Name: an experimental analysis of children's ability to provide a false report about a crime
Uploaded: 2016-05-03T10:00:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about An Experimental Analysis of Children's Ability to Provide a False Report about a Crime at JoVE.com

This research was supported in part by a grant from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council. Also, a special thank you to the many families who participated in this study, and the volunteers and research staff who helped with the data collection.

NOTE: The following protocol was developed in accordance with the ethical standards approved by the McGill University Research Ethics Board. For all studies with children and involving deception, it is required to obtain Ethics Approval from the university or institution. Please note that different Ethics Boards may have different requirements.
1. Preparation for the Experiment
<ol>
	<li>Instruct E1 to memorize the necessary dialogue for each experimental condition (Appendix B), and E2 should become familiar wit...

The current methodology is designed to provide researchers with an ecologically valid method for evaluating different types of children&#39;s true and false reports. The representative findings suggest that the current methodology can encourage children to provide both false denials and false accusations about a high-cost event. In comparison to past studies that only examined children&#39;s false denials after witnessing a low-cost event (e.g., breaking a toy) 8, 9, 12, the current study can produce ...

The primary goal of the present study is to provide an ecologically valid method for evaluating children&#39;s true and false testimonies in an experimental setting. Children&#39;s intentional false reports in police and forensic interviews have lowered the public&#39;s trust in the validity of child testimonies because of the potential negative consequences to the accused, accuser and criminal justice system3-6. A considerable amount of research has evaluated children&#39;s ability to falsely deny an event or transgression to protect someone7-12, yet considerably less is known about children&#39;s abilities to make a false accusation13-14. Even though children do make false denials and/or purposefully omit information in their testimonies, there have also been numerous real-life cases of children being persuaded to falsely accuse someone of committing a transgression, such as false allegations of abuse in custody battles5, 15-18. By having children willingly produce false denials and false accusations in an experimental setting, the current research methodology is designed to provide a stronger understanding of the types of false reports children can tell in their eyewitness testimonies.
Previous lie-telling research with children has generally involved a low-cost situation, whereby they were telling a lie about a non-threatening event, such as a broken toy9, 12, 14. Children who provide testimonies to police officers or forensic interviewers often disclose information about a high cost-event, such as witnessing a crime or experiencing abuse. Being asked to recall information about a non-threatening event may not promote deceitful behaviors in the same manner as when children actually witness a serious transgression or crime. For instance, children who witness a crime may experience symptoms of post-traumatic stress19-20; thus, they are often reluctant to discuss their potentially traumatic experience(s) with others21-22. To improve the understanding of children&#39;s ability to generate false reports in situations where they are asked to provide a testimony, the present study has children tell a truth or lie about an alleged theft that they may (or may not) have witnessed.
Past experimental research on children&#39;s lie-telling skills has typically used three-to-four follow-up questions to evaluate whether children&#39;s initial false claims were maintained throughout the interview10-11, 23-25. In addition, many of these interview protocols have relied on closed-ended questions where a child had to provide one-word responses, such as &#34;Yes&#34; or &#34;No&#34;. Although such methodology does provide some insight into children&#39;s deceptive capabilities, the findings may not generalize to real-life settings where child witnesses are being questioned about an event. When providing a testimony to police officers or forensic interviewers, children often have to answer many questions that require them to provide both closed and open-ended responses; therefore, if a child is telling a lie, they will have to maintain it over multiple types of follow-up questions. To address this limitation, the present study will use a lengthier interview method to assess children&#39;s lie-telling skills, and the characteristics of their testimonies. The interview protocol is influenced by the Cognitive Interview (CI) and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) protocol, which are ecologically valid police interview techniques that are used for increasing the amount of information obtained from an eyewitness26-30. Rather than relying on a few closed-ended questions, the interview consists of two baselines, three open-ended, and seven closed-ended questions (refer to Appendix A). The larger number and variety of questions permits for the examination of age, gender and experimental condition-based differences in the length and types of information children are willing to disclose in their testimonies.
In order to appear convincing, lie-tellers often have to simultaneously manage their verbal and non-verbal behaviors, and assess the mental state of the lie-recipient10, 31-32. However, when interview questions require increased cognitive effort from the responder, lie-tellers are more likely than truth-tellers to make noticeable errors throughout their testimony33-34. Moreover, increasing the mental effort required by the responder actually discourages lie-telling35, as the cognitive load of telling a lie and responding convincingly to challenging and unexpected questions can be too cognitively taxing for some34, 36. For these reasons, police and forensic interviewers have been encouraged to use open-ended questions and prompts, such as those in the Cognitive Interview, to increase the cognitive effort required by the interviewee33-34, 35. In addition, these types of questions give honest responders multiple opportunities to elaborate on the information they previously disclosed, which can lead to more detailed and accurate testimonies30, 38-39. The current methodology can therefore provide data on children&#39;s true and false testimonies when they are asked generalizable interview questions and prompts that are intended to increase the cognitive load of the responder, and the amount of information they are willing to disclose about an event.
To overcome limitations with past studies, the current research methodology utilizes four-experimental conditions to evaluate the different types of true and false reports children are willing to provide regarding an alleged theft. In this study, children (ages 6-11) will witness an instigator (E1) discover a stranger&#39;s wallet with twenty dollars in it. Children are then asked by E1 to lie to an interviewer (E2) by either falsely denying a theft that occurred (False Denial condition), or by falsely accusing E1 of a theft that did not take place (False Accusation condition). In addition, some children will be asked to tell the truth about a theft that did (True Accusation condition) or did not take place (True Denial condition). Children are then to be interviewed by a second researcher (E2) about the events that took place with E1. The interview is to be videotaped, and later transcribed into written transcripts. Coders then record the number of words and wallet-related details disclosed by the children on the open-ended questions; responses on the closed-ended questions are used to evaluate children&#39;s ability to maintain their true and false reports.

