Osugi Akemi, Ohira Hideki
Forensic Science Laboratory, Kobe, Japan.
Department of Psychology, Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan.
Front Psychol. 2018 Jan 10;8:2334. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02334. eCollection 2017.
Previous studies have reported that the concealed information test (CIT) is a reliable and powerful method for detecting information. However, the external validity of the CIT studies has not been fully proven. In particular, few studies have examined the effects of emotional arousal at memory encoding on physiological responses in the CIT. The present study investigated the influence on the CIT of the magnitude of emotional arousal at memory encoding of a mock crime, using the P300 component of the event-related brain potential (ERP). In accord with the assumptions of excitation-transfer theory, we presented emotionally arousing pictures before a mock crime. Participants were randomly assigned to either a high emotional arousal group ( = 10) or a low emotional arousal group ( = 11), viewing pictures expected to arouse emotion at a high or low level, respectively. Subsequently, all participants enacted the same mock crime, in which they were instructed to stab a pillow with a sharp-edged tool (e.g., a kitchen knife or ice pick) as if harassing a mannequin lying on a bed. After the antecedent emotional experience, the P300-based CIT was conducted. Participants in the high arousal group showed significantly greater P300 amplitudes in response to a probe stimulus compared with the low arousal group. No differences were found between the groups in response to irrelevant stimuli. These results support the notion that emotional arousal influences the P300 in the CIT paradigm.
以往的研究报告称，隐蔽信息测试（CIT）是一种可靠且强大的信息检测方法。然而，CIT研究的外部效度尚未得到充分证实。特别是，很少有研究考察记忆编码时的情绪唤醒对CIT中生理反应的影响。本研究使用事件相关脑电位（ERP）的P300成分，调查了模拟犯罪记忆编码时情绪唤醒强度对CIT的影响。根据兴奋转移理论的假设，我们在模拟犯罪前呈现了引发情绪的图片。参与者被随机分为高情绪唤醒组（n = 10）或低情绪唤醒组（n = 11），分别观看预期会引发高或低水平情绪的图片。随后，所有参与者实施相同的模拟犯罪，他们被指示用利器（如菜刀或冰锥）刺一个枕头，就好像在骚扰躺在床上的人体模型。在经历了先前的情绪体验后，进行基于P300的CIT。与低唤醒组相比，高唤醒组的参与者对探测刺激的P300波幅显著更大。两组对无关刺激的反应没有差异。这些结果支持了情绪唤醒会影响CIT范式中P300的观点。
