CIT Testing in Newcastle

CIT Test Newcastle

Concealed Information Testing by home visit or at a private venue across Newcastle, Gateshead, Sunderland and Tyneside.

Book a CIT Test What Is a CIT Test?
WhereYour home or a private room arranged in Newcastle. 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 Newcastle
  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 Newcastle
  8. Booking a CIT Test in Newcastle
  9. Questions and answers

CIT Testing in Newcastle

How the service runs locally.

We provide Concealed Information Tests in Newcastle upon Tyne and across Tyne and Wear. The North East is the furthest we travel within England, so appointments here are planned ahead and, where two people are involved in the same matter, arranged for the same visit. The examiner works at a home address or in a private room booked locally.

The CIT is a test of recognition, not of stress. It measures with an EEG cap whether one true detail stands out for a person among several plausible false ones. This page covers arrangements in Newcastle; the CIT testing guide covers how the test works.

Areas We Cover

Coverage includes all five Tyne and Wear boroughs: Newcastle, Gateshead, North Tyneside, South Tyneside and Sunderland, with County Durham and south Northumberland by arrangement.

  • Newcastle city centre
  • Jesmond
  • Gosforth
  • Heaton
  • Byker
  • Walker
  • Fenham
  • Benwell
  • Kenton
  • Gateshead
  • North Shields
  • Tynemouth
  • Whitley Bay
  • South Shields
  • Sunderland
  • Washington

We also travel to Durham, Morpeth, Hexham and Cramlington. 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.

For a home visit we need a quiet room with a table, a chair and a socket for about ninety minutes. Because of the distance, a postponed appointment is harder to rearrange here than closer to our base, so it is worth making sure beforehand that the person is willing, rested and free for the full slot.

Where home is not private enough, we arrange a meeting room in Newcastle or Gateshead. The person who booked the test does not sit in on the recording, and should not be within earshot.

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 amount of money, and the true answer is 340 pounds. The person would see that item mixed in with five alternatives, 260 pounds, 410 pounds, 180 pounds, 520 pounds and 290 pounds, and would be asked to press a different key whenever 450 pounds appeared. Each item is shown around thirty times in shuffled order.

Amounts work well when the true figure is specific and has not been mentioned. Round numbers are avoided on both sides of the list, because people respond to round figures regardless, and every alternative has the same number of digits.

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 Newcastle 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 Newcastle

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 Newcastle. 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 Bristol CIT Test Cardiff CIT Test Scotland CIT Test Sheffield CIT Test Nottingham CIT Test Brighton CIT Test Cheshire

Questions and Answers

Questions about arranging a CIT test in Newcastle.

Do you cover Sunderland and Gateshead as well as Newcastle?

Yes. All of Tyne and Wear is covered, including Gateshead, Sunderland, North Shields and South Shields, with Durham and south Northumberland by arrangement.

How much notice do you need for the North East?

Allow one to two weeks from first contact. The word lists are agreed with you first, and the visit is then scheduled.

Can two people be tested on one visit?

Yes, and for the North East we prefer it. Testing one after the other also 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 Newcastle 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 Newcastle

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