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COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Carlos Hilado Memorial State College
Brgy. Enclaro, Binalbagan, Negros Occidental

LIE
DETEC
TION
TECHN
IQUES
(FOR11
5)
Module
1
INSTRUCTORS:

LORIEJEN FIDELSON – DEQUILATO, RCRIM., MSCJ

PURISIMA G. ROMERO, RCRIM., MSCJ

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INTRODUCTION TO THE BASIC CONCEPT

LESSON OBJECTIVES:
• Acquire knowledge on the basic concept of lie detection
• Know the objectives of polygraph examination.
• Know the historical development of Polygraph

INTRODUCTION:

For as long as human beings have deceived one another, people have tried to
develop techniques for detecting deception and finding truth. Lie detection took on
aspects of modern science with the development in the 20th century of techniques
intended for the psychophysiological detection of deception, most prominently,
polygraph testing. The polygraph instrument measures several physiological
processes (e.g., heart rate) and changes in those processes. From the charts of those
measures in response to questions on a polygraph test, sometimes aided by
observations during the polygraph examination, examiners infer a psychological
state, namely, whether a person is telling the truth or lying.

LESSON 1:

Important Note:

A polygraph instrument is basically a combination of medical devices that

are used to monitor changes occurring in the body. As a person is questioned
about a certain event or incident, the examiner looks to see how the person's heart
rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate and electro-dermal activity (sweatiness, in
this case of the fingers) change in comparison to normal levels. Fluctuations may
indicate that person is being deceptive, but exam results are open to interpretation
by the examiner.

TERMS TO REMEMBER:

POLYGRAPHY – is scientific methods of detecting deception done with the

aid of a polygraph instrument.

POLYGRAPH = (derived from the Greek words Poly) = many or several and
Graph = (writing chart) is a scientific instrument capable of recording
simultaneously changes in blood pressure, pulse rate, respiration and skin
resistance as indicative of emotional disturbance especially of a lying subject
when being questioned.

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RESPONSE – any activity or inhibition of the previous activity of an organism

resulting from stimulation.

SPECIFIC RESPONSE – is any deviation from the normal tracing of the subject.

NORMAL TRACING – is a tracing on the chart wherein the subject answered in

the irrelevant question.

POLYGRAPH EXAMINER – is one who conducts and administer the test.

CHART OR POLYGRAMS – refers to the composite records of Pneumograph,

Galvanograph and Cardiosphymograph tracings recorded from series of questions.

SUBJECT – refers to the person being examined.

STIMULUS – is a force or motion reaching the organism and excites the receptors.
REACTION – it is an action in mental attitude evokes by external influence.
DECEPTION – is an act of deceiving or misleading usually accompanied by lying.
DETECTION – It is an act of discovery of existence, presence of fact or something
hidden or obscure.
LYING – the uttering or conveying of falsehood or creating a false or misleading
information with the intention of affecting wrongfully the acts and opinion of other.

ANCIENT JUDICIAL METHODS FOR THE DETECTION OF DECEPTION

Ancient judicial methods for the detection of deception were based on religious faith and
superstition. These methods consisted of trial by combat, trial by ordeal, or trial by torture.

TRIAL BY COMBAT

In a trial by combat, physical strength was used to resolve a dispute between two individuals.
They would engage in a single battle wherein the outcome was based on divine judgment. It
was believed that God would not allow the guilty to prosper and would, therefore, give
victory to the person with the truth on his side. In cases where the accused was unfit to fight,
for example, when a child, a woman, or a person disabled by age or infirmity was accused,
they had the right to nominate a champion to fight on their behalf.

TRIAL BY ORDEAL

In a trial by ordeal, it was believed once again that God would intervene and protect the
innocent by performing a miracle on their behalf. The following are some examples of a trial
by ordeal.

