Scots scientists develop eye test that can tells police when someone is lying

An eye test that can tell police if someone is lying has been developed by Scottish scientists.

The technology tracks the movement of suspects’ eyeballs when asked to identify a picture of an associate on a screen.

Experiments showed even seasoned liars couldn’t hide their reactions when shown a picture of a familiar face.

It could help police crack terrorist cells, according to research published in the journal ­Cognitive Research: Principles and ­Implications.

Dr Ailsa Millen (Internet Unknown)

Study leader Dr Ailsa Millen, a psychologist at Stirling University, said: “Criminal networks, such as terrorist groups, might deny knowledge to protect one another or a victim might be too afraid to identify their attacker.

“Our study tracked people’s eye movements when they denied knowledge of someone they knew.

“Instead of looking for signs of lying directly, we looked for markers of recognition in patterns of eye fixations, such as how ­individuals looked at a ­photograph of someone they recognised, compared to someone they did not.

“The aim was to ­determine if liars could conceal recognition by following instructions to look at every familiar and unfamiliar face with the same sequence of eye fixations – they could not.”