<table>
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>Testing Room</td>
			<td>N/A</td>
			<td>N/A</td>
			<td>The room where the rapport-building activities and theft occur. The room should have at least two chairs and two tables. One table will be used for the rapport-building activities and interactions between the instigator (E1) and the child participant. The second table will have the jacket and wallet placed on it. Other items, such as books, a labtop, flowers and office items can be placed on the second table to conceal the wallet.&#160;&#160;&#160;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Common Room</td>
			<td>N/A</td>
			<td>N/A</td>
			<td>Parents and other family members will remain in this room for the duration of the study. Comfortable chairs, a table, magazines, and age-appropriate toys will make the overall study experience more enjoyable for the family.&#160;&#160;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Interview Room</td>
			<td>N/A</td>
			<td>N/A</td>
			<td>The room that will be used to interview the children. The room should have a table, two-chairs, and hidden cameras to record the interview.&#160;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Consent Form</td>
			<td>N/A</td>
			<td>N/A</td>
			<td>Form that the parents compete prior to beginning the study. It should include a detailed explanation of the study, along with all the ethics considerations. Parents should sign this form before commencing the activities with the child.&#160;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Demographics Form</td>
			<td>N/A</td>
			<td>N/A</td>
			<td>A form that that provides any demographic information that is needed for the study, such as the race, income, religious background, and level of education of the family.&#160;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Rapport-building Activities</td>
			<td>N/A</td>
			<td>N/A</td>
			<td>Age-appropriate games and cognitive measures, such as a standardized verbal ability task. The rapport-building activities should take between 30 to 40 minutes.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Jacket</td>
			<td>N/A</td>
			<td>N/A</td>
			<td>A jacket that would realistically be worn according to the weather outside.&#160;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Wallet</td>
			<td>N/A</td>
			<td>N/A</td>
			<td>A gender-neutral wallet that includes fake identification cards, such as an old bus pass, and a twenty-dollar bill.&#160;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Puzzle</td>
			<td>N/A</td>
			<td>N/A</td>
			<td>A child-friendly puzzle that can be completed in 5 to 10 minutes. The current study utilized a puzzle that included 30 pieces.&#160;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Interview Script</td>
			<td>N/A</td>
			<td>N/A</td>
			<td>The interview script used in the current study.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Hidden Cameras</td>
			<td>N/A</td>
			<td>N/A</td>
			<td>Any camera that can easily be hidden from the child participants. The camera(s) should also be able to record individual HD videos for at least 30 minutes.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Word Processing Program</td>
			<td>N/A</td>
			<td>N/A</td>
			<td>Any word processing program that can be used to transcribe the videos. This program should also be able to count the number of words in a document.&#160;&#160;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Statistical Analysis Program</td>
			<td>N/A</td>
			<td>N/A</td>
			<td>Any statistical analysis program that can perform chi-square or logistic regressions for children&#8217;s willingness to lie data, and linear regressions on children&#8217;s maintenance scores.&#160;</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

an experimental analysis of children's ability to provide a false report about a crime

