Eighty male undergraduate students were randomly assigned to one of five groups in an analogue investigation of crime-intoxication on the physiological detection of deception. Sixty-four of the subjects committed a mock crime and half of these were legally intoxicated during the crime. Sixteen subjects committed no crime and served as innocent controls. Results only partially replicated those of Bradley and Ainsworth (1984). Whereas they found crime-intoxication diminished the effectiveness of both the control question test (CQT) and the guilty knowledge test (GKT), the present study found crime-intoxication diminished the accuracy of the CQT only for certain subjects; those who reported high subjective arousal during the crime. Results showed no alcohol effect on the GKT. In light of their results Bradley and Ainsworth suggested that alcohol may act through emotional or memory processes important to polygraphic examination. In a fully factorial design, the present study investigated the effects of threat during the crime and memory for crime details on polygraph outcome. As well, the effect of alcohol on these "emotion" and memory variables was examined. Memory was found to be an important variable in GKT accuracy but not important to CQT accuracy. Threat, as operationalized for the present investigation, had no effect on either the CQT or the GKT but a component of the threat variable, subjective arousal, was found to affect GKT accuracy but not that of the CQT. Raskin's (1979) two-response model of detection of deception is used to explain the results of this study although the relationship of subjective arousal to polygraph outcome is unclear and requires examination in future studies. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

Sixty male undergraduate students participated in an experiment designed to investigate the effects of anti-anxiety and stimulant drugs on polygraphic interrogation. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of four groups. Three of the groups watched a 12 minute videotape depicting the burglary of an apartment through the eyes of the thief. Each subject was asked to imagine that it was he who was committing the crime and was given instructions to encourage his becoming absorbed in the videotape. Afterwards, they were accused of committing this crime. Each subject received one of three look-alike capsules containing a drug which, they were told, would help them to escape detection. Capsules for the first group contained 10 mg of diazepam; those for the second group, 20 mg of methylphenidate; a placebo was given to the third group. Subjects in the fourth group, the innocent control condition, viewed a 10 minute videotape sequence showing the interior of another apartment, this time with no crime committed. They did not receive any medication or placebo after they were accused of committing the crime. After a one hour wait, all subjects were interrogated by the experimenter, who was blind to both their guilt or innocence and drug status. Skin conductance, heart rate and respiration were monitored; all charts were scored blindly. No drug effects were found in the guilt/innocence classification or in any of the physiological channels being monitored. The overall hit rate, including inconclusives, was 81.7%. A significant relationship between recall of guilty information and detectability was also found. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

A study was conducted to evaluate the ability of police dog teams to identify "guilty" subjects in a simulated crime situation and to compare their accuracy with that of a polygraph examination. Research on the olfactory acuity of dogs, and on the role of olfactory cues such as pheromones in social communication, implies that the detection of guilt by experienced police dogs could occur as reliably as police dog handlers believe. The literature on polygraph investigations shows high reliability in detecting guilt. This was one of the reasons for using the polygraph as the comparison technique. Three experienced dog teams from the Vancouver Police Dog Squad and two expert polygraph field examiners were used. The subjects were 64 male volunteers, all university or college students. Subjects randomly assigned to the "guilty" condition were instructed to "steal" and conceal a $10 bill that had been left in an empty office, and to deny throughout the rest of the experiment that they had done so. Volunteers in the "not guilty" condition were told nothing about the "crime" Both groups were told that police dog teams and polygraph operators would try to find out whether they were guilty. They were promised $5.00 for participating plus a bonus of $10 if they succeeded in establishing that they were innocent. Police dog team performance was about chance level, while the polygraph examination was significantly more accurate than chance and than the dog teams. No individual difference was found among the dog teams. The failure of the dog teams could be attributed either to the impossibility of detecting guilty by smell cues or to some aspect of the simulation procedure. Further research should be directed at developing more realistic field studies. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2005. / Advisor: Dr. Joey F. George, Florida State University, College of Business, Dept. of Management Information Systems. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 14, 2005). Document formatted into pages; contains ix, 119 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

The polygraph, and other methods of lie detection, measure the physiological arousal thought to accompany attempts to deceive. Traditional methods of lie detection, however, have failed to acquire the accuracy and consistency necessary to be relied upon in important applications. The reason for this is that there is not a sufficient understanding of why people exhibit physiological arousal when they are deceptive, and how they come to have these responses. The current thesis explores how classical conditioning can be used to explain the physiological arousal a person has to their own deception, and how this might come about in the normal social conditioning of the individual. Chapters 1 discusses the background of lie detection to this point, current methods in use, and the current understanding of why people exhibit physiological arousal when they are deceptive. Chapter 2 covers some of the technical aspects of the experiments presented in this thesis, such as the experiment programs and environment used. Chapter 3 of the current thesis examined the punishment of verbal behaviors in a person’s past conditioning can cause them to exhibit increased physiological arousal when engaging in that behavior. Chapters 4 and 5 explored the classical conditioning of eyeblink and skin conductance responses to deception and truth-value in a laboratory setting. Chapter 6 further explored the classical conditioning of a skin conductance response to instances of deception regarding an internally consistent context, and the generalization of these conditioned responses to instances of deception that only the subject knew about. In conclusion, the current thesis argued that the responses relied upon by traditional methods of lie detection can be explained using a behavioral explanation based on classical conditioning and past punishment. Classical conditioning, it is argued, can provide a more direct explanation of the responses exhibited, and potentially a powerful tool for improving the responses we rely upon to detect deception.