ORDEAL OF FIRE — ANCIENT PERSIA — CIRCA 500 BC

Typically, the ordeal of fire required the accused to walk barefoot a certain distance
(approximately 10 feet) over red-hot ploughshares or to hold a red-hot iron bar, after which
the feet or the hands were bandaged and re-examined three days later by a priest. If God had
intervened to heal the burns, the innocence of the accused was established. If the injury was
festering, the accused was judged to be guilty and was either exiled or executed.

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ORDEAL OF RICE CHEWING — ANCIENT CHINA — CIRCA 500 BC

In the ordeal of rice chewing, the suspect was made to chew on a handful of dry rice while
being questioned and then told to spit it out after a certain amount of time. The rice was then
examined. If the rice came out easy enough and was moist, the suspect was judged innocent.
If the Gods made the rice dry and it stuck to the person’s mouth when they tried to spit it
out, they were accused of lying and judged guilty. This result was based more on
physiological reactions to stress and less on divine intervention. It was believed that stress
caused by fear of detection slowed down the flow of saliva, thus causing the suspect to have a
dry mouth.

ORDEAL OF THE SACRED ASS — ANCIENT INDIA — CIRCA 500 BC

The ordeal of the sacred ass involved a psychological test for detecting deception and not a
physiological one. Before trial, priests placed a donkey in a pitch-dark tent and coated its tail
with lamp black, a very fine black soot. Crime suspects were brought to the tent and told that
the donkey inside was a "sacred ass" and would bray whenever a liar or guilty person pulled
on its tail. Suspects did not know that the priests had previously coated the donkey’s tail with
lamp black.

One at a time, each suspect was instructed to enter the pitch-dark tent and pull on the tail of
the sacred ass to determine their innocence or guilt of the crime in question. Having nothing
to fear, the innocent person would go in and pull on the donkey's tail, confident that it would
not bray. As a result, their hands would be covered in lamp black when they exited the tent.
Upon examination of their hands, it was evident to the priests that the suspect had, indeed,
pulled on the donkey’s tail as instructed and was therefore judged to be truthful.

The guilty person would go in the tent and, avoiding any chance of the donkey braying and
revealing his or her guilt, they would stand there for a few moments and then exit the tent
without ever pulling on the donkey’s tail. When the suspect emerged from the tent with clean
hands, free of lamp black, the priests knew that he or she had not pulled on the donkey’s tail
as directed and was therefore judged to be guilty of the crime.

TRIAL BY TORTURE

Trial by torture can be traced back to the Roman and Greek Empires, the most well-known
era being that of the Spanish Inquisition. During this unsophisticated age, physical torture
was the primary means of lie detecting. Torture techniques were many and various. By no
means reliable, even a truthful person would confess to a crime if tortured for a long enough
time.

OBJECTIVES OF A POLYGRAPH EXAMINATION

 Obtain additional investigation leads to the facts of the case/offenses.

 Locate the fruits or tools of the crime or whereabouts of wanted persons.
 Identify other persons involved.
 Obtain valuable information form reluctant witnesses
 Eliminate the innocent suspects.
 Ascertain of a person is telling the truth by verifying statement or comparing
conflicting statements.
 Pre- employment Screening

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HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF
POLYGRAPH
Since the beginning of time man has been looking for an
efficient way to flush out the lie. Various innovative
techniques were tried. Some were ridiculous, other
cruel, but they were all based on the assumption that
some physiological reaction occurred when a person
was confronted with a specific event under investigation
and that this reaction would have a detectable external
manifestation.

In 1730, the
British novelist Daniel
Defoe in his essay "An Effectual Scheme to the Immediate
Preventing and Suppressing of Street Robberies all Other
Disorders of the Night" advance a theory that the pulse of a
suspicious person can reveal that the person is lying.

1846

Although not for the purpose of detecting deception, German physician and physiologist Carl
Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig invents what he calls a "kymographion", a device with the ability
to record changes in arterial blood pressure and respiration simultaneously so that he can
draw conclusions about the correlation between external respiration and the circulatory
system. Ludwig’s kymographion records these physiological variables in graphical form
using a metal stylus that marks a rotating drum wrapped with a sheet of smoked paper.

