Polygraph Research Articles

Admissibility of Evidence Produced Via Modern Devices and Techniques: A Look IN Pakistani Prospective

The time flies and had approached an era where every walk of life is being surrounded by Computer and other allied techniques. The evidence collected through modern computer devices was admissible in evidence in many developed legal systems but study of judgments and decisions of apex courts of Pakistan transpires that the law of evidence in Pakistan has also widely allowed decisions of cases on evidence collected and generated through modern devices. However, there are some valuable techniques i.e polygraph test and FMRI which are not honored by Pakistani legal system to produce admissible evidence so Pakistan shall build laboratories and judges shall have to establish a judicial mind set in order to utilize evidence gathered through modern devices. This article is analysis of judicial dictums of Pakistani Apex Courts before the Judge Arshad Malik`s video scandal`s case titled Istiaq Ahmad Mirza vs Federation of Pakistan (PLD 2019 SC675) regarding the admissibility of scientific evidence of different kinds

The role of screening questionnaires in the assessment of risk and severity of obstructive sleep apnea - polysomnography versus polygraphy.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a disease of significant importance, which may lead to numerous severe clinical consequences. The gold standard in the diagnosis of this sleep-related breathing disorder (SRBD) is polysomnography (PSG). However, due to the need for high expertise of staff who perform this procedure, its complexity, and relatively low availability, some simpler substitutes have been developed; among them is polygraphy (PG), which is most widely used. Also, there is a variety of questionnaires suitable to assess the pre-test probability and severity of OSA. The most frequently used ones are the STOP-BANG questionnaire (SBQ), NoSAS questionnaire, and Berlin questionnaire (BQ). However, they have different sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) when being used in various populations. The aim of this study is to provide a concise and clinically-oriented review of the most frequently used questionnaires, with special attention to its strengths and limitations. Moreover, we discuss whether PSG or PG would be more preferred for confirming OSA diagnosis with the highest likelihood.

Practical Application of the Polygraph

The polygraph in Ukraine is being rapidly introduced in public and commercial structures, banks, prominent companies, law enforcement agencies. Even spouses are ready to test each other for fidelity relying on a polygraph, as was once the case in the United States and in some respects in Europe. Availability to call oneself a polygrapher, within a relatively short period of time, usually 14 to 21 days, is equal to the availability to be examined by such a specialist with a polygraph. For this reason, there are numerous myths and misconceptions regarding polygraph examinations floating around, influenced by the media, movies, TV shows, TV series, books, exposed authorities, etc. This article explores essential aspects of polygraph testing, covering tasks it addresses, examination modalities, techniques, eligibility criteria, restrictions on testing, procedural details, trust in results, reliability conditions, examiner qualifications, and the non-scientific nature of polygraphology.

The History of Eyewitness Testimony and the Foundations of the "Lie Detector" in Austria and Italy

Although little known, the theoretical and methodological roots of lie detection, in particular of the development of the so-called "lie detector", must be placed in central Europe, in particular in Germany, Austria, and later in Italy at the turn of the 19th and 20th century. Focusing on Austria and Italy, we trace this development from Hans Gross in Austria to Vittorio Benussi and his pupil Cesare L. Musatti in Italy. Benussi, initially active at the University of Graz and later at the University of Padua, was the mediating link between the Austrian and Italian legal psychology tradition.

Directed Lie – The Correct or the Easy Way?

Abstract Lately there had been a huge push in our profession toward the use to use the Directed Lie Comparison question (DLC). The truth verification field is divided into “pro and con” towards this idea, like many things in life. This article will research whether this “new fashion” is really the correct way or the easy or lazy way to conduct psychophysiological truth verification examinations, as well as make comparisons between the advantages and disadvantages between the DLC and the Probable Lie Comparison question (PLC).

PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF LIE DETECTION IN STUDIES USING A POLYGRAPH

The article analyses the psychological category of lies in the perspective of polygraph examinations, which are now popular and in demand. It is emphasized that polygraph examinations are the only tool for establishing the truth, which is built taking into account the patterns of neural connections in the human brain and involves comprehensive consideration of psychophysiological changes in an individual’s body. Testing with a lie detector is a unique instrumental technique, a complex process of special equipment depending on a polygraph examiner’s professionalism in order to establish the truth, because a polygraph is a device that detects lies, i.e. special hardware for special verification of truthfulness. In our country the use of the polygraph is indirectly regulated at the legislative level, in particular, examinations of people in general are allowed, but polygraph testing is not specified. There is still no special law determining an algorithm for polygraph using. The current regulations governing the procedure for polygraph inspections are departmental and relate to staffing. The activity of polygraph examiners in Ukraine is widespread, but in the format of services provided by public organizations. The essential content of lie detection, which is understood as a set of techniques that help determine the reliability and veracity of information, is analyzed. Because a lie means deliberate distortion of information and polygraph examinations are a type of research activity aimed at truth establishing, the concepts, functions, forms and types of lies are described. During a polygraph investigation, a lie means transmission of information that is completely or partially untrue; it means distortion (cognitive changes), untruth, insincerity (pretending), deception aimed at truth concealing or misleading. Given that the most common reasons for using a lie detector are a competition or examination of candidates for a vacant position, official investigations, forensic psychological examination or personal initiatives, the examined people mostly tries to convince, prove something, justify, etc., so the function of lies to protect interests, often their own. There are two forms of lies: silence and distortion. By default, the information is hidden, but not distorted; in the case of distortion, it is not only hidden, but also supplemented or replaced and pretended to be true. Common types of lies in polygraph research are: mystification, substitution of concepts, self-deception, lying for good, misleading, exaggeration / belittling, slander. Levels of lie recognition (psychophysiological, verbal, nonverbal) and approaches to its detection (emotional, volitional, cognitive) are determined. Emphasis is placed on the psychological aspects of lie detection when using a polygraph. Attention is paid to topical issues of lie detection with a polygraph.

Robin Hood meets Pinocchio: Justifications increase cheating behavior but decrease physiological tension

We investigated whether altruistic justification increases cheating behavior while suppressing its associated physiological arousal. In the first study (n = 60), participants strategically employed altruistic considerations to justify their dishonesty and promote their personal goals. In the second study (n = 110), participants who worked to benefit others (compared to participants who worked to benefit themselves) cheated more and were less likely to be detected by a lie detector test. In addition, among participants who worked to benefit others, more honest participants experienced higher psychological distress than dishonest participants. These findings suggest that physiological arousal may be a good indicator of self-interest cheating, but not justified one.

Lie detection in the brain - Moral, social, legal and religious challenges

Lie detection and recognition has been an ardent human desire since ancient times. Over the centuries, various methods have been devised to detect fraud. Some methods are low-tech, like the recognition of specialized facial expressions, while others use devices, such as the polygraph or "lie detector" designed in the early 20th century, which measure changes in human body like sweating, heart rate and blood pressure, in order to detect the lie. These methods have various applications in areas such as justice, the military and the secret services. Recent attempts to detect falsehood have focused on measuring brain activity. This approach, unlike previous emotional arousal methods, detects physiological changes associated with cognitive processes during deception and therefore, according to the proponents of the technique, could detect the process of deception itself. The most well-known method of detecting a "neurophysiological difference between deception and truth" in the brain is functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), an MRI brain scan which reveals that deception is located in the prefrontal cortex, just behind the forehead.However, how accurate and reliable are these “brain mapping” approaches to detect lies? What are the moral, legal, religious and social issues arising from the “invasion” of so-called neuroscience into personal data, individual freedom, and the right of non-self-incrimination and the "free will" of human beings? Critical questions, addressed in this paper, in an attempt to approach lie detection in the brain and the challenges - concerns that may determine the way we perceive human society in the future.