M.Phil. / Problem: Writer has identified a lack of authoritative guidelines on how to properly administer a po;ygraph test and subsequently present evidence on such test, before dispute resolution and/or adjudicating bodies. Purpose: In short, writer would attempt to analyse the various shortcomings in the manner that labour practitioners and/or presiding officers have dealt with expert evidence, and the admissibility and/or reliability of polygraph tests, over the past two decades. After identifying these shortcomings, writer would attempt a comparison of the South African position with that of the United States of America. Thereafter, writer would make certain suggestions on how the situation may be corrected, so as to attain legal certainty on the subject. Research Methodology: Writer will consider the history of the Lie Detector Test and will consider the scientific operation of such Test. Writer would further analyse the South African legal position on the subject of expert evidence and polygraph testing, including legislation, case law, academic articles, etc. Writer would also endeavour to compare the South African position with that of the United States of America, once again reviewing legislation, case law and academic guidelines. Suggestions: Writer will present practical guidelines to the employee undergoing the test, the polygraph exarr.:ner and the adjudicator at the disciplinary hearing, Labour Court, Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration or Bargaining Council. In conclusion, writer will propose that a Code of Good Practise, similar to the current legislation in the United States, be promulgated. Such Code, or similar legislation, should contain a detailed set of guidelines on the evidentiary value of evidence on polygraph testing and the manner that same should be presented during litigious proceedings. In addition, same should set out strict requirements for the administration of valid polygraph tests, i.e. that same should be undertaken voluntarily, that the proceedings must be video recorded, etc.

The sensitivity of pupillary responses (PR) to emotional states brought on by psychological state of deception was explored. Utilizing a combination of guilty person and guilty knowledge techniques, 16 male and 14 female Ss were presented with neutral and relevant names, with relevant names involving deception. Half of the Ss were presented with one relevant name and the other half were presented with two. The lists of five names were presented on three trials during which PR and GSR were monitored. Pupiliary responses and GSRs to relevant names were significantly different than PRs and GSRs to neutral names. There were no significant effects with respect to the number of relevant names and trials. In terms of detection rates, GSR yielded higher rates than PR. The correlational tests indicated no significant relationship between PR and GSR under the experimental conditions employed.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1997. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [80]-92).

The idea that psychopaths may be able to "beat" a standard polygraph ("lie detector") test remains a controversial issue. The one published study to date that has addressed this question directly (Raskin & Hare, 1978) has been challenged on the grounds that: 1) the polygraph testing situation lacked a 'realistic threat component, and 2) the examiner's decisions were not based on blind chart analyses (Lykken, 1978). The present study re-assessed the accuracy of the polygraph with psychopaths using a revised procedure, in response to Lykken's criticisms. Subjects were 24 psychopathic and 24 nonpsychopathic male prison inmates (aged 18-54) selected on the basis of psychopathy checklist scores (Hare, 1980) and DSM-III ratings within each diagnostic sample, equal groups of "guilty" and "innocent" subjects were tested regarding their involvement in a mock theft by experienced professional polygraphers using control question procedures. Methodological innovations included: a) a "group contingency threat" manipulation which produced a realistic motivational; atmosphere for the polygraph test, b) simultaneous recordings of physiological activity on field and laboratory polygraph instruments, and c) blind numerical analyses of the field polygraph charts. Consistent with Raskin and Hare's results, the guilty psychopaths in the present study were detected just as easily as the guilty nonpsychopaths, and the majority of guilty subjects (87%, excluding inconclusives ) were correctly identified, even when the decisions were based on blind chart analyses. However in contrast to Raskin and Hare's 91% accuracy figure for innocent subjects, the overall hit rate for innocent subjects in the present study was only 56%. Quantitative analyses of the laboratory polygraph recordings revealed few meaningful differences between psychopaths and nonpsychopaths, and the results for guilty and innocent subjects closely matched those obtained with the field polygraph. The findings were discussed in terms of their implications for the field validity of the control question test and the responsivity of psychopaths to threat. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

The effects of simple physical countermeasures on the validity of the control question test (CQT). a physiological detection of deception (PDD) technique. was investigated in a laboratory mock criae paradigm. Forty-eight Introductory Psychology students served as subjects and were assigned to either an innocent group or to one of three guilty groups. who participated in a mock crime. Two of the guilty groups were trained in a countermeasure technique, either self-induced pain or muscle tension, and were coached as to when to produce responses in order to beat the test. All subjects were motivated to produce truthful responses by the offer of credit points toward their final grades if they were classified as truthful on a subsequent PDD examination. All subjects were given a field type CQT examination by an experienced field PDD examiner. The examiner correctly classified 52% of the subjects, incorrectly classified 61% and called 42% inconclusive. Countermeasure usage did not produce changes in the frequency of either inconclusive of incorrect classifications. Statistically significant differences were found between the innocent and guilty groups in the semi-objective scores and in all of the objectively reduced measures (except heart rate). A significant but small difference was found between the guilty control and the countermeasures groups in finger pulse amplitude but in no other objective measure nor in the semi-objective scores. These results suggest the validity of the CQT to be robust in the face of the countermeasures used. Implications for field use of the CQT were discussed. / M. S.