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The Reciprocal Nature of Lying and Memory: Memory Confabulation and Diagnostic Cues to Deception

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Abstract

The ability to deceive others relies on the use of cognitive processes to construct a believable falsehood and maintain that lie over time. In this chapter, we discuss research that documents how the act of lying can influence the content of liars’ memories for the occasions when they lied and memories of the original experience. In addition, we describe how an understanding of memory processes can be a tool for uncovering deception. For instance, the content of memories of actual and fabricated events differ in characteristic ways, and people can be trained to utilize these features to discriminate between them. Furthermore, it is possible to magnify differences in the reports of liars and truth-tellers to increase detection. Memory can play a critical role in catching liars.

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Correspondence to Rachel E. Dianiska .

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Dianiska, R.E., Cash, D.K., Lane, S.M., Meissner, C.A. (2019). The Reciprocal Nature of Lying and Memory: Memory Confabulation and Diagnostic Cues to Deception. In: Docan-Morgan, T. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Deceptive Communication. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96334-1_18

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