A considerable amount of research has evaluated children's lie-telling behaviors and skills1-2; however, limitations with the tasks used for eliciting false testimonies and interviewing children have restricted the generalizability of the findings. The primary aim of the current study is to provide an easy-to-administer and ecologically valid method for measuring the veracity and quality of school-aged children's (ages 6-11) testimonies when they are asked to provide different types of true and false reports. Moreover, the methodology enables researchers to examine the social and developmental factors that could influence the credibility of a child's testimony. In the current study, children will witness a theft, and are then asked to either falsely deny the transgression, falsely accuse a researcher of the theft, or tell the truth. Afterwards, children are to be interviewed by a second researcher using a thorough and ecologically valid interview protocol that requires children to provide closed-ended and free-recall responses about the events with the instigator (E1). Coders then evaluate the length and number of theft-related details the children give throughout the interview, as well as their ability to maintain their true and false reports. The representative results indicate that the truth and lie-telling conditions elicit the intended behaviors from the children. The open-ended interview questions encouraged children to provide free-recall information about their experiences with E1. Moreover, findings from the closed-ended questions suggest that children are significantly better at maintaining their lies with age, and when producing a false denial compared to a false accusation. Results from the current study can be used to develop a greater understanding of the characteristics of children's true and false testimonies about crime, which can potentially benefit law enforcement, legal staff and professionals who interview children.

Patterns of Lie-telling Behavior
Figure 1 shows the rate of children&#39;s lie-telling behavior in each experimental condition. As reported in Wyman, Taieb-Lachance, Foster, Crossman and Talwar (under review), child participants were more willing to tell a lie in the lie-telling conditions compared to the truth-conditions; however, no differences were found in the percentage of lie-tellers in the FD and FA condi...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about An Experimental Analysis of Children's Ability to Provide a False Report about a Crime at JoVE.com

An Experimental Analysis of Children&#039;s Ability to Provide a False Report about a Crime

The current methodology is designed to provide an ecologically relevant approach for measuring the veracity, length and quality of children's true and false testimonies. Implications of the current methodology for future research and professionals who interview children will also be discussed.

An Experimental Analysis of Children's Ability to Provide a False Report about a Crime

A considerable amount of research has evaluated children's lie-telling behaviors and skills1-2; however, limitations with the tasks used for eliciting ...