Landmark-Based Facial Feature Construction and Action Unit Intensity Prediction

Human face recognition has been widely used in many fields, including biorobots, driver fatigue monitoring, and polygraph tests. However, the end-to-end models fit by most of the existing algorithms perform poorly in interpretation because complex classifiers are constructed using facial images directly. In addition, in some of the models, dynamic characteristics of subjects as individuals are not fully considered, so dynamic information is not extracted. In order to solve these problems, this paper proposes an action unit intensity prediction model. The three-dimensional coordinates of 68 landmarks of human faces are obtained based on the convolutional experts constrained local model (CE-CLM), which enables the construction of dynamic facial features. Based on the error analysis of the CE-CLM algorithm, dimension reduction of the constructed features is performed by the principal components analysis (PCA). The radial basis function (RBF) neural network is also constructed to train the action unit prediction models. The proposed method is verified by the experiments, and the overall mean square error (MSE) of the proposed method is 0.01826. Lastly, the network construction process is optimized, so that for the same training samples, the models are fitted using fewer iterations. The number of iterations is decreased by 27 on average. In summary, this paper provides a method to rapidly construct action unit (AU) intensity prediction models and constructs automatic AU intensity estimation models for facial images.

Certains aspects of using a lies detector for the investigation of crimes

The author describes particular theoretical aspects of psychophysiological research with the help of a lie detector, and their role in the investigation of crimes. The research object is the current condition of the theory and practice of using a polygraph. The research subject is the problems of using the results of lie detector testing, their interpretation and role in criminal investigation. The purpose of the research is to study the principles of using, and the options of a lie detector and polygraph examiners, and to define the importance of such a type of research for the investigation of crimes. The research methodology is based on general scientific research methods including analysis and generalization, and specific methods: observation and analysis of psychodiagnostic research. The scientific novelty of the research consists in the comprehensive analysis of the theory and practice of using a polygraph based on the case studies of particular investigations. The author arrives at the conclusion about a further analysis of legal, technical and practical problems of using a polygraph in criminal proceedings, for the purpose of the consideration of the idea about the legislative consolidation of such a research as a proof, which determines the importance of the topic of the research. The practical importance consists in the possibility to use the research results during the evaluation of the polygraph testing and the consideration of the examiner’s report as a proof in the criminal investigation.    

Teaching Forensic Science to the American Police and Public: The Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory, 1929-1938.

Established in 1929, Northwestern University's Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory (SCDL), America's first independent forensic crime laboratory, undertook a wide range of scientific case work during the 1930s, including toxicology, firearms identification, polygraph testing, the analysis of questioned documents and bacteriology; its mission being to provide Chicago with a world-class forensic science service. Alongside this mission, however, a key ambition of the SCDL's founders was to forensically educate police officers, legal professionals, and the general public. Convinced that American police were largely ignorant of scientific aids to crime detection and that the public's lack of forensic awareness led to the destruction and contamination of crime scenes, the SCDL attempted to fashion itself as a "school for manhunters." But, while the laboratory's ambitious program of public talks, scientific demonstrations, detective schools, expositions, and radio programs were intended to foster the creation of both a scientifically savvy public and policemen on par with those to be found in Europe, the SCDL encountered a number of significant hurdles to achieving these goals, including the hostility of some high-ranking police officials.

Mnemonic Techniques and Lie Detection: Accuracy of Truth and Deception Judgments in Repeated Accounts

This study was an examination into whether the use of memory-enhancing techniques (mnemonics) in interviews can be helpful to distinguish truth tellers from liars. In the previous study (Izotovas et al., 2018), it was found that when mnemonic techniques were used in the interview immediately after the event, truth-tellers reported more details than liars in those immediate interviews and again after a delay. Moreover, truth-tellers, but not liars, showed patterns of reporting indicative of genuine memory decay.
 In the current experiment, participants (n = 92) were asked to read the repeated statements reported by participants in the Izotovas et al.’s (2018) study and decide whether the statements they read were truthful or deceptive. One group of participants (informed condition) received information about the findings of the previous study before reading the statement. The other group received no information before reading the statement (uninformed condition). After participants made veracity judgements, they were asked an open-ended question asking what factors influenced their credibility decision. Although truthful statements were judged more accurately in the informed condition (65.2%) than in the uninformed condition (47.8%), this difference was not significant. In both conditions deceptive statements were detected at chance level (52.2%). Participants who relied on the self-reported diagnostic verbal cues to deceit were not more accurate than participants who self-reported unreliable cues. This could happen because only the minority of participants (27.4%) in both conditions based their decisions on diagnostic cues to truth/deceit.

