Centennial Honors College
Western Illinois University
Undergraduate Research Day 2014
Poster Presentation
Grammatical Differences between Truthful and Deceptive Narratives
Written by Native Spanish Speakers from Costa Rica
Anthony DeCicco
Faculty Mentor: John Schafer
Law Enforcement and Justice Administration
This study examined the predictive value of grammar structures to differentiate truthful
and deceptive narratives written in Spanish by native Spanish speakers from Costa
Rica. Using adopted methodology from Schafer (2007), the criteria examined were total
word count, text bridge ratio, and spontaneous negation ratio. Spanish speaking
participants watched a digital presentation of a person shoplifting an item from a
convenience store and wrote truthful and deceptive narratives regarding the shoplifting
event. The results of the study showed that deceptive narratives contained significantly
fewer words, higher text bridge ratios, and higher spontaneous negation ratios than
truthful narratives.