LIE DETECTION

TECHNIQUES
FUNDAMENTALS OF
POLYGRAPH CHA
PTE
R
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Meaning of Polygraph
The word Polygraph is a combination
of two Greek words “poly” which
means “many” and “graph” which
means “writing a chart.”

Operationally, it is defined as an
instrument specially designed to
record psycho-physiological changes
that occur within the body of a person
specially when he is lying.
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Meaning of Polygraphy

It is the method of detecting deception

with the aid of the polygraph
instrument. It is administered by
asking questions to the subject to the
case under investigation.
DEFINITION OF TERMS
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Definition of
Terms
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Definition of Terms
▫ Deception. It is an act of deceiving or misleading usually
accomplished by lying.
▫ Lying. It is the uttering conveying falsehood or creating
false impression with the intention of affecting the acts or
opinions of others.
▫ Detection. The act of discovering the existence or
presence of fact of something hidden or obscure.
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Definition of Terms
▫ Emotion. In psychology, it signifies a reaction involving
certain physiological changes, such as an accelerated or
retarded pulse rate, the diminished or increased activities of
certain glands, or a change in body temperature, which
stimulate individual, or some component part of his or her
body, to further activity. The three primary reactions which
occur either as an immediate response to external stimuli
are Anger, Love, and Fear.
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Definition of Terms
▫ Fear. The emotional response to specific dangers that
appear to be potentially beyond person’s defensive
power. The lying person fears detection of the lie causing
psychological changes that can be recorded with the use
of Polygraph machine.
▫ Detection. is the act of discovering the existence or
presence of something hidden or obscured.
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Definition of Terms
▫ Subject. Is any person undergoing the actual polygraph
test or examination.
▫ Polygraphists or Polygraph Examiner. is the person
who conducts the actual polygraph test or examination –
Forensic Psychophysiologist.
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Definition of Terms
▫ Polygraph Test or Examination. Is the whole process of
questioning or the taking of one chart from a series of
questions or all of the charts and questions sheets used in
the test.
▫ Polygraph Chart or Polygrams. Is the recorded
tracings of all the emotional patterns permanently on the
charts or graphs from series of questions.
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Definition of Terms
▫ Admission. Is a self-incriminatory statement of facts
made by the accused, which do not directly involve an
acknowledgement to commit the offense in which he is
charged.
▫ Confession. Is a declaration of facts directly
acknowledging the truth of the guilt as charged or of
some essential part of the commission of the criminal
acts itself.
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Historical
Development of
Polygraph
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Development of
Cardiograph
Component
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Daniel Defoe (1730)

▫ Wrote an essay entitled “An effectual Scheme for the Immediate
Preventing of Street Robberies and Suppressing All Other Disorders
of the Night” wherein he suggested “taking the pulse” as a practical
and more humane method of identifying a criminal. Daniel Defoe
was hardly the first person to suggest the use of the pulse to detect
deception. While Defoe’s essay called upon criminologists to
employ medical science in the fight against crime, it was not until
the nineteenth century, that science came to the aid of the truth
seeker through the research of an Italian physiologist Angelo Mosso.
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Angelo Mosso (1878)

▫ An Italian Physiologist who was encouraged by Cesare Lombroso,
pursued his studies on emotion and fear and its influence on the heart
and respiration with an instrument for measuring blood pressure and
pulse change called “plethysmograph” invented by Francis Franke,
which revealed periodic undulations in blood pressure caused by
respiration cycle. His studies of the circulation of blood in the brain
contributed immensely to the study of the influences of fear. It was
Mosso who first reported experiments in which he observed that the
breathing pattern changed under certain stimuli.
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Cesare Lombroso (1895)

▫ An Italian Criminologist used and modified the “hydrosphymograph”
in the experiment he has made on actual criminal or suspects whose
truthfulness or deception he sought to determine on the basis of the
presence or absence of blood pressure-pulse changes when the suspects
were questioned about the offense under investigation. However, this
instrument is generally intended for medical purposes and not in the
process of detecting lies/deception or truthfulness of the subject.
▫ Physiological changes occur when suspects were asked about their
involvement in an offense.
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Dr. William Moulton Marston (1915)

▫ An American Psychologist.
▫ He believed that verbal deception could be detected by changes in
the systolic blood pressure during interrogation. He also created the
systolic blood pressure deception test, using a standard blood
pressure cuff (sphygmomanometer) and stethoscope.
▫ In this test, repeated inflation of the pressure cuff is required to
obtain readings taken at intervals during examination. This
technique is called Discontinued Technique.
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John A. Larson (1921)

▫ An American Psychologist, developed a “Larson Polygraph”, an
instrument capable on continuously recording all the three
phenomena – blood pressure, pulse, and respiration . It was
described as polygraphic apparatus in a portable form. It is
considered as the first modern polygraph and believed to be the
original lie detector.
▫ The first real-world application of “Cardio-pneumo-psychograph”
was in Berkeley sorority house/Berkeley Police Department.
▫ Considered as the Father of Polygraph.
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Leonarde Keeler (1925)

