Doctoral Dissertation Research: The moderating effect of working memory capacity while telling lies under cognitive load

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The project examines the role of working memory capacity (WMC) in lying. WMC is the ability to use focused attention and cognitive effort to accomplish goals. Anything that requires attention and concentration will use WMC. Research indicates that lying may require more WMC than telling the truth because lying requires suppressing truthful information, generating a lie to tell, and telling that lie in a believable way, among other cognitive tasks. In comparison, telling the truth primarily requires recall of information. Previous research shows that liars display some behaviors which indicate cognitive load. When liars and truth tellers are placed under extra cognitive load, such behaviors become more pronounced in liars compared to truth tellers. These behaviors can be used to more accurately distinguish liars from truth tellers. The current research will examine how this finding is affected by WMC, as research has shown that WMC is related to an individual?s ability to cope with cognitive load. In Studies 1 and 2 participants will lie or tell the truth either under cognitive load or no cognitive load. WMC will be measured to examine its impact on verbal, vocal, and visual behavior. In Study 3, observers will judge the truthfulness of participants from Studies 1 and 2. This project will help advance the understanding of how working memory affects deception, specifically whether individuals with greater WMC are better at coping with cognitive load during lying. This project will also expand research on individual differences in the deception field by studying how variation in a particular cognitive capacity affects deceptive behavior. Learning more about lying and truth telling can aid law enforcement and other groups who face the task of judging credibility in their professional life. This research can be used to help develop methods of lie detection that exploit the cognitive processes of liars. In addition, this project will contribute to the training of a graduate student.