Self‐reported cues about deceptive and truthful communication: The effects of cognitive capacity and communicator veracity

One hundred four students watched a videotape of six communicators (three liars and three truthtellers) and were asked to judge the veracity of the strangers’ communication. In addition to judging deception, students reported which cites guided their veridical judgments. To limit their available cognitive capacity one‐half of the participants were given an additional cognitive task to complete (counting backwards from a number by 7) while viewing the videotapes. Results indicated that lie detectors with limited cognitive capacity reported using more vocal cues and fewer verbal cues than lie detectors whose cognitive capacity was not manipulated. Lie detectors with limited capacity were more accurate at catching liars and reported fewer truthful judgments than lie detectors in the high capacity condition. Overall, lie detectors reported using primarily demeanor cues and visual cues to distinguish truths from lies. Results also indicated that lie detectors’ beliefs about deception differed as a function of the communicators’ veracity. Specifically, when judging truthful communicators, lie detectors reported using fewer vocal cues and demeanor cues while relying on a greater number of verbal and visual cues as compared to lie detectors judging deceptive communicators.     

The Interplay of Scientific Activity, Worldviews and Value Outlooks

Scientific activity tends to reflect particular worldviews and their associated value outlooks; and scientific results sometimes have implications for worldviews and the presuppositions of value outlooks. Even so, scientific activity per se neither presupposes nor provides sound rational grounds to accept any worldview or value outlook. Moreover, in virtue of reflecting a suitable variety of worldviews and value outlooks, perhaps including some religious ones, science is better able to further its aim. An extended argument is made that, although the materialist worldview has de facto been widely associated with the development of modern science, the scope of scientific inquiry is improperly limited when constraints, derived from materialism, are generally placed upon admissible scientific theories. Some implications for science education are sketched in the conclusion.