THE LESS TRAVELED ROAD TO TRUTH - VERBAL CUES IN DECEPTION DETECTION IN ACCOUNTS OF FABRICATED AND SELF-EXPERIENCED EVENTS

In evaluating the truthfulness of children's allegations of (sexual) a buse, German forensic experts have focused on qualitative aspects of t he content of a witness's statement. Within the overall credibility as sessment of a witness's statement, known as statement validity analysi s (SVA), they have developed a technique referred to as criterion-base d content analysis (CBCA), which utilizes content criteria that suppos edly are indicative of the truthfulness of a statement. While first va lidation studies of CBCA criteria have been undertaken, a theoretical basis of why and under what circumstances deceptive and truthful accou nts should differ with respect to these criteria has been wanting. The reality monitoring (RM) approach is proposed as a theoretical basis f or discriminating between fabricated and self-experienced events. The present experiment links forensic CBCA credibility criteria to the rea lity monitoring approach and tests the relative validity of CBCA and R M criteria in discriminating between fabricated and self-experienced v ideo recorded accounts of adult participants. Transcripts rated for th e presence of CBCA and RM criteria by trained experts could be classif ied in an above-chance fashion. On the basis of a factor analysis of C BCA and RM criteria, commonalities and differences between the two app roaches are noted. (C) 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.