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IPFS News Link • Kids

Kids With Good Memory Are Also Good Liars, Study Finds

• http://www.forbes.com, Alice G. Walton

And though it may annoy or worry you, this tendency isn't totally a bad thing: A new study in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology finds that kids who are "good liars" also have better working memories – particularly verbal memories – than "bad liars." This may be because, as the researchers point out, it can take some pretty skillful verbal maneuvering to keep one's lies straight. So lying may, in some way, be a marker of a capable little brain.

The research team had 6- and 7-year-old kids come into the lab and take a trivia quiz, which consisted of three questions, printed on index cards. The researcher would read the question, and then after the child answered, turn the card over to show the answer on the back: It was written in a particular color, and with a picture next to it. After presenting the third question, which was totally fictional – it asked for the name of the kid in Spaceboy, a fake cartoon – the researcher left the room, and either told or didn't tell the child not to look at the answer.


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