The overall goal of this study is to provide an ecologically valid method for evaluating children's true and false testimonies in an experimental setting. This method can answer key questions in the forensic psychology field such as how and why children produce false reports about crimes they witness. The main advantage of this technique is that it can produce generalizable information about child testimonies, as participants will witness a high-cost event before telling different true and false reports when being questioned using an empirically supported interview structure.Begin by placing the necessary materials for the filler activities in the testing room. Put 20 and fake identification cards such as an old bus pass inside a wallet to give the participant the impression that the wallet belongs to someone else. Then, hide the wallet in a concealed location in the testing room, such as behind a flower pot on a table.Place a jacket near the wallet to be retrieved by the instigator immediately prior to the theft situation. Put a testing in progress sign on the door of the testing room to avoid disturbances. Assign each child participant to one of four experimental conditions.For the false denial condition, take the money from the wallet, but ask the children to falsely deny the theft to the interviewer by saying that the instigator did not take the money. For the false accusation condition, have children witness the instigator leave the money in the wallet, but ask them to tell a lie to the interviewer by falsely accusing the instigator of taking the money. For the true denial condition, do not take the money from the wallet and ask the children to truthfully deny the theft to the interviewer.Lastly, for the true accusation condition, have the child witness the instigator take the money from the wallet and ask them to truthfully accuse the instigator of taking the money. Next, bring the legal guardians of the child into a common room, and ask them to complete a consent form that explains the procedures and purpose of the research. After the guardians have completed the paperwork, escort the child participant to the testing room.In the testing room, inform the child that they will engage in some games and that they are free to stop the study at any time if they feel uncomfortable or upset. After the child provides verbal assent that they understand the instructions of the study, begin the filler activities in order to help build rapport between the instigator and the child, as well as to disguise the true nature of the study. After completing the filler activities, have the instigator grab their jacket before going with the child to the interview room.Locate the wallet behind the flower pot on the table. Open the wallet and notify the child that the wallet belongs to another researcher. Remove 20 dollars from the wallet and depending on the condition the child is placed in, either take the money or place it back in the wallet.Then, place the wallet back in its original position. Leave the jacket in the testing room and take the child to the interview room. Use an interview room that has a table with two chairs facing each other.In this room, have the interviewer greet the instigator and the child. After the instigator introduces the child to the interviewer, have the instigator state that they forgot their jacket in the testing room. At this time, the interviewer indicates that they forgot their clipboard with the interview questions in the same room as well.Right before the instigator leaves the room, have them instruct the child to complete a filler activity, while both the interviewer and the instigator go to the testing room to get the questions. After two minutes, have the instigator return to the interview room without the interviewer. During this time, ask the child to tell a truth or a lie about the wallet situation based on one of the four experimental conditions that the child has previously been placed in.Then, have the instigator leave the room. Finally, one minute after the instigator leaves the room, instruct the interviewer to return and interview the child about the events with the instigator. Begin the interview with two baseline questions, in order to build rapport between the interviewer and the child as well as to provide baseline data regarding each child's verbal ability to disclose information.Ask one free recall question immediately after the baseline questions. The second free recall question should be asked at the end of the interview. Then, ask the child to describe everything they remembered from their time with the instigator, but in reverse order.Finally, after completing the interview, bring the child into the common room. Have the instigator and the interviewer debrief the child about the deceptive nature of the study and tell them that the theft was pretend and did not actually occur. Children are more willing to tell a lie in the lie telling conditions compared to the truth conditions in which children's ability to maintain the lies improves significantly with age.The present study utilized an interview structure that encouraged detailed disclosures by using free recall questions and a reverse order question. Although children provided the longest disclosure with the most event details on the first free recall question, the reverse order and second free recall questions encouraged children to provide longer responses and more specific event details about the alleged theft. Once mastered, this technique can be done in 90 to 120 minutes if it's performed properly.While attempting this procedure, it's important to remember that even though children will experience a high-cost event that may cause some discomfort, the current paradigm is not designed to cause serious distress that corresponds to real-life situations children testify about. Following this procedure, researchers can make modifications to the paradigm, such as questionnaires or debrief interviews at the end of the study to better understand children's reasoning for their behaviors during the study as well as their reflections on the interview process. After watching this video, you should have a good understanding of how to design and implement a generalizable experimental study that is designed to investigate how and why children produce false disclosures in investigative interviews.

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Research

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Behavior

Measurement of Fronto-limbic Activity Using an Emotional Oddball Task in Children with Familial High Risk for Schizophrenia

Adolescence is a critical developmental period where the early symptoms of schizophrenia frequently emerge. First-degree relatives of people with schizophrenia who are at familial high risk (FHR) may show similar cognitive and emotional changes. However, the neurological changes underlying the emergence of these symptoms remain unclear. This study sought to identify differences in frontal, striatal, and limbic regions in children and adolescents with FHR using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Groups of 21 children and adolescents at FHR and 21 healthy controls completed an emotional oddball task that relied on selective attention and the suppression of task-irrelevant emotional information. The standard oddball task was modified to include aversive and neutral distractors in order to examine potential group differences in both emotional and executive processing. This task was designed specifically to allow for children and adolescents to complete by keeping the difficulty and emotional image content age-appropriate. Furthermore, we demonstrate a technique for suitable fMRI registration for children and adolescent participants. This paradigm may also be applied in future studies to measure changes in neural activity in other populations with hypothesized developmental changes in executive and emotional processing.

This paper describes how to use the emotional oddball task and fMRI to measure brain activation in children and adolescents at familial high risk for schizophrenia (FHR).&#160;FMRI was used to measure differences in fronto-striato-limbic regions during an emotional oddball task. Children with FHR exhibited abnormal functional activation during adolescence.

Adolescence is a critical developmental period where the early symptoms of schizophrenia frequently emerge. First-degree relatives of people with ...

