History and Description

Abstract

This chapter will begin by outlining the historical origins of the detection of deception. Next, the development of the so-called control question test (CQT) will be given. As practiced by the American Polygraph Association (APA), the CQT is today’s most commonly used method of lie detection. The third section will give a brief account of the guilty knowledge test (GKT); a more detailed consideration of GKT and comparisons with the CQT are left to Chapter 2. In the fourth section of this chapter, a critical analysis of the CQT will be provided, wherein we discuss terminological issues, describe what the CQT really involves, and elaborate on six major problems that arise. Finally, we shall describe several usages of the polygraph. In this description, we shall draw a major distinction between those procedures that focus on a specific event and attempt to clarify whether a given person was involved with that event (i.e., event-related usages), and those that attempt to classify people without relating to a specific event (i.e., event-free usages).