Psychology 2990A/B Chapter Notes - Chapter Porter et al: Psych, Forensic Psychiatry, Reid Technique
27 May 2018
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Department
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Psych 2990
May 14-18, 2018
Porter et al, Truth, Lies, and Videotape: An Investigation of the Ability of Federal Parole
Officers to Detect Deception
- The honesty of reports offered by offenders concerning their current offense, degree of
remorse, level of rehabilitation, and plans for life in the community must all be assessed
to inform and guide parole decision making
- Decisions that could potentially lead to such errors are based in part on the perceived
credibility of the offender in the parole interview
- Remarkably, no empirical studies have examined directly the ability of parole officers to
detect deceit
- Nonetheless, research by Ruback and colleagues has investigated interview factors
contributing to parole decision making.
o Ruback (1981) found that the recommendations of parole officers were based on
oth thei iitial eoedatio fo the eie of the offedes file ad o
their perception of the offedes hoesty duig the iteie.
o Offenders were rated as being less honest if they smiled less, gestured less, and
gave shorter answers during the interview
o Results indicated that their honesty ratings were influenced by the severity of
the index offense, the amount of information volunteered by the offender, the
politeess of the offede, ad the leel of fidgetig duig the iteie
- There also is other less direct evidence to suggest that parole officers may experience
difficulty in identifying lies
o I a lassi study, Eka ad OSullia 11 foud that ustos offiials,
police officers, judges, FBI agents, forensic psychiatrists, and other groups were
no better than chance at judging the honesty of videotaped speakers
o Given the relevance of detecting lies to parole decision making, it may be
surprising that the training parole officers receive rarely (at least in Canada)
addresses the need to detect deception or examines whether credibility
judgments can be facilitated
o Bull (1989) observed that many police training manuals imply that detecting
deceit from behavioral clues is a straightforward task and that police training
readily enhances detection skills
o In support of this contention, Kassin and Fong (1999) found that research
participants who had been trained in a widely used traditional police
iteogatio tehiue the ‘eid Tehiue pefoed sigifiatly worse in
identifying deception in videotaped mock interrogations than their untrained
counterparts
- DePaulo and Pfeifer (1986) found that experienced police officers, new police recruits,
and university undergraduates did not differ in their detection ability. However, senior
officers reported being more confident in their decisions
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Document Summary
Porter et al, (cid:862)truth, lies, and videotape: an investigation of the ability of federal parole. The honesty of reports offered by offenders concerning their current offense, degree of remorse, level of rehabilitation, and plans for life in the community must all be assessed to inform and guide parole decision making. Decisions that could potentially lead to such errors are based in part on the perceived credibility of the offender in the parole interview. Remarkably, no empirical studies have examined directly the ability of parole officers to detect deceit. There also is other less direct evidence to suggest that parole officers may experience difficulty in identifying lies. Depaulo and pfeifer (1986) found that experienced police officers, new police recruits, and university undergraduates did not differ in their detection ability. However, senior officers reported being more confident in their decisions. In terms of nonverbal behavior, work by ekman and colleagues (see ekman,