The kymographion not only changes the everyday work of physiologists, but other sciences
benefit from it as well. Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig is credited for the invention of one of
the most acclaimed apparatuses for quantitative measurement.

ANGELO MOSSO

In 1878, the Italian physiologist Angelo

Mosso used an instrument called a
plethysmograph to detect the change in blood
pressure in response to certain stimuli.

SIR JAMES MACKENZIE, M.D.

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Sir James Mackenzie, MD, constructed the first polygraph in 1892. An instrument that could
be used during medical examinations with the ability to simultaneously record undulated
traces of vascular pulse (radial, venous and arterial), by way of a stylus on a rotary drum of
smoked paper.

CESARE
LOMBROSO

The first use of a scientific instrument to measure physiological responses was in 1895 when
the doctor, psychiatrist, and Italian criminologist Cesare Lombroso, modified an existing
instrument called a hydrosphygmograph and used it to measure physiological changes in the
blood pressure and pulse of a suspect questioned by police.

William Moulton Marston

demonstrates his systolic blood
pressure test

William Moulton Marston

Dr. William Moulton Marston, an
American lawyer, and psychologist, is
credited with the invention of a primitive
form of lie detector when he developed
in 1915, of the systolic blood pressure
test, which would become, subsequently,
a component of the modern polygraph.
This technique of Dr. Marston used a
standard blood pressure cuff and a
stethoscope to take intermittent
readings of the systolic blood pressure of

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a subject during an examination in order

to detect deception.

JOHN A.
LARSON
In 1921, John A. Larson, a
Canadian psychologist
employed by the Police
Service of California,
Berkeley, built what many
consider to be the original
lie detector device His
instrument provided
continuous readings of
blood pressure, rather
than discontinuous
readings of the sort found
in Marston's device. He
named his instrument the
polygraph, a word coming
from Greek and meaning
several written because
the instrument had the
ability to read multiple
psychological responses
at the same time and
document these
responses on a rotating
drum of smoked paper.
Using his polygraph,
John A. Larson was the
first person to measure
and record continuously
and simultaneously the
heart rate, blood pressure
and respiratory variations
of a person during an
interrogation. His
polygraph was used
extensively and very
successfully, in criminal
investigations.
The original lie detector by John A. Larson

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John Larson conducting exam Polygraph Exam circa 1930’s

The Keeler Polygraph considered the

prototype of the modern polygraph

LEONARDE KEELER 1937

In 1939, Leonarde Keeler patented what is considered the prototype of the modern
polygraph - the Keeler Polygraph. Today Leonarde Keeler is known as the father of the
polygraph.

1938

Leonarde Keeler further refines the Keeler Polygraph when he adds a third physiological
measuring component for the detection of deception — the psychogalvanometer — a

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component that measures changes in a subject’s galvanic skin resistance during questioning.
In doing so, Keeler marks the birth of the polygraph as we know it today.

1939

Leonarde Keeler patents what is now understood as the prototype of the modern polygraph —
the Keeler Polygraph. Today, Leonarde Keeler is known as the "Father of Polygraph".

1947

John E. Reid, a lawyer from Chicago, develops the "Control Question Technique" (CQT), a
polygraph technique that incorporates control questions that are designed to be emotionally
arousing for truthful subjects and less emotionally arousing for deceptive subjects than the
relevant questions. The Reid Control Question Technique is a breakthrough in polygraph
methodology and it continues to be the polygraph technique that is used by most examiners
today. Reid’s CQT replaces the "Relevant/Irrelevant Question Technique" (RIT), a technique
which uses relevant or irrelevant questions during a polygraph examination.

1948

Leonarde Keeler opens the world’s first polygraph school — the Keeler Polygraph Institute,
in Chicago.

1958

Richard O. Arther experiments with two pneumographs and finds there is a difference
between the thoracic and the abdominal pattern about 33% of the time. By utilizing two
pneumograph channels, the best recordings of the respiratory changes would always be
recorded.

