Stage 1 Registered Report: The Impact of Lying on Memory: Comparison of Various Deceptive Strategies

Abstract

People who are confronted with criminal situations sometimes lie by using different deceptive strategies. If they eventually come forward with the truth, it is important to understand whether their memory-based testimonies might be affected by their initial lies. To examine and compare the effects of various deceptive strategies (i.e., fabrication, false denial, and feigning amnesia) on memory, we will instruct participants to watch a video of a mock crime. Then, after two-days participants will be cued to lie according to the different deceptive strategies and tell the truth in response to different questions in an interview about the mock crime. One week later, participants will be instructed to tell the truth about what they saw in the video and which details they discussed in the interview during a final recognition memory task. We expect that 1) fabrication will lead to more commission errors as compared with all other groups, 2) false denials and feigning amnesia will lead to lower correct memory and more omission errors for details discussed during the interview, and 3) false denials and feigning amnesia will lead to lower correct memory and more omission errors for details viewed in the video (versus other groups).