Intellectual Merit. There is well-established evidence that deception often leaks into a deceiver's actions; however, there is little to no explanation as to how these movements are directly connected to the cognitive processes of deception. To address this problem, the Fellow presents a new research paradigm that is motivated by the inextricable connection between body and mind. In doing so, the proposed research makes several unique contributions by 1) using a common cognitive framework based on action and coordination dynamics to evaluate a range of deceptive behaviors, 2) forging connections between methods for the study of nonlinear dynamical systems and deceptive phenomena, 3) using state-of-the-art technologies to capture deceptive behaviors, 4) optimizing prediction algorithms for distinguishing deception from truth.
Broader Impacts. A society in the 21st century has a fundamental mandate to protect its vital national security interests from emerging threats. According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, a necessary objective in doing so is to develop superior methods for detecting and preventing an individual's attempt to employ deception. This research provides a unique opportunity to pursue this objective within a global society. Researchers from the U.S. and U.K. will take advantage of insights from the forefront of cognitive science theory, methodology, and analysis to identify novel behavioral markers of deception. The dissemination of this research into the public domain will introduce scientifically-based measures that offer a non-invasive, low-risk, and high-impact alternative to other measures. Furthermore, because the Fellow's approach is based on an impartial assessment of guilt, it does not suffer from subjective and sometimes prejudiced biases that have been a contributing factor in the wrongful convictions and false accusations of certain minority groups.
Finally, this research program has the potential to pique students' interest in all STEM-related fields: Science in the reliance on cognitive and dynamical theory, Technology in the use of motion tracking tools, Engineering in developing techniques to detect deception, and Mathematics in employing sophisticated dynamical analysis. The Fellow is already an active mentor at a major urban University in the U.S. where 40% of the students come from traditionally underrepresented groups. This Fellowship allows the PI to broaden the scope of mentorship in student participation and in providing opportunities for students to explore STEM-related research in their future careers.
