Transforming Groups: The Use of Individuation to Aid Collaborative Recall and Lie Detection in Intelligence-gathering Contexts

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

There are various situations in which groups (e.g., covert security operatives) work together to gatherintelligence (e.g., to inform terrorist investigations). To date, there is a lack of evidence regarding themost effective way to enhance group memory and obtain accurate information from teams operatingtogether. The objective of the proposed research will be to utilise collaborative recall and implement astrategy called 'individuation', whereby group members are each assigned a distinct role that helps thegroup's overall performance. Individuation has been shown to be effective in various social contexts(e.g., reducing anti-social behaviour). The research will be divided into three studies, consisting of fourlaboratory-based experiments and one qualitative study, involving groups of three participantsundertaking an intelligence-gathering mission (e.g., mock terrorist attack). The first two experiments(Study 1) will explore whether the individuation strategy enhances the group's ability to rememberinformation and whether collaborative recall improves quantity and accuracy of information gathering.The final two experiments (Study 2) will examine the effectiveness of the individuation strategy as a liedetection tool. Finally, the qualitative study (Study 3) will explore perceptions held by law enforcementpersonnel regarding the use of the individuation strategy for collaborative recall in real-worldintelligence-gathering settings. Overall, the research aims to identify whether the pre-allocation of rolesand collective memory enhances the quantity and accuracy of information remembered by a group as awhole and improves lie detection abilities. Implications for crime prevention, covert teams, intelligencegathering,and security operations will be explored.