▫ An American Psychologist, invented a more satisfactory instrument
than the one used by Larson. Later on, Keeler made additional changes
in the instrument, and at the time of his death in 1949 the “Keeler
Polygraph” included, in addition to units for recordings blood
pressure-pulse and respiration changes, a “galvanometer” for
recording what is known as the Galvanic Skin Reflex or electrodermal
responses generally referred to as GSR.
▫ He devised the rolled chart paper and incorporated the kymograph.
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Leonarde Keeler (1925)

▫ In 1926, Keeler Polygraph came on the market as a new and improved
lie detector.
▫ In 1938, the “psychogalvanometer” was added to the components of
the Keeler Polygraph, thus signaling the birth of the polygraph as we
know today.
▫ In 1939, Keeler patented what is now understood as the prototype of
the modern polygraph – the Keeler Polygraph.
▫ Today, Keeler is known as the Father modern of Polygraph.
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Development of
Pneumograph
Component
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Vittorio Benussi (1914)

▫ An Italian Psychologist, published his research on respiration
changes as indicators of lying and deception.
▫ He used Pneumograph to record a subject’s breathing patterns.
▫ Benussi conducted experiments on the respiratory symptoms of
lying by recording subject’s breathing pattern, concluding that lying
caused an emotional change within the subject, which resulted in
respiratory changes that can be detected easily.
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Harold E. Burtt (1917)

▫ Improvised and conformingly utilized the techniques of Benussi.
▫ Determined that respiratory changes were indicative of deception.
He found out that changes in systolic blood pressure were of greater
value in determining deception than changes in respiration.
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Development of
Galvanograph
Component
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Jacques D’arsonval (1851)

▫ A French scientist who declared that electricity is generated by the
body. This was known as External Friction.
▫ He asserted that those sweat glands in the body at times store the
electricity and at other times discharge them.
▫ His works helped in the development of the galvanometer.
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Charles Samson Fere (1888)

▫ A French scientist who discovered that electro-dermal response is
cause by an increase in the action of the heart and vital energy
converted with human emotions.
▫ He asserted that human body has the ability to generate, store,
discharged high voltage of static electricity.
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Luigi Galvani
▫ An Italian Physiologist. Accorded the distinction for developing the
Galvanic Skin Reflex or the Galvanometer, which records electrical
bodily resistance regarding ohms, the lower current ever recorded.
The GSR reflected emotional changes by measuring changes in
person’s skin resistance to electricity.
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George Sticker (1897)

▫ The first person to suggest the use of the galvanograph for detection
deception.
▫ He theorized that the galvanic skin phenomenon was influenced by
the exciting mental impressions.
▫ Introduced the method of detecting deception from the galvanic
impression on the chart tracing.
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Otto Veraguth (1907)

▫ Was the first to use the term “psychogalvanic skin reflex”, an idea
that the electrical phenomenon was due to the activity of the sweat
glands.
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The Modern
Polygraph
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John E. Reid (1945)

▫ An American Lawyer/Polygraphist/Criminologist deviced an instrument
“The Reid Polygraph” for recording muscular activity along with the
changes in blood pressure, pulse, respiration and the GSR.
▫ In 1947, he developed the Control Question Technique (CQT), a
polygraph technique that incorporated control questions (comparison)
which were designed to be emotionally arousing for non deceptive
subjects than the relevant questions previously used. CQT replaced RIT
(relevant/Irrelevant Question Technique).
▫ The “Reid Control Question Technique” which is generally used and
accepted at present days.
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Sir James Mackenzie (1906)

▫ A British/Scottish Cardiologist.
▫ Refined his clinical polygraph in his article entitled, “The Ink
Polygraph.” This instrument used a clockwork mechanism for the
paper-rolling and time-marker movements and it produced ink
recordings of physiological functions (changes) that were easier to
acquire and to interpret.
▫ The Ink Polygraph, has been written that the modern polygraph is a
modification of Mackenzie’s clinical ink polygraph.
▫
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Dr. Joseph F. Kubis

▫ From the Fordham University in New York City.
▫ The first researcher to use potential computer applications for polygraph
chart analysis in the late 1970s.
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Dr. David C. Raskin and Dr. John C. Kircher
(1980)
▫ The University of Utah researchers introduced computer assisted
polygraph techniques in the early 80’s, and they remain at the forefront
of developments in instrumentation and analytic methods for
computerized polygraph system. The methods for quantification of
physiological reaction are based on more than 30 years of scientific and
field experiences by Dr. David C. Raskin and Dr. John C. Kircher.
The CPS II computer analysis algorithms have been scientifically
proven to be the most effective of those analyses of the probability that
a subject was truthful or deceptive on the test.
▫ Computerized polygraphs entered the market in 1992.
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Dr. Dale E. Olsen and John C. Harris (1993)

▫ Statisticians from John Hopkins University.
▫ Completed a software program called PollyScore which used a
sophisticated mathematical algorithm to analyze the polygraph data and
to estimate a probability or degree of deception or truthfulness in a
subject.
▫ It has been shown that validated algorithms have exceeded 98% in their
accuracy to quantify, analyze and evaluate the physiological data
collected from polygraph examinations administered in real criminal
cases.
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That’s all for Today!