Using Pupillometry in the Detection of Deception

Pupillometry has a long history in cognitive psychology and psychophysiology. Hess EH and Polt’s JM (Science, 132:349–350, 1960; Science 143:1190–1192, 1964) finding that increases in pupil dilation correspond to increases in cognitive effort and emotional arousal led to applications of pupillometry in several contexts. Examples include digit string transformation (Kahneman D, Beatty J, Science 154:1583–1585, 1966); mental arithmetic (Ahern SK, Beatty J, Science 205:1289–1292, 1979; Bradshaw JL, Q J Exp Psychol 20:116–122, 1968; Schaefer Jr T, Ferguson JB, Klein JA, Rawson EB Psychon Sci 14:137–138, 1968); reading (Just MA, Carpenter PA, Can J Exp Psychol 47:310–339, 1993; Schluroff M, Brain Lang 17:133–145, 1982); complex learning tasks (Van Gerven PWM, Paas FGWC, Van Merriënboer JJG, & Schmidt HG, Learn Instr 12:87–105, 2002; Zheng R, Cook A, Br J Educ Technol 43:233–246, 2012); lexical translation (Hyönä J, Tommola J, Alaja AM, Q J Exp Psychol 48A:598–612, 1995); and important to the topic of this chapter, the detection of deception (Baker L, Goldstein R, Stern JA, Saccadic eye movements in deception. Report DoDPI92-R-003. Department of Defense Polygraph Institute, Fort McClellan, 1992; Bradley MT, Janisse MP, Psychophysiology 18:307–315, 1981; Dionisio DP, Granholm E, Hillix WA, & Perrine WF, Psychophysiology 38:205–211, 2001; Heilveil I, J Clin Psychol 32:675–676, 1976; Webb AK, Honts CR, Kircher JC, Bernhardt PC, Cook AE, Legal Criminal Psychol 14:279–292, 2009b; Webb AK, Hacker DJ, Osher D, Cook AE, Woltz DJ, Kristjansson S, Kircher JC, Eye movements and pupil size reveal deception in computer administered questionnaires. In: Schmorrow DD, Estabrooke IV, Grootjen M (eds), Foundations of Augmented Cognition: Neuroergonomics and Operational Neuroscience. Berlin, Springer, pp 553–562, 2009). The goal of this chapter is to describe our own work using pupillometry in the detection of deception using the ocular-motor deception test (ODT).