Mental Countermeasures Research Articles

The effects of mental countermeasures on psychophysiological memory detection: Facilitating orientation is easy, stopping inhibition is not.

The effects of mental countermeasures on psychophysiological memory detection: Facilitating orientation is easy, stopping inhibition is not.

The effect of mental countermeasures on a novel brain-based feedback concealed information test.

The feedback concealed information test (fCIT) is a novel form of the CIT, providing participants with feedback regarding their memory concealment performance. The fCIT utilizes event‐related potentials (recognition‐P300 and feedback‐related event‐related potentials) and has been shown to provide high efficiency in detecting information concealment. However, it is unclear how well the fCIT performs in the presence of mental countermeasures. To address this question, participants were trained to use countermeasures during fCIT. Results showed that the recognition‐P300 efficiency decreased when participants used countermeasures. However, the efficiencies of feedback‐related negativity and feedback‐P300 were unchanged, with feedback‐P300 still showing a high detection efficiency (AUC = 0.86) during countermeasures. These findings demonstrate the potential of fCIT for subverting countermeasures.

Children's Mental Health Problems and Countermeasures Analysis

Children's Mental Health Problems and Countermeasures Analysis

설문 기반 대응방안을 사용한 복합시행 프로토콜의 재평가

Traditional deception detection methods had examined the difference of one’s autonomic physiological responses through asking crime-related and crime-unrelated questions. There has been a continuing controversy regarding the accuracy and validity of the test, and thus, many researchers were motivated to explore and develop alternative efficient methods of detection in which one of them is known as P300-based Complex Trial Protocol (CTP). The P300-based CTP detects deception through comparing the P300 amplitudes between probe and irrelevant stimuli and is known as a counterstrategy of countermeasures. However, many previous studies have used countermeasures created from Rosenfeld et al.’s work (2008).The present study initially conducted a survey asking open-ended questions about the countermeasure use to acquire participant-oriented countermeasures for the main experiment. Then, the study aimed to evaluate whether the CTP can accurately detect deception even in the use of survey-based countermeasures. We firstly selected a set of participant-oriented countermeasures through survey questions. Then, a total of 50 participants were divided into three groups (innocent, guilty, and countermeasures) and performed the CTP. Those assigned to the countermeasures group covertly performed mental countermeasures during the CTP. The results of P300 amplitude analysis revealed that the guilty group’s P300 amplitude of probe stimuli was significantly larger than that of irrelevant stimuli. Countermeasures group also had a significantly larger P300 amplitude for probe stimuli compared to irrelevant stimuli, even in the use of countermeasures. The results of bootstrapped amplitude difference (BAD) showed a detection accuracy rate of 81.25%, 82.35%, 82.35% for the innocent, guilty, and countermeasures groups, respectively. These findings demonstrate that the CTP can obtain a high detection rate in participant-oriented countermeasures and suggest the potential use of the CTP in the

The effect of mental countermeasures on neuroimaging-based concealed information tests.

During the last decade and a half, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has been used to determine whether it is possible to detect concealed knowledge by examining brain activation patterns, with mixed results. Concealed information tests rely on the logic that a familiar item (probe) elicits a stronger response than unfamiliar, but otherwise comparable items (irrelevants). Previous work has shown that physical countermeasures can artificially modulate neural responses in concealed information tests, decreasing the accuracy of these methods. However, the question remains as to whether purely mental countermeasures, which are much more difficult to detect than physical ones, can also be effective. An fMRI study was conducted to address this question by assessing the effect of attentional countermeasures on the accuracy of the classification between knowledge and no-knowledge cases using both univariate and multivariate analyses. Results replicate previous work and show reliable group activation differences between the probe and the irrelevants in fronto-parietal networks. Critically, classification accuracy was generally reduced by the mental countermeasures, but only significantly so with region of interest analyses (both univariate and multivariate). For whole-brain analyses, classification accuracy was relatively low, but it was not significantly reduced by the countermeasures. These results indicate that mental countermeasure need to be addressed before these paradigms can be used in applied settings and that methods to defeat countermeasures, or at least to detect their use, need to be developed. HIGHLIGHTS: FMRI-based concealed information tests are vulnerable to mental countermeasures Measures based on regions of interest are affected by mental countermeasures Whole-brain analyses may be more robust than region of interest ones Methods to detect mental countermeasure use are needed for forensic applications.

The Mental Protection System for Protective Behaviors: The Social Brain and the Mental Immune System

The physical protection system of the body consists of the protective organs for vulnerable body parts-functions and the protective countermeasures against invaders (pathogens), but to survive, the body also requires the protective social groups for vulnerable social members-functions and the protective instinctive mental countermeasures against adversities such as hardship, danger, and unfamiliarity-uncertainty. As a result, this paper proposes that the mental protection system of the body consists of the social brain to set up the protective social groups for vulnerable social members-functions and the mental immune system to produce the protective mental countermeasures against adversities. This paper proposes that from the social brain, the protective social groups include alliance group for vulnerable individuals, kinship-friendship group for vulnerable children, interdependent specialists group for vulnerable pregnant females, territorial group for social boundary, connective group for social connection, and competitive group for social competition. From the mental immune system, the mental protective countermeasures include comforter against hardship, hyperactivity against danger, phobia against unfamiliarity-uncertainty, and rationality against unfamiliarity-uncertainty. The overactive mental immune system causes mental allergies and auto immune diseases as personality-mental disorders against ubiquitous harmful and harmless perceived adversities, correlating to physical allergies and auto immune diseases against ubiquitous harmful and harmless detected invaders. The mental protection system also produces personality traits, social moralities, social organizations, social systems, religions, and cultures as described in this paper. The mental protective system is the source of protective behaviors.

