The role of individual features of memory and impulsiveness in telling a true or false story in a realistic, clear, and reconstructible way

Abstract

ObjectiveThe aim of the present study was to explore whether there was an interaction effect between such personal aspects and veracity on realism, clarity, and reconstructability of the story.MethodsA total of 158 participants took part in the experiment and were asked to tell a truth and a lie during an interview (veracity condition). They filled in a questionnaire measuring their metamemory performance and their level of functional and dysfunctional impulsivity. A k-means cluster analysis on metamemory and impulsivity was conducted, and three clusters were obtained: controlled-memory inefficient, controlled-memory efficient, and impulsive-average memory.ResultsThe results showed that participants scored higher on all three reality monitoring criteria when telling the truth than when lying. Further, a cluster membership by veracity interaction for realism was also significant, but when telling the truth, there was no difference between clusters in terms of realism used in the explanation. Follow-up analyses showed that, when lying, the level of realism in the story was significantly higher for people belonging to the cluster “impulsive-average memory” than for people belonging to the cluster “controlled-memory efficient”, a result that seems to indicate that people with good memory and can control dysfunctional impulsivity have more difficulties when lying.ConclusionsResearch has shown that realism, clarity, and reconstructability of the story, all part of reality monitoring, can be useful to assess veracity. Generally, truth tellers obtain higher scores on all three variables than liars, but there is some variability across individuals owing to their personal characteristics. Metamemory and impulsivity also play a role in deception. From the implications of the results, the limitations of the study and suggestions for future research are also provided.