CIT Testing in Bristol

CIT Test Bristol

Concealed Information Testing by home visit or at a private venue across Bristol, Bath and the surrounding area.

Book a CIT Test What Is a CIT Test?
WhereYour home or a private room arranged in Bristol. There is no clinic to attend.
What it testsWhether one specific detail is recognised, read from the P300 brain response.
What you needA detail the person has not been told, and their agreement to take part.
TimeAbout ninety minutes on the day, after the word lists have been agreed with you.

On this page

  1. CIT Testing in Bristol
  2. Areas We Cover
  3. Where the Test Takes Place
  4. What You Need Before Booking
  5. A Local Example of a Word List
  6. What the Test Can and Cannot Tell You
  7. The Legal Position in Bristol
  8. Booking a CIT Test in Bristol
  9. Questions and answers

CIT Testing in Bristol

How the service runs locally.

We provide Concealed Information Tests in Bristol and the surrounding parts of Somerset and South Gloucestershire. Bristol is a longer journey for us than the northern cities, down the M6 and M5, so appointments here are planned a little further ahead. The examiner comes to a home address or to a private room arranged locally.

The CIT is a test of recognition. It measures, with an EEG cap, whether one true detail stands out for a person among a set of plausible false ones. It asks no accusing questions. This page covers the Bristol service, and the CIT testing guide covers the method.

Areas We Cover

Coverage takes in the city of Bristol, South Gloucestershire, North Somerset, and Bath and North East Somerset.

  • Bristol city centre
  • Clifton
  • Redland
  • Bishopston
  • Henleaze
  • Horfield
  • Filton
  • Fishponds
  • Easton
  • Bedminster
  • Southville
  • Knowle
  • Brislington

We also travel to Bath, Weston-super-Mare, Portishead, Clevedon, Keynsham, Yate and Thornbury. If your address is not listed, ask: the examiner comes to you, so the list is a guide and not a boundary.

Where the Test Takes Place

At home, or in a private room arranged near you.

A home visit needs a quiet room with a table, a chair and a socket for around ninety minutes. Because the journey is longer, it helps us to know in advance about anything that could delay the start, such as restricted parking in Clifton and the central residents' zones, or a property that is hard to find.

If home is not suitable, we arrange a private meeting room in the city or in Bath. Where two or more people are to be tested on the same matter, we will try to see them on the same day, one after the other, so that the first cannot describe the word lists to the second.

What You Need Before Booking

The requirement is the same everywhere, and it is the one most cases fail.

A CIT needs at least one specific detail that the person would know only if they were involved, and that they have not been told, shown or asked about. A name, a place, an object or an amount can all work. A general suspicion cannot, because there is nothing in it to recognise. Two or three separate details make a stronger test than one.

The person to be tested must agree and gives written consent on the day. The full requirements, with a checklist, are on the who qualifies for a CIT test page. If no detail is known, read about the searching CIT and its limits before going further.

A Local Example of a Word List

Illustrative only. Real lists are written for each case.

Suppose the detail being tested is an object, and the true answer is a blue holdall. The person would see that item mixed in with five alternatives, a red rucksack, a grey suitcase, a black satchel, a green kitbag and a brown briefcase, and would be asked to press a different key whenever a white carrier appeared. Each item is shown around thirty times in shuffled order.

Objects make good CIT details because they are concrete and easy to match. Each alternative is the same kind of thing, described in the same pattern of colour and noun, so nothing about the wording gives the real one away.

The step-by-step account of what happens next, from recording to result, is on the how CIT testing works page.

What the Test Can and Cannot Tell You

The same limits apply in Bristol as anywhere else.

A CIT can show that a detail is recognised, or that there is no sign of recognition in a recording that passed its quality check. It cannot test a bare accusation, it cannot tell innocent knowledge from guilty knowledge, and it does not prove what a person did. People can also be taught techniques that weaken the test; research published in 2004 showed this for the protocol we use.

