I suspect that if you interrogated me about last night and I wasn't attempting to lie to you that I would still fail this test.
I'm addle-brained, I don't get enough sleep, and I honestly don't remember if I got my daughter chocolate milk before or after diddling around on the computer.
I might very well remember events when asked to repeat them in reverse order that I did not remember the first time through, leave details out, or get the order reversed.
And while I can't manage to catch myself in the act while it is occurring, I've noticed myself having malleable memory of the likes that researchers tend to call "false memory". And this is just boring crap, nothing traumatic, stressful, or important.
If your test could fail for me recounting an evening at home for which I know I wouldn't be lying about, how could it possibly succeed for someone who's trying to prove to you that they aren't a killer, especially when they might have something else to hide (hey, I don't want this guy finding out I bought $1000 worth of pot to sell to my trashy neighbors in the trailer park!) ?
that is the point. If MI (or any other government force agency) got their paws on you, then you're guilty, and it is just a matter of routine effort to come up with what you're guilty of. The only choice you have is whether it happens a hard or an easy way... As they say in my old country - "for a given man, he always can be found guilty of something" (original - "byl by chelovek, a vina naydetsya" :)
The inherent bias and paranoia in your statement is staggering. Although, it's understandable if you come from a country with a particularly brutal and pervasive secret police.
In my country, the intelligence agencies have no powers of arrest and must defer to police enforcement.
Comments
I suspect that if you interrogated me about last night and I wasn't attempting to lie to you that I would still fail this test.
I'm addle-brained, I don't get enough sleep, and I honestly don't remember if I got my daughter chocolate milk before or after diddling around on the computer.
I might very well remember events when asked to repeat them in reverse order that I did not remember the first time through, leave details out, or get the order reversed.
And while I can't manage to catch myself in the act while it is occurring, I've noticed myself having malleable memory of the likes that researchers tend to call "false memory". And this is just boring crap, nothing traumatic, stressful, or important.
If your test could fail for me recounting an evening at home for which I know I wouldn't be lying about, how could it possibly succeed for someone who's trying to prove to you that they aren't a killer, especially when they might have something else to hide (hey, I don't want this guy finding out I bought $1000 worth of pot to sell to my trashy neighbors in the trailer park!) ?
that is the point. If MI (or any other government force agency) got their paws on you, then you're guilty, and it is just a matter of routine effort to come up with what you're guilty of. The only choice you have is whether it happens a hard or an easy way... As they say in my old country - "for a given man, he always can be found guilty of something" (original - "byl by chelovek, a vina naydetsya" :)
The inherent bias and paranoia in your statement is staggering. Although, it's understandable if you come from a country with a particularly brutal and pervasive secret police.
In my country, the intelligence agencies have no powers of arrest and must defer to police enforcement.
The test is not in isolation.
People seem to be imagining an interrogator walks in, opens his notes, asks for a reverse version of events and says
Aha, you originally said you left the house at 7, but in you reverse statement you indicate it was 7.30, case closed. This guy is done.
The reverse technique, one of dozens is used to test accuracy and clarity when required to do so with brevity.
In my example I imagined a wife being questioned by a husband as he suspects an affair.
Most people, when put under pressure and are lying will fail the RC test spectacularly.
The majority of truth tellers may clarify aspects in their mind but they will by and large get all of the details correct.
Either way, the test is not in a vacuum.