Eye Tracking, Cortisol, and a Sleep vs. Wake Consolidation Delay: Combining Methods to Uncover an Interactive Effect of Sleep and Cortisol on Memory

Although rises in cortisol can benefit memory consolidation, as can sleep soon after encoding, there is currently a paucity of literature as to how these two factors may interact to influence consolidation. Here we present a protocol to examine the interactive influence of cortisol and sleep on memory consolidation, by combining three methods: eye tracking, salivary cortisol analysis, and behavioral memory testing across sleep and wake delays. To assess resting cortisol levels, participants gave a saliva sample before viewing negative and neutral objects within scenes. To measure overt attention, participants&#8217; eye gaze was tracked during encoding. To manipulate whether sleep occurred during the consolidation window, participants either encoded scenes in the evening, slept overnight, and took a recognition test the next morning, or encoded scenes in the morning and remained awake during a comparably long retention interval. Additional control groups were tested after a 20&#160;min&#160;delay in the morning or evening, to control for time-of-day effects. Together, results showed that there is a direct relation between resting cortisol at encoding and subsequent memory, only following a period of sleep. Through eye tracking, it was further determined that for negative stimuli, this beneficial effect of cortisol on subsequent memory may be due to cortisol strengthening the relation between where participants look during encoding and what they are later able to remember. Overall, results obtained by a combination of these methods uncovered an interactive effect of sleep and cortisol on memory consolidation.

We present a protocol used to discover an interactive effect between sleep and cortisol on memory consolidation, particularly for negative arousing images. Specifically, the experimental design utilizes eye tracking, salivary cortisol analysis, and behavioral memory testing &#8211; methods that can be used with both healthy and clinical participants.

Although rises in cortisol can benefit memory consolidation, as can sleep soon after encoding, there is currently a paucity of literature as to how these ...

Experimental Assessment of Mouse Sociability Using an Automated Image Processing Approach

Mouse is the preferred model organism for testing drugs designed to increase sociability. We present a method to quantify mouse sociability in which the test mouse is placed in a standardized apparatus and relevant behaviors are assessed in three different sessions (called session I, II, and III).
The apparatus has three compartments (see Figure 1), the left and right compartments contain an inverted cup which can house a mouse (called &#34;stimulus mouse&#34;).
In session I, the test mouse is placed in the cage and its mobility is characterized by the number of transitions made between compartments. In session II, a stimulus mouse is placed under one of the inverted cups and the sociability of the test mouse is quantified by the amounts of time it spends near the cup containing the enclosed stimulus mouse vs. the empty inverted cup. In session III, the inverted cups are removed and both mice interact freely. The sociability of the test mouse in session III is quantified by the number of social approaches it makes toward the stimulus mouse and by the number of times it avoids a social approach by the stimulus mouse.
The automated evaluation of the movie detects the nose of the test mouse, which allows the determination of all described sociability measures in session I and II (in session III, approaches are identified automatically but classified manually). To find the nose, the image of an empty cage is digitally subtracted from each frame of the movie and the resulting image is binarized to identify the mouse pixels. The mouse tail is automatically removed and the two most distant points of the remaining mouse are determined; these are close to nose and base of tail. By analyzing the motion of the mouse and using continuity arguments, the nose is identified.
<img alt="Figure 1" src="/files/ftp_upload/52508/52508fig1.jpg" /> 
Figure 1. Assessment of Sociability During 3 sessions. Session I (top): Acclimation of test mouse to the cage. Session II (middle): Test mouse moving freely in the cage while the stimulus mouse is enclosed in an inverted cup. Session III (bottom): Both test mouse and stimulus mouse are allowed to move freely and interact with each other.

This protocol describes a method to quantify mouse sociability. Mice are videotaped as they move and interact in a special cage. Movie processing allows for the automated quantification of sociability with excellent accuracy and reliability.

Mouse is the preferred model organism for testing drugs designed to increase sociability. We present a method to quantify mouse sociability in which the ...

