Kids With Good Memory Are Also Good Liars, Study Finds 2

What was interesting was that the kids who were good liars had higher scores on tests of working memory than the bad liars – in particular, they had better verbal working memory (vs. spatial memory).

And this is important since lying typically involves keeping verbal tales straight in one’s head.“It takes mental effort to keep in mind what you know you did, what you think the researcher knows, and plan away so you don’t get caught,” said study author Tracy Alloway.

She adds that there are obvious differences in how good liars and bad liars behaved when put to the test.

“When we watched the videos, we could see clear differences in their responses based on their working memory skills,” says Alloway.

“Those with poor working memory would get worked up when answering, while those with good working memory would even offer explanations for how they knew the ‘correct’ answer to the answer about the cartoon Spaceboy.

Some said – ‘That is my fave cartoon, I watch it every Saturday so I know the characters.’ Another said, ‘One of my family members is called Jim so I guessed that was the answer.’

”But it may not be such a terrible thing if you have a little liar on your hands (within reason). It’s a natural way of testing boundaries and developing thinking skills, and many kids do it – so do adults, for that matter.

“We already know that adults lie in approximately a fifth of their social exchanges lasting 10 or more minutes,” says author Elena Hoicka, “so it’s interesting to know why some children are able to tell more porkies than others.

We’ll now be looking to move the research forward to discover more about how children first learn to lie.” You can register for that online study, which will include 0- to 47-month-olds, at babylovesscience.com. 

The moral of the study? Perhaps it’s that lying on occasion is pretty natural, and may even be a sign of a good working memory.

“While parents are usually not too proud when their kids lie,” said Elena Hoicka, “they can at least be pleased to discover that when their children are lying well, it means their children are becoming better at thinking and have good memory skills.

”So although you may have had to give your kid the “it’s wrong to lie” talk once or twice, while you’re doing it you can be secretly thinking to yourself, “Well, at least this means he’s smart.”