The Concealed Information Test -- Utilizing P300 data to deter-mine the presence of crime-related information in a suspect's memory
Julia Knappe, Markus Ullsperger, Hans Kirschner · 2024
The Concealed Information Test (CIT) is frequently used to determine the presence of crime-related information in a suspect’s memory. In this paper, we conducted a meta-analysis to test the validity of the CIT to differentiate between guilty and innocent individuals based on ampli-tude differences of the P300 component of the event-related potential. We included experimental studies that used either the mock-crime paradigm or the personal-item paradigm. The results show a large mean effect size (d*) of 1.70 for the P300. Moderation analysis showed that P300 effects in CIT are affected by the choice of paradigm (personal item vs. mock-crime paradigm), the chosen trial protocol (complex vs. original) and the likelihood of subjects to employ coun-termeasures. Based on our findings, we conclude that the P300 is useful to determine the pres-ence of crime-related information and that people interesting in using the CIT should use the mock-crime paradigm with the complex trial protocol.