Gershon Ben-Shakhar

Hebrew University of Jerusalem | HUJI · Department of Psychology

In response to the replication crisis in psychology, the scientific community has advocated open science practices to promote transparency and reproducibility. Although existing reviews indicate inconsistent and generally low adoption of open science in psychology, a current-day, detailed analysis is lacking. Recognizing the significant impact of f...

Recently, Brennen and Magnussen (2023, Current Directions in Psychological Science , 32 , 395) reviewed several approaches to detection of deception that have been extensively researched for several decades. While this review is timely, it is overly pessimistic regarding the applicability of psychological research to criminal investigations, and at...

Participants in the Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) paradigm learn lists of words (e.g., bed, tired) associated with a nonpresented lure (i.e., sleep). In subsequent memory tests, individuals tend to report the nonlearned lures, that is, exhibiting false memories. Priorly, the DRM task has been criticized for not capturing the aversive nature of (cl...

General Audience Summary To examine whether a suspect of a crime has implicating crime knowledge, recognition of crime-related details can be detected using memory detection methods, such as the CIT. Traditionally, crime knowledge is detected with physiological measures, and studies exploring newer eye-tracking measures have produced a lower detect...

The concealed information test (CIT) presents various probe (familiar) items amidst irrelevant (unfamiliar) items. When the probe items appear, reaction time (RT) slows down. This RT-CIT effect has been accounted for by a conflict resulting from the need to deny familiarity of the familiar probes. The present pre-registered study (n = 292) examined...

The many benefits of online research and the recent emergence of open-source eye-tracking libraries have sparked an interest in transferring time-consuming and expensive eye-tracking studies from the lab to the web. In the current study, we validate online webcam-based eye-tracking by conceptually replicating three robust eye-tracking studies (the...

General Audience Summary Everyone has something to hide. Although most secrets are trivial and innocent, some can pose a threat to society and need to be unveiled. Researchers have therefore developed the so-called concealed information test (CIT). This test checks whether individuals have knowledge of certain critical details (such as the murder w...

Post-traumatic stress disorder is characterised by recurring memories of a traumatic experience despite deliberate attempts to forget (i.e., suppression). The Think/No-Think (TNT) task has been used widely in the laboratory to study suppression-induced forgetting. During the task, participants learn a series of cue-target word pairs. Subsequently,...

Post-traumatic stress disorder is characterised by recurring memories of a traumatic experience despite deliberate attempts to forget. The Think/No-Think (TNT) task has been used widely in the laboratory to study suppression-induced forgetting. Recent meta-analyses have reported small-to-moderate effect sizes in this paradigm. The current replicati...

The current study examined the eye tracking Concealed Information Test (CIT) in a mock crime scenario. Participants were instructed to either commit a mock crime on campus (guilty participants; n = 42), read an article about this mock crime (informed innocents; n = 45), or read an unrelated article (naïve innocent participants; n = 46). Afterward,...

The concealed information test (CIT) was designed to detect concealed knowledge. It does so by measuring differential physiological and behavioral responses to concealed, compared to control, items – i.e., the CIT effect. Although the CIT has gained extensive empirical support in laboratory studies, scientific validity requires also a theoretical u...

There is a need for validated, theory-driven methods for memory detection. We review how physiological, neurophysiological, and oculomotor measures can be utilized to reveal concealed memories. Recent advances and future directions are discussed in light of the potential of eye-tracking to improve detection efficiency and resolve problems in real-w...

Post-traumatic stress disorder is characterised by recurring memories of a traumatic experience as well as the deliberate avoidance of those memories in order to forget. However, can intentional suppression really lead to forgetting? The Think/No-Think (TNT) task has been used widely in the laboratory to study suppression-induced forgetting. The id...

Through a series of studies, we investigate how people direct gaze toward familiar and unfamiliar objects. When an observer tries to encode objects, gaze is first directed preferentially to the familiar object followed by a later prioritization of the unfamiliar ones. We demonstrate that the initial preference reflects prioritization of personally...

Concealed Information Tests (CIT) are administered to verify whether suspects recognize certain features from a crime. Whenever it is presumed that innocent suspects were contaminated with critical information (e.g., the perpetrator had a knife), the examiner may ask more detailed questions (e.g., specific types of knives) to prevent false positive...

Concealed Information Tests (CIT) are administered to verify whether suspects recognize certain features from a crime. Whenever it is presumed that innocent suspects were contaminated with critical information (e.g., the perpetrator had a knife), the examiner may ask more detailed questions (e.g., specific types of knives) to prevent false positive...

