CIT Testing in Nottingham

CIT Test Nottingham

Concealed Information Testing by home visit or at a private venue across Nottingham and the East Midlands.

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

CIT Testing in Nottingham

How the service runs locally.

We carry out Concealed Information Tests in Nottingham and the neighbouring parts of the East Midlands, including Derby. The examiner travels to the person being tested and works either at a home address or in a private room arranged nearby.

A CIT checks whether a person's brain recognises a detail that has been kept from them. It uses an EEG cap and an on-screen key-press task, and nobody is asked whether they did anything. This page deals with the Nottingham service. For the method, see the CIT testing guide.

Areas We Cover

Coverage takes in the city of Nottingham, the surrounding Nottinghamshire boroughs, and Derby and south Derbyshire.

  • Nottingham city centre
  • West Bridgford
  • Beeston
  • Wollaton
  • Sherwood
  • Arnold
  • Carlton
  • Bulwell
  • Clifton
  • Hucknall
  • Long Eaton
  • Ilkeston

We also travel to Derby, Mansfield, Newark, Loughborough and Leicester. 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.

We need a quiet room with a table, a chair and a socket, and about ninety minutes without interruptions. That is the whole requirement for a home visit.

A neutral room is the better choice when the tested person is the one who asked for the test. Someone who has been accused and wants to show that certain details mean nothing to them can volunteer. The other party, or a neutral third person, gives us the details privately, and the volunteer is never told which they are. Using a room that belongs to neither side helps both to accept the outcome.

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 a first name, and the true answer is Naomi. The person would see that item mixed in with five alternatives, Elaine, Sandra, Louise, Joanne and Denise, and would be asked to press a different key whenever Teresa appeared. Each item is shown around thirty times in shuffled order.

Names are the most common detail in personal cases and the easiest to get wrong. Before the list is fixed, the person who booked goes through it and strikes out any name belonging to a relative, a colleague, a former partner or a friend of the person being tested.

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 Nottingham 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 Nottingham

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 Nottingham. 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 Newcastle CIT Test Brighton CIT Test Cheshire

Questions and Answers

Questions about arranging a CIT test in Nottingham.

Do you cover Derby from Nottingham?

Yes. Derby, Long Eaton, Ilkeston and south Derbyshire are covered, along with Mansfield, Newark and Loughborough.

I have been accused. Can I ask for the test myself?

Yes. The other party or a neutral third person supplies the details to us privately, and you are tested without being told which they are. Flat responses on several well-chosen details support your account, though no test can prove a negative outright.

Where in Nottingham do you test?

At a home address, or in a private meeting room that we arrange. We do not run a fixed clinic.

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 Nottingham 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 Nottingham

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