Investigating deception in a mock police identification line-up

The study explored the impact of cognitive load levels (High or Low) on metacognitive strategic decisions in a line-up task with 60 participants. Four conditions were used: truth and lie, followed by high or low complexity. Participants ranked mock-suspect images based on eight questions. Liars knew the guilty suspect but were instructed not to reveal it, while truthful participants relied on subjective judgment. It was predicted that, based upon analysis of suspect placement, liars in the high complexity condition would be most detectable. Analysis indicated that the high complexity condition was most effective in detecting liars, achieving an 86.7% accuracy compared to 80% in the low complexity condition.