General Audience Summary To examine whether a suspect of a crime has implicating crime knowledge, recognition of crime-related details can be detected using memory detection methods, such as the Concealed Information Test (CIT). In a typical CIT, items are presented verbally, although memory research suggests that pictures may not only be better re...

In our recent review of the current status of forensic lie detection (Iacono & Ben‐Shakhar, 2019), we critiqued a novel method for estimating comparison question polygraph technique accuracy introduced by Ginton (2013). Ginton (2020) has argued that we misconstrued and misinterpreted his study. In this rejoinder, we dismiss Ginton’s (2020) critical...

In the pursuit of new methods for concealed memory detection, event-related potential components (ERP) have been placed at the forefront of research. No method, however, is scientifically complete without a theory and the present study therefore aimed to unravel the cognitive processes underlying these ERPs (i.e., orienting and arousal inhibition)....

The Concealed Information Test (CIT) utilizes psychophysiological measures to detect crime-related knowledge in a suspect's memory. In other words, it can discriminate between knowledgeable (guilty) and unknowledgeable (innocent) suspects. The majority of CIT research is however conducted in controlled laboratory settings, which are more resistant...

The picture superiority effect is particularly relevant in the context of memory detection. In the current study, participants encoded crime-related details and concealed them in a Concealed Information Test (CIT). Items were encoded and tested verbally or pictorially. Both the pilot study (N=73) and the preregistered study (N=158) showed evidence...

Wrongful conviction cases indicate that not all confessors are guilty. However, there is currently no validated method to assess the veracity of confessions. In this preregistered study, we evaluate whether a new application of the Concealed Information Test (CIT) is a potentially valid method to make a distinction between true and false admissions...

Wrongful conviction cases indicate that not all confessors are guilty. However, there is currently no validated method to assess the veracity of confessions. In this preregistered study, we evaluate whether a new application of the Concealed Information Test (CIT) is a potentially valid method to make a distinction between true and false admissions...

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 respo...

Abstract Background While the Concealed Information Test (CIT) can determine whether examinees recognize critical details, it does not clarify the origin of the memory. Hence, when unknowledgeable suspects are contaminated with crime information through media channels or investigative interviews, the validity of the CIT can be compromised (i.e. fal...

Background What can theories regarding memory-related gaze preference contribute to the field of deception detection? While abundant research has examined the ability to detect concealed information through physiological responses, only recently has the scientific community started to explore how eye tracking can be utilized for that purpose. Howev...

The current study explored the most appropriate level of item specificity for memory detection. Participant pairs planned a fictitious bank robbery, encoding its’ critical details on either categorical (e.g., car) or exemplar level (e.g., Citroën). In the CIT, half of the encoded details were tested on the same level of specificity, while the other...

Fifteen years have elapsed since a report was released by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) on the scientific status of polygraph testing. The NAS report concluded that the scientific basis of the comparison question technique (CQT) was weak, the extant research was of low quality, the polygraph profession’s claims for the high accuracy of the...

Srull and Wyer (1979) demonstrated that exposing participants to more hostility-related stimuli caused them subsequently to interpret ambiguous behaviors as more hostile. In their Experiment 1, participants descrambled sets of words to form sentences. In one condition, 80% of the descrambled sentences described hostile behaviors, and in another con...

The self-concept maintenance theory holds that many people will cheat in order to maximize self-profit, but only to the extent that they can do so while maintaining a positive self-concept. Mazar, Amir, and Ariely (2008, Experiment 1) gave participants an opportunity and incentive to cheat on a problem-solving task. Prior to that task, participants...

From a cognitive perspective, lying can be regarded as a complex cognitive process requiring the interplay of several executive functions. Meta-analytic research on 114 studies encompassing 3307 participants (Suchotzki et al., 2017) suggests that computerized paradigms can reliably assess the cognitive burden of lying, with large reaction time diff...

Can gaze position reveal concealed knowledge? During visual processing, gaze allocation is influenced not only by features of the visual input, but also by previous exposure to objects. However, the dynamics of gaze allocation toward personally familiar items remains unclear, especially in the context of revealing concealed familiarity. When memori...

The Concealed Information Test (CIT) aims to detect the recognition of concealed knowledge in an interviewee by presenting a series of multiple-choice questions while measuring several psychophysiological (e.g., skin conductance) or behavioral (i.e., reaction times) responses. When a suspect consistently shows distinct responses to the critical (e....

