Investigating the use of immediate cued recall to increase discriminability between truth-tellers and liars

Reality Monitoring (RM) is a useful approach for lie detection, but interview delays can reduce its effectiveness. This study examined whether eliciting an immediate recall could improve discrimination between truth-tellers and liars. Participants (n = 139) either witnessed or lied about witnessing a mock theft and were assigned to one of three immediate recall conditions: cued recall (ICR), free recall (FR), or no recall (control). One week later, all provided delayed statements. For the immediate recall accounts, RM scores did not distinguish truth-tellers from liars; however, both groups scored higher for ICR than FR. For delayed accounts, truth-tellers had greater total RM scores compared to liars in the ICR group. That is, the initial benefit afforded to liars' RM scores in the immediate accounts did not appear to translate to liars' RM scores for delayed accounts.