Arther also experiments with the use of Galvanic Skin Response automatic and manual
modes and finds there is not a significant difference between the two.

1960

Cleve Backster, building upon the Reid Control Question Technique, develops the "Backster
Zone Comparison Technique" (ZCT), a polygraph technique which primarily involves an
alteration of the Reid question sequencing.

Cleve Backster also introduces a quantification system of chart analysis, making it more
objective and scientific than before. His system for the numerical evaluation of the
physiological data collected from the polygraph charts is standard procedure in the field of
Polygraphy today.

1962

The study of the use of computers in the physiological detection of deception progresses
through several phases.

Late 1970s

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Dr Joseph F. Kubis, of Fordham University in New York City, is the first researcher to use
potential computer applications for the purpose of polygraph chart analysis.

1980s

Research is conducted on computerized polygraph at the University of Utah Psychology

Laboratory by Drs John C. Kircher and David C. Raskin.

1988

Drs John C. Kircher and David C. Raskin develop the "Computer Assisted Polygraph
System" (CAPS), which incorporates the first algorithm used for evaluating physiological
data collected for diagnostic purposes.

1993

At Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Dr Dale E. Olsen, assisted by Mr

John C. Harris, completes a software program called "POLYSCORE". The program
implements an algorithm-based chart-scoring system to analyze the polygraph data collected
and to estimate a statistical probability of deception in a subject after questioning.

1993

Polygraph makes its formal entrance into the computer age.

2003

POLYSCORE Version 5.1 analyzes the data from polygraph examinations administered in
1,411 real-life criminal cases provided by the United States Department of Defence
Polygraph Institute for study and comparison purposes.

Validated algorithms exceed 98 percent in their accuracy to quantify, analyze, and evaluate
the physiological data collected from polygraph examinations administered in real-life
criminal cases.

2003

The United States Department of Energy (DOE) commissions a review committee of The
National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to study the scientific evidence on the polygraph. In
this endeavour, the Committee sifts through existing evidence in the polygraph research
literature and does not conduct any new laboratory or field research on polygraph testing for,
as they report:

"Real-world conditions are difficult — if not impossible — to replicate in a mock-crime

setting or a laboratory environment for the purpose of assessing polygraph effectiveness."

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The Review Committee of The National Academy of Sciences concludes that, although there
may be alternative techniques to polygraph testing, none can outperform the polygraph, nor
do any of these yet show promise of supplanting the polygraph in the near future.

Present Day

Polygraph examinations or psychophysiological credibility assessments are used in more than

50 countries around the world by government organizations, law enforcement agencies, the
legal community, the corporate sector, and private citizens.

Withstanding more than a century of research, development, and widespread use, the
polygraph examination remains the most effective means of verifying the truth and detecting
deception.

Modern Polygraph

COMPUTER AGE OF THE POLYGRAPH

The polygraph made its official entry into the computer age around 1993 when statisticians
of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland completed a
software called PolyScore, which used a sophisticated mathematical algorithm to analyze the
polygraph data in order to estimate a probability level of lying or sincerity of a subject.

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY OF THE UNITED STATES

In 2003, the Department of Energy of the United States commissioned a study on the
scientific evidence of the polygraph with the National Academy of Sciences. To do this, a
review committee scrutinized the available evidence in the research literature on the
polygraph. They did not, however, conduct new research in the laboratory or in the field,
because as reported by the Committee, it would be difficult - if not impossible - to replicate a
crime scene simulation, in a lab the same to evaluate the effectiveness of the polygraph.

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The National Academy of Sciences review committee concluded that although there may be
alternative techniques to polygraph testing, none can outperform the polygraph and none
seem promising at supplanting the polygraph in the near future.

Polygraph exams
The polygraph exam has withstood over a century of research, development and widespread
use, the polygraph is still the most effective way to verify the truth and at detecting
deception.

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