Credibility Assessment of Verbatim Statements (CAVS)
Abstract
We examined the possibility of detecting deception with a statement analysis technique that we called-Credibility Analysis of Verbatim Statements (CAVS). Twenty-six subjects were interviewed about their work history by an experienced interviewer. Subject were previously instructed to tell one true story about a job that they had held and to tell one false story about a fictitious job. Subject were motivated to tell convincing lies by the offer of a monetary reward if they fooled the interviewer with their false statement. The interviewer was no better than chance at discriminating the true and false statements and was correct with only 13 of the 26 subjects. The subject's interviews were videotaped and were then transcribed. Fifteen Content and eleven Structural criteria were then scored in the statements by trained evaluators who had reference only to the transcripts. The data were analyzed with discriminant analysis and logistic regression. Logistic regression proved to be the more powerful approach. The results of this study suggest that CAVS can be a very powerful tool for assessing the credibility of statements made by adults. The within-subjects discriminations were particularly powerful. Given the need for flexible and effective credibility assessment in the national security system, we believe that CAVS is a good candidate for application and deserving of additional research and development.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 15, 1993
- Accession Number
- ADA271575
Entities
People
- Charles R Honts
- Mary K. Devitt
Organizations
- University of North Dakota