Detecting deception: Current models and directions

Traditional procedures for detecting deception are based on the global-signs-of-lying model, with its assumption that certain universal, physiologically mediated signs result from attempts to deceive, independent of content. More recent attempts to detect deception can profitably be viewed from a cognitive rather than affective perspective: (a) in terms of accuracy of knowledge, in which a person's success at deception regarding a particular characteristic depends on the extent of his or her knowledge of that characteristic; and (b) in terms of attempts to personally influence the examiner. Such procedures have been successful in detecting simulation in psychopathology, amnesia, neurological disorders, pain, and other areas. They tend to be situation specific and to depend on empirically discovered differences between simulators and persons who possess the characteristic.