Instructions

This assignment is to propose a new psychophysiology approach to detecting lies.

1. Briefly explain how traditional lie detection works.
2. Propose a new form of lie detection that uses one of the psychophysiology measures described in the assigned reading. Explain how it will work. IMPORTANT: The measurement must be one that is described in the assigned reading. Heart rate measurement, for example, is an old technology that does not qualify. We are trying to invent something new that goes beyond traditional technologies.
3. Why will this new approach work better than classic lie detection? You might want to consider temporal or spatial resolution.
4. What would be the disadvantages of your new approach?
5. Has anyone already tried your proposed approach? Search scholar.google.com or Galileo to see if someone has tried it. What did they find?
6. What would be an acceptable rate of false positives and false negatives in your technology? Justify why you think this is appropriate.
7. End with a conclusion about how optimistic or pessimistic you are about this new approach compared to traditional lie detection.

An important part of this assignment concerns the dependent variables (measured outcomes). Classic lie detection tests were based upon measuring heart rate, blood pressure, and respiration rates. Perhaps lie detection would work better if it was based upon a more sophisticated neuroscientific measurement, such as EEG, fMRI, or others.