Published laboratory studies of P300-based CITs commonly report detection of 80 to 95 per cent of people who hold the tested information. Those are laboratory figures and are not results from our own testing, and field validation is limited. If you are weighing this against a conventional lie detector, the CIT test vs polygraph comparison sets out the differences, and relationship cases are covered on the page about CIT testing for a suspected cheating partner.

Booking a CIT Test in Bristol

What happens after you get in touch.

You can book online or ask a question first. We will ask what happened, what the person to be tested has and has not been told, and who else knows. If a sound test can be built, we draft the word lists with you and then agree a date and place in Bristol. If it cannot, we will say so before any appointment is made.

Book a CIT Test

More on CIT Testing

Each guide covers one part of the subject in depth.

CIT Testing UKThe main guide: what a Concealed Information Test is, what it can and cannot show, and how to book. How CIT Testing WorksThe method in full: item lists, the EEG recording, the scoring and the checks that guard against a bad reading. Who Qualifies for a CIT TestThe case requirements, the consent requirement and a checklist to work through before you book. CIT Test vs PolygraphTwo different tests compared: what each measures, what each needs, and where each one goes wrong. CIT Test for a Suspected Cheating PartnerWhat a CIT can and cannot show in a relationship trust case, and why a withheld detail is essential. The Searching CIT TestFor cases where the true answer is unknown: how the searching method works and why it is reported more cautiously.

CIT Testing by Area

Local arrangements, coverage and the legal position in each area.

CIT Test London CIT Test Manchester CIT Test Birmingham CIT Test Leeds CIT Test Liverpool CIT Test Cardiff CIT Test Scotland CIT Test Sheffield CIT Test Newcastle CIT Test Nottingham CIT Test Brighton CIT Test Cheshire

Questions and Answers

Questions about arranging a CIT test in Bristol.

Do you travel to Bath and Weston-super-Mare?

Yes. We cover Bristol, Bath, Weston-super-Mare, Portishead, Clevedon, Keynsham, Yate and Thornbury.

How much notice do you need for a Bristol appointment?

More than for the northern cities, because of the distance. The item lists also have to be agreed before the visit, so allow at least a week from first contact.

Can two people be tested on the same day?

Yes, and it is preferable. Testing one after the other on the same visit means the first person cannot describe the word lists to the second.

What is a CIT test?

A Concealed Information Test measures whether a person's brain recognises a specific detail that they would know only if they were involved in an event. It uses an EEG cap and an on-screen task, and it does not ask accusing questions.

How long does an appointment in Bristol take?

Allow about ninety minutes. That covers consent, fitting the cap, checking the signal, and two or three recording blocks of around ten minutes each with rests between.

Does the person being tested have to agree?

Yes. Testing is voluntary and needs their written consent on the day. They can stop at any point.

Sources

The published research and legislation this page draws on.

  1. Meijer, E. H., klein Selle, N., Elber, L., and Ben-Shakhar, G. (2014). Memory detection with the Concealed Information Test: a meta-analysis of skin conductance, respiration, heart rate, and P300 data. Psychophysiology, 51(9), 879-904. Publication record
  2. Matsuda, I., Nittono, H., and Allen, J. J. B. (2012). The current and future status of the concealed information test for field use. Frontiers in Psychology, 3, 532. Full text
  3. Rosenfeld, J. P., Soskins, M., Bosh, G., and Ryan, A. (2004). Simple, effective countermeasures to P300-based tests of detection of concealed information. Psychophysiology, 41(2), 205-219.
  4. Offender Management Act 2007, section 30 (use in criminal proceedings of evidence from polygraph sessions). legislation.gov.uk

Accuracy and effect-size figures on this page are taken from the published laboratory research cited above. They are not results from our own testing, and field validation of P300 concealed information testing is limited. A CIT result shows whether a person's brain response distinguished one item from the others; it is not proof of what a person did, and we make no claim that results are admissible in any court or tribunal.

Arrange a CIT Test in Bristol

Tell us what happened and what the other person has been told. We will say plainly whether a test can be built, and then agree a date and place.

Book a CIT Test Ask a Question First