Journal of Forensic Research

Department of Psychology, Portland State University, Portland, USA

Publications

• Research Article   
  Catching Liars in Psychological Evaluations of Criminal Defendants: Comparing Direct vs. Indirect Assessment of Truthfulness
  Author(s): Shawn Adair Johnston*, Gabriel Johnston, Alexis Candelier and Dana Powers-Green
  
  This research examines the two-fold question of why people are so poor at detecting deception and why the indirect assessment of veracity may be more accurate than direct assessment. Four statements made by criminal defendants, two true and two deceptive, were rated by participants on a nine item test of veracity. Eight of the items were derived from Criterion-Based Content Analysis and Reality Monitoring, two techniques of verbal content analysis that exhibit good reliability. Scores on these eight items represented the indirect measure of truthfulness while a ninth item, the direct measure, asked participants to rate the overall truthfulness of each statement. Results indicated that the indirect assessment of truthfulness accurately classified a higher percentage of the statements made by the criminal defendants than the direct assessment while also accounting for more of t.. Read More»
  

  Abstract PDF