Can gaze position reveal concealed knowledge? During visual processing, gaze allocation is influenced not only by features of the visual input, but also by previous exposure to objects. However, the dynamics of gaze allocation toward personally familiar items remains unclear, especially in the context of revealing concealed familiarity. When memori...

The Concealed Information Test (CIT) aims to detect concealed knowledge and is known to be sensitive to explicit memory. In two experiments, we examined whether the CIT is also sensitive to implicit memory using skin conductance, respiration and heart rate measures. For each participant, previously studied items were either categorized as explicitl...

The criterion validity of the Concealed Information Test (CIT) and its ability to differentiate between individuals possessing knowledge of critical items and those unaware of these items has been demonstrated in many laboratory experiments. However, despite impressive validity estimates resulting from these studies, the external validity of CIT la...

After six. decades of research it has been well established that physiological measures can validly detect concealed memories. However, the exact theoretical underpinnings of concealed information testing remain to be elucidated. In the present chapter we review the various theoretical accounts of the Concealed Information Test (CIT) effect and dis...

From a cognitive perspective, lying can be regarded as a complex cognitive process requiring the interplay of several executive functions. Meta-analytic research on 114 studies encompassing 3307 participants (Suchotzki et al., 2017) suggests that computerized paradigms can reliably assess the cognitive burden of lying, with large reaction time diff...

The Concealed Information Test (CIT) aims to detect the presence of crime-related information in memory. In two experiments, we examined the influence of stimulus emotionality on the outcomes of the CIT. In experiment 1, each participant was tested immediately or after one week, on a series of neutral and either negative arousing or negative non-ar...

Lie detection techniques are frequently used, but most of them have been criticized for the lack of empirical support for their predictive validity and presumed underlying mechanisms. This situation has led to increased efforts to unravel the cognitive mechanisms underlying deception and to develop a comprehensive theory of deception. A cognitive a...

The Concealed Information Test (CIT) is a well-validated tool for physiological and behavioral detection of concealed knowledge. Two distinct theoretical frameworks have been proposed to explain the differential responses to the concealed critical items: orienting response theory versus arousal inhibition theory. klein Selle, Verschuere, Kindt, Mei...

The Concealed Information Test (CIT) aims to detect concealed information through differential physiological and behavioral responses to the concealed items. Although extensive experimental research has demonstrated the empirical validity of the CIT, the external validity of these studies has been questioned. One essential difference between experi...

The detection of deception has attracted increased attention among psychological researchers, legal scholars, and ethicists during the last decade. Much of this has been driven by the possibility of using neuroimaging techniques for lie detection. Yet, neuroimaging studies addressing deception detection are clouded by lack of conceptual clarity and...

The Concealed Information Test (CIT) provides a valid tool for psychophysiological detection of concealed knowledge. However, its precise theoretical underpinnings remain a matter of debate. The differential physiological responses elicited by concealed, relevant items, relative to control items, were traditionally explained as reflecting an Orient...

The Concealed Information Test is designed to detect concealed knowledge through differential physiological responses elicited by the concealed items. This study was designed to examine the role of retroactive interference (RI) as a potential countermeasure which may weaken memory traces of the concealed items and attenuate the physiological respon...

Palmatier and Rovner (2014) attempt to establish the construct validity of the Comparison Question Test (CQT) by citing extensive research ranging from modern neuroscience to memory and psychophysiology. In this comment we argue that merely citing studies on the preliminary process theory (PPT) of the orienting response (OR) or neuroimaging researc...

The Concealed Information Test (CIT) uses psychophysiological measures to determine the presence or absence of crime-related information in a suspect's memory. We conducted a meta-analysis on the validity of the CIT based on four physiological measures-skin conductance response (SCR), respiration line length (RLL), changes in heart rate (HR), and e...

This study focused on the application of the Concealed Information Test (CIT) to situations in which the crime-related information is shared by a group of suspects but is not available to the investigators (a method known as the "searching CIT," or SCIT). Twenty-two groups, each comprising 4 to 7 participants (115 in total), planned 1 of 2 mock cri...

Two alternative models for orienting response habituation to complex sequences of stimuli were formulated. Model 1 assumed complete generalization of habituation, while Model 2 assumed independent habituation processes for the different stimuli making up the complex sequence. Two experiments were conducted in order to compare the models. Experiment...

In a recent issue of Cognitive Neurodynamics Farwell (Cogn Neurodyn 6:115-154, 2012) published a comprehensive tutorial review of the use of Event Related Brain Potentials (ERP) in the detection of concealed information. Farwell's review covered much of his own work employing his "brain fingerprinting" technology. All his work showed a 100 % accura...