Protocol for Data Collection and Analysis Applied to Automated Facial Expression Analysis Technology and Temporal Analysis for Sensory Evaluation

We demonstrate a method for capturing emotional response to beverages and liquefied foods in a sensory evaluation laboratory using automated facial expression analysis (AFEA) software. Additionally, we demonstrate a method for extracting relevant emotional data output and plotting the emotional response of a population over a specified time frame. By time pairing each participant's treatment response to a control stimulus (baseline), the overall emotional response over time and across multiple participants can be quantified. AFEA is a prospective analytical tool for assessing unbiased response to food and beverages. At present, most research has mainly focused on beverages. Methodologies and analyses have not yet been standardized for the application of AFEA to beverages and foods; however, a consistent standard methodology is needed. Optimizing video capture procedures and resulting video quality aids in a successful collection of emotional response to foods. Furthermore, the methodology of data analysis is novel for extracting the pertinent data relevant to the emotional response. The combinations of video capture optimization and data analysis will aid in standardizing the protocol for automated facial expression analysis and interpretation of emotional response data.

A protocol for capturing and statistically analyzing emotional response of a population to beverages and liquefied foods in a sensory evaluation laboratory using automated facial expression analysis software is described.

We demonstrate a method for capturing emotional response to beverages and liquefied foods in a sensory evaluation laboratory using automated facial ...

The Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) Task: A Simple Cognitive Paradigm to Investigate False Memories in the Laboratory

The Deese,&#160;Roediger and McDermott&#160;(DRM) task is a false memory paradigm in which subjects are presented with lists of semantically related words (e.g., nurse, hospital, etc.) at encoding. After a delay, subjects are asked to recall or recognize these words. In the recognition memory version of the task, subjects are asked whether they remember previously presented words, as well as related (but never presented) critical lure words (&#39;doctor&#39;). Typically, the critical word is recognized with high probability and confidence. This false memory effect has been robustly demonstrated across short (e.g., immediate, 20 min) and long (e.g., 1, 7, 60 d) delays between encoding and memory testing. A strength of using this task to study false memory is its simplicity and short duration. If encoding and retrieval components of the task occur in the same session, the entire task can take as little as 2 - 30 min. However, although the DRM task is widely considered a &#39;false memory&#39; paradigm, some researchers consider DRM illusions to be based on the activation of semantic memory networks in the brain, and argue that such semantic gist-based false memory errors may actually be useful in some scenarios (e.g., remembering the forest for the trees; remembering that a word list was about &#34;doctors&#34;, even though the actual word &#34;doctor&#34; was never presented for study). Remembering the gist of experience (instead of or along with individual details) is arguably an adaptive process and this task has provided a great deal of knowledge about the constructive, adaptive nature of memory. Therefore, researchers should use caution when discussing the overall reach and implications of their experiments when using this task to study &#39;false memory&#39;, as DRM memory errors may not adequately reflect false memories in the real world, such as false memory in eyewitness testimony, or false memories of sexual abuse.

The Deese-Roediger-McDermott DRM Task: A Simple Cognitive Paradigm to Investigate False Memories in the Laboratory

Here we present the Deese,&#160;Roediger and McDermott&#160;(DRM) task, a tool to study false memories in the laboratory. Subjects study lists of semantically related words (e.g.,&#160;nurse, sick, etc.), and later falsely remember an unstudied word (doctor) that represents the gist, or theme, of the word list.

The Deese,&#160;Roediger and McDermott&#160;(DRM) task is a false memory paradigm in which subjects are presented with lists of semantically related words ...

A Within-subjects Experimental Protocol to Assess the Effects of Social Input on Infant EEG

Despite the importance of social interactions for infant brain development, little research has assessed functional neural activation while infants socially interact. Electroencephalography (EEG) power is an advantageous technique to assess infant functional neural activation. However, many studies record infant EEG only during one baseline condition. This protocol describes a paradigm that is designed to comprehensively assess infant EEG activity in both social and nonsocial contexts as well as tease apart how different types of social inputs differentially relate to infant EEG. The within-subjects paradigm includes four controlled conditions. In the nonsocial condition, infants view objects on computer screens. The joint attention condition involves an experimenter directing the infant's attention to pictures. The joint attention condition includes three types of social input: language, face-to-face interaction, and the presence of joint attention. Differences in infant EEG between the nonsocial and joint attention conditions could be due to any of these three types of input. Therefore, two additional conditions (one with language input while the experimenter is hidden behind a screen and one with face-to-face interaction) were included to assess the driving contextual factors in patterns of infant neural activation. Representative results demonstrate that infant EEG power varied by condition, both overall and differentially by brain region, supporting the functional nature of infant EEG power. This technique is advantageous in that it includes conditions that are clearly social or nonsocial and allows for examination of how specific types of social input relate to EEG power. This paradigm can be used to assess how individual differences in age, affect, socioeconomic status, and parent-infant interaction quality relate to the development of the social brain. Based on the demonstrated functional nature of infant EEG power, future studies should consider the role of EEG recording context and design conditions that are clearly social or nonsocial.

