Transforming Groups: The Use of Individuation to Aid Collaborative Recall and Lie Detection in Intelligence-gathering Contexts

There are various situations in which groups (e.g., covert security operatives) work together to gather
intelligence (e.g., to inform terrorist investigations). To date, there is a lack of evidence regarding the
most effective way to enhance group memory and obtain accurate information from teams operating
together. The objective of the proposed research will be to utilise collaborative recall and implement a
strategy called 'individuation', whereby group members are each assigned a distinct role that helps the
group's overall performance. Individuation has been shown to be effective in various social contexts
(e.g., reducing anti-social behaviour). The research will be divided into three studies, consisting of four
laboratory-based experiments and one qualitative study, involving groups of three participants
undertaking an intelligence-gathering mission (e.g., mock terrorist attack). The first two experiments
(Study 1) will explore whether the individuation strategy enhances the group's ability to remember
information and whether collaborative recall improves quantity and accuracy of information gathering.
The final two experiments (Study 2) will examine the effectiveness of the individuation strategy as a lie
detection tool. Finally, the qualitative study (Study 3) will explore perceptions held by law enforcement
personnel regarding the use of the individuation strategy for collaborative recall in real-world
intelligence-gathering settings. Overall, the research aims to identify whether the pre-allocation of roles
and collective memory enhances the quantity and accuracy of information remembered by a group as a
whole and improves lie detection abilities. Implications for crime prevention, covert teams, intelligencegathering,
and security operations will be explored.