Lucy Akehurst

Introduction:
Lucy Akehurst graduated from the University of Portsmouth with a master’s degree in Psychology. Shortly thereafter, she decided to return to school and pursue her PhD, which she received in 1997. During this time period, she focused her studies on deception research, where she specifically honed her study in on nonverbal cues of deceit, Criteria-Based Content Analysis (CBCA), and how she could affect public perception of both. Akehurst is currently an undergraduate teacher at the University of Portsmouth, where she teaches forensic psychology, and child forensic studies. She also lectures on other relevant topics in psychology at the University, and is currently in the process of creating a graduate program for the University
The goal of this report is summarized in the following:
“A study was devised to investigate to what extent observers:
a) Could make rapid yet reliable and valid judgments of the frequency of verbal and nonverbal behaviors of interviewees (liars and truth tellers)
And
b) Detect[ed] deceit after making these rapid judgments.”
(Vrij et al., 2004)
To accomplish this task, a simple experiment was devised. Five observers between the ages of 19-21 were selected; of which consisted two male, and three female participants. They had no prior knowledge of, or relations with, the subjects featured in the stimulus material. The stimulus material was pre-taped footage from a previous experiment; 26 “liars” and 26 “truth tellers”, all of whom were young adults. The “truth telling” 26 adults played connect 4 with a person dressed as a civil war Confederate, and during this time period, another proctor for the experiment walked into the room and wiped off math formulas from the black board. The other 26 “liars” did not do any of those things, but were simply brought into a room where they were told by a proctor to the experiment that if they were to receive the 5₤ that was promised to them, and not have to write an essay/paper (these are all students), they had to contrive a compelling
(2007). Psychology Staff Profile. Retrieved December 04, 2007, from University of Portsmouth, Department of Psychology Web site, http://www.port.ac.uk/departments/academic/psychology/staff/title,50476,en.html
Decaire, Michael (2000, Nov.) The detection of deception via non-verbal deception cues. Retrieved October 31, 2007, from http://www.uplink.com.au/lawlibrary/ Documents /Docs/Doc64.html
DePaulo, B. M. (1992). Nonverbal Behavior and Self-Presentation. Psychological Bulletin, 111(2), 203-243.
Vrij, A., Akehurst, L., Soukara, S., & Bull, R. (2004). Detecting deceit via analyses of verbal and nonverbal behaviour in children and adults. Retrieved December 04, 2007, from University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth Library Eprints Archive Web site, http://eprints.libr.port.ac.uk/archive/00000020/01/ESRC1NON.pdf
Vrij, A., Evans, H., Akehurst, L., & Mann, S. (2004). Rapid Judgments in Assessing Verbal and Nonverbal Cues: Their Potential for Deception Researchers and Lie Detection. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 18(3), 283-296. Retrieved October 31, 2007, from PsycINFO (2004-13233-003).