MRI: Acquisition of Equipment for a Face-to-Face Interaction Laboratory for Studying Cognitive, Neurocognitive, Social Cognitive, and Emotional Aspects of Human Communication

New Mexico State University, Las Cruces NM

Investigators

Abstract

This proposal, from a MSI institution in an EPCoR state, develops a face-to-face interaction room to enable improving the degree of analytical precision available in studies of naturalistic sociolinguistic interaction. The research aims at better quantifying the cognitive, physiological, and behavioral correlates of both deception, and the ability to detect deception. Addressing an understudied Homeland Security need (the ability of interviews to detect deception in one-on-one and group interviews), the work specifically seeks to design Training methods, to train humans to better detect deception in interviews, and Automatic quantitative measures that may aid an interviewer in detecting deception. Studying visual attention, PIs will conduct experimental studies of cognitive and neural correlates of deception, and of deception detection, in the context of interviews and conversations. They will study EEG correlates of executive function and rapport development, coded video to detect nonverbal language associated with deception, and language-use correlates of deception using latent semantic analysis. Broader Impact: Consistent with current national priorities in today's climate of social uncertainty, this minority serving institution addresses issues in homeland security. The lab will also be used to train students to conduct research into multi-modal language understanding.