We explored the vulnerability of credibility judgements of written accounts (mediated by their richness in details) to primacy effect. Specifically, we examined whether the order by which two texts were presented affected their credibility judgements. In Experiment 1, participants read two life stories of the same narrator, one rich and the other p...

Lie detection procedures typically aim at determining the guilt or innocence of a single suspect. The Concealed Information Test (CIT), for example, has been shown to be highly successful in detecting the presence or absence of crime-related information in a suspect’s memory. Many of today’s security threats, however, do not come from individuals,...

Considerable evidence suggests that subliminal information can trigger cognitive and neural processes. Here, we examined whether elicitation of orienting response by personally significant (PS) verbal information requires conscious awareness of the input. Subjects were exposed to the Concealed Information Test (CIT), in which autonomic responses fo...

Research interest in psychophysiological detection of deception has significantly increased since the September 11 terror attack in the USA. In particular, the concealed information test (CIT), designed to detect memory traces that can connect suspects to a certain crime, has been extensively studied. In this paper I will briefly review several psy...

This committee was appointed by the SPR Board to provide recommendations for publishing data on electrodermal activity (EDA). They are intended to be a stand-alone source for newcomers and experienced users. A short outline of principles for electrodermal measurement is given, and recommendations from an earlier report (Fowles et al., ) are incorpo...

We examined whether the Concealed Information Test (CIT) may be used when the critical details are unavailable to investigators (the Searching CIT [SCIT]). This use may have important applications in criminal investigations (e.g., finding the location of a murder weapon) and in security-related threats (e.g., detecting individuals and groups suspec...

We explored the vulnerability of credibility judgements of written accounts (mediated by their richness in details) to primacy effect. Specifically, we examined whether the order by which two texts were presented affected their credibility judgements. In Experiment 1, participants read two life stories of the same narrator, one rich and the other p...

We present here the concept of rational emotions: Emotions may be directly controlled and utilized in a conscious, analytic fashion, enabling an individual to size up a situation, to determine that a certain "mental state" is strategically advantageous and adjust accordingly. Building on the growing body of literature recognizing the vital role of...

It has been suggested that personally significant (PS) information interferes with performance only when presented within the focus of attention. However, this claim was never tested by a systematic manipulation of attention, but only by using correlative measures of its locus. We addressed this issue in two experiments, utilizing a cued visual sea...

This study examined, using the Concealed Information paradigm, whether interstimulus intervals (ISI) typically used for electrodermal measurement can be shortened. An ISI ranging from 16 s to 24 s (with a mean of 20 s) was compared with an ISI shortened by 50% using a within-participants design. It was demonstrated that this shortening had no effec...

Overview: Countermeasure manipulations performed by guilty suspects pose a major threat to all methods of psychophysiological detection, including the Concealed Information Test (CIT). The present chapter reviews the experimental literature dealing with the effects of various types of countermeasures (physical and mental) on the outcomes of both th...

Overview: It is now well established that physiological measures can be validly used to detect concealed information. An important challenge is to elucidate the underlying mechanisms of concealed information detection. We review theoretical approaches that can be broadly classified in two major categories: theories that emphasize emotional–motivati...

Overview: This chapter focuses on the admissibility of evidence based on CIT outcomes in criminal trials. We adopted the criteria formulated in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc. (1993) to evaluate admissibility. The literature on polygraph admissibility, which revolved only on the CQT, suggests that this technique does not meet the Dauber...

Overview: In this chapter, we will formulate guidelines on how to develop a good CIT. These guidelines are based upon empirical data from CIT research as well as on theory on memory and orienting. We will outline how best to formulate questions and answer alternatives, how to conduct, score, and report the outcomes of the test. If these guidelines...

This volume, focusing on memory detection, provides a comprehensive and updated review of the Concealed Information Test (CIT) from almost all aspects: the measures used for detecting concealed knowledge (behavioral, autonomic, and brain-related measures); the underlying theories that may account for the effects observed in the CIT; its usage in fo...

Traditional techniques for detecting deception, such as the 'lie-detector test' (or polygraph), are based upon the idea that lying is associated with stress. However, it is possible that people telling the truth will experience stress, whereas not all liars will. Because of this, the validity of such methods is questionable. As an alternative, a kn...

In this article I caution against the use of polygraph testing in convicted sex-offenders programs. First, I explain that the prevalent method of polygraph testing, the CQT, suffers from several major flaws and has no scientific basis. These flaws, which characterize all usages of the CQT, including its use with sex offenders, create a considerable...