Validity of the guilty knowledge technique in a prisoner's sample

Evaluated the guilty knowledge technique as a detector of knowledge held by 30 prisoners in a maximum security prison in Israel. In an initial interview, Ss responded to 20 questions designed to elicit personal responses or items. During a later interrogation, Ss were presented verbally with (a) the same 20 questions and (b) 5 alternative responses including their own personal response and 4 neutral control responses. During the interrogation, Ss listened quietly while their GSRs were monitored. On the basis of the GSR data, a significant proportion (p < .01) of the Ss were correctly matched with their personal questionnaire responses. Although better overall matching had occurred with college students in a previous study by G. Ben Shakhar et al (1970), no differences between the samples appeared on items involving strongly personal information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).