This novel protocol is designed to assess the neural bases of social interaction in infants. The paradigm is designed to tease apart how various social inputs such as language, joint attention, and face-to-face interaction relate to infant neural activation. Infant EEG power is recorded during both social and nonsocial conditions.

Despite the importance of social interactions for infant brain development, little research has assessed functional neural activation while infants ...

Frame-by-Frame Video Analysis of Idiosyncratic Reach-to-Grasp Movements in Humans

Prehension, the act of reaching to grasp an object, is central to the human experience. We use it to feed ourselves, groom ourselves, and manipulate objects and tools in our environment. Such behaviors are impaired by many sensorimotor disorders, yet our current understanding of their neural control is far from complete. Current technologies for investigating human reach-to-grasp movements often utilize motion tracking systems that can be expensive, require the attachment of markers or sensors to the hands, impede natural movement and sensory feedback, and provide kinematic output that can be difficult to interpret. While generally effective for studying the stereotypical reach-to-grasp movements of healthy sighted adults, many of these technologies face additional limitations when attempting to study the unpredictable and idiosyncratic reach-to-grasp movements of young infants, unsighted adults, and patients with neurological disorders. Thus, we present a novel, inexpensive, and highly reliable yet flexible protocol for quantifying the temporal and kinematic structure of idiosyncratic reach-to-grasp movements in humans. High speed video cameras capture multiple views of the reach-to-grasp movement. Frame-by-frame video analysis is then used to document the timing and magnitude of pre-defined behavioral events such as movement start, collection, maximum height, peak aperture, first contact, and final grasp. The temporal structure of the movement is reconstructed by documenting the relative frame number of each event while the kinematic structure of the hand is quantified using the ruler or measure function in photo editing software to calibrate 2 dimensional linear distances between two body parts or between a body part and the target. Frame-by-frame video analysis can provide a quantitative and comprehensive description of idiosyncratic reach-to-grasp movements and will enable researchers to expand their area of investigation to include a greater range of naturalistic prehensile behaviors, guided by a wider variety of sensory modalities, in both healthy and clinical populations.

This protocol describes how to use frame-by-frame video analysis to quantify idiosyncratic reach-to-grasp movements in humans. A comparative analysis of reaching in sighted versus unsighted healthy adults is used to demonstrate the technique, but the method can also be applied to the study of developmental and clinical populations.

Prehension, the act of reaching to grasp an object, is central to the human experience. We use it to feed ourselves, groom ourselves, and manipulate ...

An Objective and Child-friendly Assessment of Arm Function by Using a 3-D Sensor

Progressive and irreversible muscle atrophy characterizes Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) and other similar muscle disorder diseases. Objective assessment of muscle functions is an essential and important, although challenging, prerequisite for successful clinical trials. Current clinical rating scales restrain the movement abnormalities to certain predefined coarse-grained individual items. The Kinect 3-D sensor has emerged as a low-cost and portable motion sensing technology used to capture and track people&#39;s movement in many medical and research fields. A novel approach using this 3-D sensor was developed and a game-like test was designed to objectively measure the upper limb function of patients with SMA. The prototype test targeted joint movement capability. While sitting in a virtual scene, the patient was instructed to extend, flex, and lift the whole arm in order to reach and place some objects. Both kinematic and spatiotemporal characteristics of upper limb movement were extracted and analyzed, e.g., elbow extension and flexion angles, hand velocity, and acceleration. The first study included a small cohort of 18 ambulant SMA patients and 19 age- and gender-matched healthy controls. A comprehensive analysis of arm movement was achieved; however, no significant difference between the groups were found due to the mismatch of patient&#39;s capability and the test difficulty. Based on this experience, a second version of the test consisting of a modified version of the first game with increased difficulties and a second game targeting muscle endurance were designed and implemented. The new test has not been conducted in any patient groups yet. Our work has demonstrated the potential capability of the 3-D sensor in assessing such muscle function and suggested an objective approach to complement the clinical rating scales.

