Institute of Psychology, University of Bonn, 53111 Bonn, Germany.
Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2020 Oct 8;15(8):839-848. doi: 10.1093/scan/nsaa107.
Event-related potential (ERP) studies about deception often apply recognition tasks. It remains questionable whether reported ERP patterns and cognitive processes can be generalized to other contexts. As the study by Johnson et al. (2008) fills this gap by investigating deception regarding attitudes, we tried to replicate it. Participants (N = 99) were instructed to lie or tell the truth about their attitudes. We obtained the same results as Johnson et al. (2008): lies were accompanied by enhanced medial frontal negativities (MFN) and suppressed late positive components (LPCs) indicating that lying relied on stronger cognitive control processes and response conflicts than being honest. The amplitudes of pre-response positivities (PRP) were reduced for lies implying that lies about attitudes were accompanied by strategic monitoring. MFN amplitudes increased and LPC amplitudes decreased for lies about positively valued items revealing that lying about positively valued items is cognitively more challenging than lying about negatively valued items. As a new finding, MFN, LPC and PRP components were neither moderated by Machiavellianism nor by changes in the attitude ratings. The results indicate that LPC, MFN and PRP components are reliable indicators of the cognitive processes used during deception and that it is worthwhile to investigate them in further deception contexts.
事件相关电位（ERP）研究经常涉及欺骗，通常采用识别任务。然而，报告的 ERP 模式和认知过程是否可以推广到其他情境仍然存在疑问。由于 Johnson 等人（2008 年）的研究填补了这一空白，他们研究了关于态度的欺骗，因此我们试图对其进行复制。参与者（N=99）被指示就其态度说谎或说实话。我们得到了与 Johnson 等人（2008 年）相同的结果：说谎伴随着内侧额负波（MFN）增强和晚期正成分（LPC）抑制，表明说谎比诚实更依赖于更强的认知控制过程和反应冲突。说谎时的预反应正波（PRP）幅度减小，表明关于态度的谎言伴随着策略性监测。对于涉及积极评价项目的谎言，MFN 幅度增加，LPC 幅度减小，这表明关于积极评价项目的谎言比关于消极评价项目的谎言在认知上更具挑战性。作为一个新的发现，MFN、LPC 和 PRP 成分既不受马基雅维利主义的调节，也不受态度评价变化的调节。这些结果表明，LPC、MFN 和 PRP 成分是欺骗过程中使用的认知过程的可靠指标，值得进一步研究欺骗情境。
