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.     

Professional assistance to legislators: The research branch of Canada's library of parliament

The extent of government involvement in public activity and the highly technical aspects of the issues arising in our legislatures, points to the need for expert assistance for lawmakers. In Canada, this need was addressed at the federal level by the establishment of a research service as a unit of the Parliamentary Library in 1965. This article gives an insight into the structure and variety of services provided by the 50 professionals of the research unit and the new directions it is taking in addressing the challenges in its work for Canada's two Houses of Parliament.     

Home advantage in southern hemisphere rugby union: national and international

This study evaluates home advantages both for national (Super 12) and international (Tri-nations) rugby union teams from South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, over the five-year period 2000 - 2004 using linear modelling. These home advantages are examined for statistical and practical significance, for variability between teams, for stability over time and for inter-correlation. These data reveal that the overall home advantage in elite rugby union has a mean of +6.7 points, and that this changes little from year to year. Closer scrutiny nevertheless reveals a high degree of variability. Different teams can and do have different home advantages, which ranges from a low of -0.7 to a high of +28.3 points in any one year. Furthermore, some team home advantages change up or down from one year to the next, by as much as -36.5 to +31.4 points at the extremes. There is no evidence that the stronger teams have the higher home advantages, or that a high home advantage leads to a superior finishing position in the competition.