The effect of mental countermeasures on fMRI-based concealed information tests

The effect of mental countermeasures on fMRI-based concealed information tests

Influence of countermeasures on the validity of the Concealed Information Test.

The Concealed Information Test (CIT) is a psychophysiological technique that allows for detecting crime-related knowledge. Usually, autonomic response measures are used for this purpose, but ocular measures have also been proposed recently. Prior studies reported heterogeneous results for the usage of countermeasures (CM) to corrupt the CIT's validity, depending on the CM technique and the dependent measure. The current study systematically compared the application of physical and mental CM on autonomic and ocular measures during the CIT. Sixty participants committed a mock crime and were assigned to one of three guilty conditions: standard guilty (without CM), physical CM, or mental CM. An additional group of 20 innocents was investigated with the same CIT to calculate validity estimates. Electrodermal responses were more vulnerable for CM usage compared to heart rate and respiration, and physical CM were more effective than mental CM. Independent of CM usage, a combined score of autonomic responses enabled a valid differentiation between guilty and innocent examinees. Fixations and blinks also allowed for detecting crime-related knowledge, but these measures were more affected by CM application than autonomic responses. The current study delivered further evidence that CM differentially impact physiological and ocular responses in the CIT. Whereas individual data channels were strongly affected by CM usage, a combination of different response measures yielded a relatively stable differentiation of guilty and innocent examinees when mental CM were used. These findings are especially relevant for field applications and might inspire future studies to detect or prevent CM usage in CIT examinations.

New P300-based protocol to detect concealed information: Resistance to mental countermeasures against only half the irrelevant stimuli and a possible ERP indicator of countermeasures

Here, a rare probe or frequent irrelevant stimulus (S1) appeared in the first part of the trial, followed by either a target or nontarget (S2) in the second. Subjects randomly pressed one of five buttons to S1 to signal seeing it. Then they pressed one of two buttons for nontargets or targets. We tested three groups: simple guilty (SG), in which one stimulus was the subject's birth date (Probe); innocent (IN) in which all date stimuli were irrelevant; and Countermeasure (CM), like SG but subjects performed mental CMs to 2 of 4 irrelevants. Bootstrapped-based hit rates in the SG group=100%, based on probe versus all four averaged irrelevants (Iall), or based on probe versus RT-screened maximum irrelevant (Imax). In the IN group there was one false positive (8%, Probe vs. Iall) or none (0%, Probe vs. Imax). In the CM group, 100% were detected based on Probe versus Iall (92% based on Probe vs Imax). A new event-related potential at Fz and Cz at 900 ms indexed CM use.

Countering Countermeasures in the Concealed Information Test Using Covert Respiration Measures

The effects of physical and mental countermeasures on the accuracy of the concealed information test (CIT) were examined in a mock crime experiment with 64 participants. To combat countermeasures, two covert respiration measures, hidden in the seat and back of the examination chair, were used in addition to the standard physiological measures (SCR, FPWL, RLL). Some guilty participants were trained to use either physical or mental countermeasures and apply them to distort the outcomes of the CIT. In the second phase of the experiment participants were detached from the standard polygraph devices and examined solely with the two covert measures. Results indicated that physical countermeasures lowered SCR accuracy but had a relatively small effect on the other standard measures. On the other hand, SCR was relatively resistant to mental countermeasures. Both covert measures were resistant to physical countermeasures in the polygraph phase. When the standard devices were removed, the covert seat measure was effective in the no countermeasure and in the mental countermeasure conditions but not when physical countermeasures were applied. The back measure was entirely ineffective.

Psychophysiological detection through the guilty knowledge technique: Effect of mental countermeasures.

Psychophysiological detection through the guilty knowledge technique: Effect of mental countermeasures.

Mental and physical countermeasures reduce the accuracy of polygraph tests.

Mental and physical countermeasures reduce the accuracy of polygraph tests.

Effects of mental countermeasures on psychophysiological detection in the guilty knowledge test

This study focused on the effects of mental countermeasures on psychophysiological detection in a guilty knowledge paradigm. Two experiments which utilized a 3 X 2 between subjects factorial design were conducted. Two types of mental countermeasures (specific dissociations from the relevant stimulus and continuous dissociation throughout the entire test, as well as a control-no countermeasure condition were used). Each group was further subdivided into two conditions — a high attention condition created by motivational instructions and a deceptive verbal response to the relevant question; and a low attention condition in which no motivational instructions were provided and no verbal response was required. The results of both experiments (one was conducted in a field set up, and the other utilized more standard experimental equipment and measurement procedures) revealed the following pattern: the item-specific countermeasures tended to increase psychophysiological detection, whereas the continuous dissociations tended to decrease detection efficiencies. The pattern was consistent across attention conditions and experiments but it was stronger in the field experiment where overall detection efficiency was relatively high. In other respects the present results replicated previous findings and revealed a significant effect for the attention factor.