Poster #119 - A longitudinal study relating children’s ability to conceal information to executive functions and affective problems

• In Event: 3-206 - Poster Session 13
  In Poster Session: PS 13 Section - Moral Development

Integrative Statement

A growing body of evidence shows that children’s deceptive skills are related to their executive functions (Talwar & Crossman, 2011). Furthermore, preliminary studies on adolescents and adults indicate that externalizing behaviors are linked to an increased reliance on lying (Salekin, Kubak, & Lee, 2008) while internalizing symptoms such as anxiety were associated with lower accuracy in deceptive responses (Visu-Petra et al., 2012). Our longitudinal study was designed to integrate and expand this knowledge by investigating the development of children’s (7-12 years) ability to deceive by concealing relevant information. We were also interested in how individual differences in executive functioning and externalizing/internalizing problems relate to children’s deceptive skills. An initial sample of 216 children and their parents were invited to take part in our longitudinal study. In order to measure children’s ability to conceal information we used the Reaction time-based version of the Concealed Information Test, adapted for children for the first time (RT-based CIT; Visu-Petra et al., 2015). The test identifies differences in RTs to critical (probes) vs. newly encountered (irrelevant) stimuli between knowledgeable children, who did take part in a "surprise" scenario involving a transgression, and unknowledgeable children, who did not take part in that event. We also assessed children’s executive functioning with several tests from the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (simple RT and spatial working memory), the AWMA battery (Digit Span) and with the Inhibition & Shifting test from the Developmental NeuroPsychological Assessment (NEPSY, Korkman, Kirk & Kemp, 2007). We evaluated externalizing/internalizing problems with the parent and child versions of the Behavior Assessment System for Children (Reynolds, 2004) and the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale (Chorpita et al., 2005). Children were assessed. These tasks, with some parallel versions and minor variations, were administered at 3 time points, each 1 year apart: T1 (ages 7-10, N = 216), T2 (ages 8 -11, N = 243) and T3 (ages 9-12, N= 159). We performed a repeated measures ANOVA, with group as a between factor, and time along with stimulus type as within factors. Results indicated that the RT-based CIT can discriminate between reaction times to probes and irrelevants in the case of knowledgeable, but not of unknowledgeable children. We also found age improvements in deceptive abilities, as accuracy increased with age, while reaction time decreased between the three time points. Executive functions (especially working memory and shifting) predicted children’s latency and accuracy in deceptive responses. Limited evidence for associations between externalizing/internalizing problems and deceptive skills was found. The implications of this research for a better understanding of the cognitive mechanisms involved in concealing information from adults and for applied (legal, therapeutic) settings will be discussed.

Authors

• Laura Visu-Petra, Babeș-Bolyai University
  Presenting Author

• Ovidiu Jurje, Babeș-Bolyai University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Narcisa Prodan, Babeș-Bolyai University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Monica Buta, Babeș-Bolyai University
  Non-Presenting Author