Detecting Concealed Knowledge From Ocular Responses

Traditionally, physiological measures (autonomic, electrocortical, or neurovascular) have been used to detect concealed information in suspects. Only very recently, a few studies have provided evidence that oculomotor measures such as eye movements and blinks can also be used to infer whether a suspect recognizes critical information from a crime scene. These responses, which can also be acquired unobtrusively, seem to occur very rapidly even in the absence of explicit memory, and might provide a novel access to internally stored representations of specific events. The current chapter summarizes how memory impacts ocular responses and highlights recent studies that used variations of the Concealed Information Test in conjunction with such responses. Finally, implications for future research are discussed.