Introduction

So far, we have discussed various case studies of deception and have examined some of the ways in which people process the information associated with deception. It has also been stated that sensory deceptions are mostly associated with bottom-up processing of sources of incoming environmental stimulation and the immediate perceptions they generate. In contrast, cognitive deceptions are mostly mediated by top-down processes that feature prominent access to long-term memories and are regulated by the active direction of attention. What needs to be explored now is exactly how individuals decide on whether the information they are of ered is true or false. To do this, we have to understand more about how humans make decisions in general.

Two Faces of Decision Making

To begin to understand how people make decisions, and particularly how decision making is linked to bottom-up and top-down processes, it is best to return to the model of human capacities presented earlier (see Figure III.1 over). On the outer ring we can see that there is one pathway that leads directly from the registration of information (the information flux, on the upper let of the diagram), directly through sensory registration to the decision process, and immediately on to the response selection and execution phase.