CIT Testing in Sheffield

CIT Test Sheffield

Concealed Information Testing by home visit or at a private venue across Sheffield and South Yorkshire.

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

CIT Testing in Sheffield

How the service runs locally.

We carry out Concealed Information Tests in Sheffield and across South Yorkshire. Sheffield lies on the other side of the Peak District from our base in Cheshire, so it is one of the nearer cities we travel to. The examiner comes to the person being tested, at home or in a private room arranged in the city.

A CIT measures whether a person's brain recognises one specific detail that they have not been told. An EEG cap records the response while words appear on a screen, and no accusing questions are asked. This page covers the service in Sheffield. The CIT testing guide explains the method.

Areas We Cover

Coverage takes in all four South Yorkshire boroughs, Sheffield, Rotherham, Barnsley and Doncaster, and the north of Derbyshire.

  • Sheffield city centre
  • Ecclesall
  • Crookes
  • Walkley
  • Hillsborough
  • Heeley
  • Woodseats
  • Dore
  • Totley
  • Handsworth
  • Mosborough
  • Stocksbridge
  • Rotherham
  • Barnsley
  • Doncaster

We also travel to Chesterfield, Worksop, Dronfield and Penistone. 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, and about ninety minutes. Children, pets and other adults should be out of the room, and ideally out of the house, while the recording runs.

The time of day matters more than people expect. The brain response the test relies on shrinks when someone is tired, so a person who works nights or long shifts should be seen after they have slept, not at the end of a shift. Tell us about working patterns when you book and we will fix the appointment around them.

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 vehicle, and the true answer is a white van. The person would see that item mixed in with five alternatives, a red hatchback, a grey saloon, a black pickup, a blue estate and a green minibus, and would be asked to press a different key whenever a silver coupe appeared. Each item is shown around thirty times in shuffled order.

Each alternative follows the same pattern of colour and vehicle type. If the person drives a grey saloon themselves, that item would be replaced, because their own car would draw a response for reasons that have nothing to do with the case.

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 Sheffield 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 Sheffield

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 Sheffield. 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 Newcastle CIT Test Nottingham CIT Test Brighton CIT Test Cheshire

Questions and Answers

Questions about arranging a CIT test in Sheffield.

Do you cover Rotherham, Barnsley and Doncaster?

Yes. All four South Yorkshire boroughs are covered, along with Chesterfield and the north of Derbyshire.

The person works night shifts. When should the test be?

After they have slept. Tiredness reduces the brain response the test depends on, so we avoid appointments at the end of a shift. Tell us the working pattern when you book.

Is there a Sheffield clinic?

No. We travel to Sheffield and test at a home address or in a private meeting room that we arrange.

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 Sheffield 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 Sheffield

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