Experts found that children who have excellent memory and thinking skills may be better liars compared to those with poorer brain skills. The study authors of a new research said that children are able to use their skills in recalling details and information to successfully stick to their lies.
The study published in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology involved a group of kids aged 6-7 years of age, who were asked to take a three-item trivia examination, printed on index cards. The index cards contain the answers to the trivia questions, which the proctor would read to the kids. The child is allowed to flip the card over to look for the correct answer after taking each quiz item. The third question is an entirely made-up idea, which asked for the name of the boy in a fake fictional cartoon called Spaceboy. The researcher then left the room after asking the last question, without providing any instruction regarding looking or not looking to the answer key on the back of the card.
The entire setup was caught on tape; hence, investigators can very well identify who took a glimpse of the cards and who did not. The researchers then asked each of the child participants two things: the answer to the trivia question and the details found on the back of the card. Through this technique, the authors could very well evaluate how "good" of a liar each child is. They soon found out that the "good" liars did not tell the truth to both questions and the "bad" liars were inconsistent in telling the truth.
The researchers conducted a separate test to evaluate the children's working memory. They found that the good liars fared better in this test compared to the bad liars. The good liars particularly scored high in the verbal working memory test, which explains their skills in lying. Lying requires one to have sharp memory to keep up with the liar's made-up verbal tales.
Sufficient mental effort is required for the children to remember all the things they did, all the information they think the proctor knows, as well as the scheme they made up to cover their lies, said Tracy Alloway, the author of the study. Researchers can very well determine the apparent differences between the behavior of the good and bad liars, when they are faced with a test.
"When we watched the videos, we could see clear differences in their responses based on their working memory skills," comments Alloway. "Those with poor working memory would get worked up when answering, while those with good working memory would even offer explanations for how they knew the 'correct' answer to the answer about the cartoon Spaceboy."
Parents may not be proud for their child to receive a "good liar" award but according to Dr. Elena Hoicka of the University of Sheffield's Department of Psychology, they can at least be glad to know that their kids are good at lying because it signifies that their children have good memory and thinking skills.
Photo: Rafiq Sarlie | Flickr
