title: "I didn't want to do it!" The detection of past intentions.
abstract: In daily life and in courtrooms, people regularly analyze the minds of others to understand intentions. Specifically, the detection of intentions behind prior events is one of the main issues dealt with in courtrooms. To our knowledge, there are no experimental works focused on the use of memory detection techniques to detect past intentions. This study aims at investigating whether reaction times (RTs) could be used for this purpose, by evaluating the accuracy of the autobiographical Implicit Association Test (aIAT) in the detection of past intentions. Sixty healthy volunteers took part in the experiment (mean age: 36.5 y; range: 18-55; 30 males). Participants were asked to recall and report information about a meeting with a person that had occurred at least 1 month before. Half of the participants were required to report about an intentional meeting, whereas the other half reported on a chance meeting. Based on the conveyed information, participants performed a tailored aIAT in which they had to categorize real reported information contrasted with counterfeit information. Results demonstrated that RTs can be a useful measure for the detection of past intentions and that aIAT can detect real past intentions with an accuracy of 95%.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Psychology, University of Padua Padua, Italy.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zangrossi
authors.affiliation: Italian Institute of Technology, Center for Neuroscience and Cognitive Systems Rovereto, Italy.
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Agosta
authors.affiliation: Department of General Psychology, University of Padua Padua, Italy.
authors.forename: Gessica
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cervesato
authors.affiliation: Department of General Psychology, University of Padua Padua, Italy.
authors.forename: Federica
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Tessarotto
authors.affiliation: Department of General Psychology, University of Padua Padua, Italy.
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sartori
keywords: autobiographical Implicit Association Test; mens rea; past intentions; reaction times; voluntary manslaughter