarkL. (2011). Place your bets: Psychophysiological correlates of decision-making under risk. Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience, 11, 144–158. doi:10.3758/s13415-011-0025-2
39.
VerschuereB.Ben-ShakharG.MeijerE. H. (Eds.). (2011). Memory detection: Theory and application of the concealed information test. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
ZviL.NachsonI.ElaadE. (2012). Effects of coping and cooperative instructions on guilty and informed innocents’ physiological responses to concealed information. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 84, 140–148. doi:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2012.01.022
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