An objective measure of muscle functions is challenging especially in children. Based on a commercially available digital 3-D sensor, a child-friendly gaming test was developed to assess upper limb function for clinical trials.

Progressive and irreversible muscle atrophy characterizes Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) and other similar muscle disorder diseases. Objective assessment ...

The Modified Temptation Resistance Task: A Paradigm to Elicit Children's Strategic Lie-telling

The protocol for the temptation resistance paradigm was designed to elicit 2- to 8-year-old children's strategic lie-telling behaviors. The reward of transgression was intended to be too tempting to resist, so that children's spontaneous lie-telling behavior in the presence of irreversible evidence due to the transgression could be observed. Conducted in a developmental psychology laboratory behind a one-way mirror and video recorded with a hidden camcorder, the protocol starts with a guessing game where the child is given three trials to guess the identities of hidden objects under an upside down cup. The experimenter gives hints in the first two trials to make sure the child "guess" them correctly. At the beginning of the final trial, the experimenter leaves the room briefly and asks the child not to peek under the cup. If the child could not resist the temptation and peeks, small particles previously filled in the cup would scatter on a grooved surface. Upon the experimenter's return, the child is asked if he/she has peeked. If he/she denies transgression contrary to the presence of the physical evidence, he/she is asked to explain why the particles are on the table. Three responses could be observed in the procedure, including the initial transgression, truth-telling or lie-telling behavior if the child peeked, and the strategic lie-telling behavior in the presence of the physical evidence.

The Modified Temptation Resistance Task: A Paradigm to Elicit Children&#039;s Strategic Lie-telling

The protocol for the temptation resistance paradigm was designed to elicit 2- to 8-year-old children&#39;s strategic lie-telling behaviors. The reward of transgression was intended to be too tempting to resist, so that children&#39;s spontaneous lie-telling behavior in the presence of irreversible evidence due to the transgression could be observed.

The protocol for the temptation resistance paradigm was designed to elicit 2- to 8-year-old children's strategic lie-telling behaviors. The reward of ...

Testing for Metacognitive Responding Using an Odor-based Delayed Match-to-Sample Test in Rats

Metamemory involves the cognitive ability to assess the strength of one&#39;s memories. To explore the possibility of metamemory in non-human animals, numerous behavioral tasks have been created, many of which utilize an option to decline memory tests. To assess metamemory in rats, we utilized this decline-test option paradigm by adapting previous visual delayed-match-to-sample tests (DMTS)1,2 developed for primate species to an odor-based test suitable for rodents. First,&#160;rats are given a sample to remember by digging in a cup of scented sand. After a delay, the rat is presented with four distinctly scented cups, one of which contains the identical scent experienced during the sample; if this matching cup is selected, then the rat obtains a preferred, larger reward. Selection of any of the other three non-matching sand-filled scented cups results in no reward. Retention intervals are individually titrated such that subjects perform between 40 and 70% correct, therefore ensuring rats sometimes remember and sometimes forget the sample. Here, the operational definition of metamemory is the ability to distinguish between the presence and absence of memory through behavioral responding. Towards this end, on two-thirds of trials, a decline option is presented in addition to the four choice cups (choice trials). If the decline-test option- an unscented colored sand cup, is selected, the subject receives a smaller less-preferred reward and avoids the memory test. On the remaining third of trials, the decline-test option is not available (forced trials), causing subjects to guess the correct cup when the sample is forgotten. On choice tests, subjects that know when they remember should select the decline option when memory is weak rather than take the test and choose incorrectly. Therefore, significantly higher performance on chosen tests as compared to forced memory tests is indicative of the adaptive use of the decline-test response and metacognitive responding.

This protocol describes a method for investigating the possibility of metamemory, or memory awareness, in rodents. The odor-based delayed-matching-to-sample paradigm is a novel, ecologically-relevant behavioral test useful for determining the extent to which rodents can adaptively respond based on cognitively monitoring the strength of their memory states.

Metamemory involves the cognitive ability to assess the strength of one&#39;s memories. To explore the possibility of metamemory in non-human animals, ...