Department of Behavioural and Social Sciences, The City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Department of Early Childhood Education, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Brain Behav. 2023 Jun;13(6):e3021. doi: 10.1002/brb3.3021. Epub 2023 Apr 19.
This study investigates P300 as a component for false belief and false statement processing with and without a communicative context. The purpose is to understand why P300 has been shown to be commonly involved in false belief and lie processing.
Participants were presented with a story in which the protagonist holds a true belief and makes a true statement of it (true belief), holds a false belief and makes a true statement (false belief), or holds a true belief and makes a false statement (false statement) while electroencephalograms were recorded.
In Experiment 1, featuring a solitary protagonist, stronger posterior P300 was shown in the false belief condition than the true belief and false statement condition. With the installation of a communicative context by including a second character listening to the protagonist, Experiment 2 showed enhanced frontal P300 in the false statement condition compared to the true belief and false belief condition. A late slow wave was more prominent in the false belief condition than in the other two conditions in Experiment 2.
The present results suggest a situation-dependent nature of P300. The signal captures the discrepancy between belief and reality more readily than that between belief and words under a noncommunicative context. It becomes more sensitive to the discrepancy between belief and words than that between belief and reality in a communicative situation with an audience, which makes any false statement practically a lie.
本研究考察了 P300 在有和没有交际语境的情况下，对虚假信念和虚假陈述处理的作用。目的是理解为什么 P300 被证明普遍涉及虚假信念和谎言处理。
参与者被呈现一个故事，其中主角持有真实的信念并做出真实的陈述（真实信念），持有虚假的信念并做出真实的陈述（虚假信念），或者持有真实的信念并做出虚假的陈述（虚假陈述），同时记录脑电图。
在仅包含一个主角的实验 1 中，与真实信念和虚假陈述条件相比，虚假信念条件下的后 P300 更强。在包含一个倾听主角的第二个角色的交际语境下进行的实验 2 显示，与真实信念和虚假信念条件相比，虚假陈述条件下的额 P300 增强。与其他两个条件相比，实验 2 中的虚假信念条件下的晚期慢波更为明显。
本研究结果表明 P300 具有情境依赖性。在非交际语境下，信号更容易捕捉到信念和现实之间的差异，而不是信念和言语之间的差异。在有听众的交际情境下，它对信念和言语之间的差异变得更加敏感，从而使任何虚假陈述实际上都是谎言。
