Regression toward the mean or heuristic processing in detecting deception? Reply to Elaad (2010).
Masip, et al. (2009) conducted a study in which observers had to make truth-lie judgments at the beginning, middle, or end of a series of videotaped statements. They found a decline in truth judgments over time and explained this finding in terms of information processing mode. Recently, Elaad (2010) challenged this explanation and contended that the decline could be a result of regression toward the mean. In the present paper, it is argued that because Masip, et al. took multiple Moment 1 judgments over time and then averaged across judgments, regression toward the mean was extremely unlikely. Furthermore, the decrease in truth judgments was found under several separate conditions; this cannot be explained by random fluctuations alone. Finally, Masip, et al.'s data were re-analyzed adjusting for the effects of regression toward the mean. The outcomes of these analyses were the same as those reported in the original article.
Department of Social Psychology and Anthropology, Facultad de Psicología, University of Salamanca, Avda. de la Merced, 109-131, 37005 Salamanca, Spain. jmasip@usal.es
Jaume
J
Masip
Eugenio
E
Garrido
Carmen
C
Herrero
D015982:Bias; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008014:Lie Detection; D010552:Personality Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics; D012016:Reference Values; D012044:Regression Analysis; D014342:Truth Disclosure; D014743:Videotape Recording