59th Annual STS (1999–2000)
Finalists
Stefan Merrill Block

TEXAS
Stefan Merrill Block, 17, of Plano, has been chosen as a finalist in the Intel Science Talent Search for his behavioral and social sciences entry. His study sought to determine whether training could be effective in helping adolescents detect when one of their peers was telling a lie. Stefan consulted with leading researchers in the field of deception and non-verbal expression of emotion in designing his experiment. Seventy-six pairs of ninth graders were broken into groups with various levels of training or experience in detecting lies and recorded their reactions to 25 statements. Students who were trained but also received feedback on the veracity of the statements improved their detection skills most, but training proved to be the key factor. Such skills could be of value in child-parent relations and in children's drug abuse programs. Stefan, who is editor of his high school newspaper, has earned more than 30 academic awards and honors including a first place grand award at the Intel ISEF last year. Following graduation from Plano Senior High School, he hopes to attend Harvard and pursue a career in neuropsychology. His parents are Dr. Andrew and Deborah Block.