Some aspects of improving the legal regulation of civil service in Ukraine

The article studies some aspects of improving the legal regulation of civil service in Ukraine. Domestic norms that provide for the application of restrictions on civil servants in accordance with the Law of Ukraine “On Purification of Government” were analyzed. Moreover, it was found that such restrictions violate a person’s right to respect for private life. The procedure for assessing the performance of civil servants was studied. It was substantiated that the application of dismissal of civil servants as a result of receiving a negative assessment after the performance appraisal does not meet the principles of individuality, objectivity and proportionality when deciding on dismissal and general norms concerning disciplinary liability of civil servants provided by the Law of Ukraine “About civil service”.
 The experience of legal regulation of civil service in Poland, Moldova and Germany was analyzed. It was determined that the improvement of domestic legal regulation of civil service in some part may occur through the borrowing of those peculiarities of civil service, which are found in the legislation of the abovementioned countries. For example, the experience of the Republic of Poland is useful for borrowing in terms of improving the performance appraisal of civil servants. Moldova’s experience shows the successful use of polygraph testing of civil servants. The German experience is useful for Ukraine in terms of training and retraining of civil servants. Proposals were presented to improve the legislation on the civil service, namely the application of reprimands, rather than dismissal due to a negative assessment of the results of the civil servant’s performance appraisal. It is suggested to amend the lustration legislation, which would provide for an individual approach to a person who will be lustrated if his guilt in making decisions, committing acts that contributed to the undemocratic regime of Viktor Yanukovych is proved.

Polygraphology, profiling, eyetracking and other parascientific methods of psychiatric diagnostics

The article analyzes the problem of scientific groundlessness, inexpediency and unethical use of instrumental paraclinical methods for diagnosing mental and behavioral disorders. An opinion is expressed about the discrepancy between instrumental diagnostics and the criteria set out in international classifications. The use of polygraph examination, profiling and eye tracking in forensic psychiatric expert practice is criticized. It is concluded that in the context of a subjective interpretation of the results obtained and the absence of evidence of correlations between the clinical syndrome and psychophysiological parameters, the conclusion about the presence of psychopathological disorders based on the proposed methods should be recognized as dangerous for the fate of patients and discrediting psychiatric diagnostics.

RCIT: An RSVP-Based Concealed Information Test Framework Using EEG Signals

Concealed information detection has a strong connection with human cognition. Existing deception detection approaches such as polygraph testing usually exploit psychophysiological changes. However, they often suffer from low accuracy and attacking-by-training. Compared with conventional physiological responses, electroencephalogram (EEG) directly reflects activity responses in the brain, thus can be potentially more accurate in deception detection. In this paper, we propose an EEG-based concealed information detection framework. In this framework, different test trials are designed to evoke effective brain responses corresponding to concealed information while keeping the subject focused. Meanwhile, we employ rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) for deception detection. Our framework presents the stimuli on the fringe of awareness, making it not easy to take the countermeasures. Furthermore, we develop a method based on neural network to detect brain responses. Experimental results with 10 subjects show that, our approach can effectively detect concealed information with an accuracy of 87.13%.

Complex home assessment of long-term non-invasive ventilation efficacy using transcutaneous monitoring of PCO2 and polygraphy – A feasibility study

PurposeHome non-invasive ventilation (HNIV) during sleep is a standard treatment for chronic hypercapnic respiratory failure (CHRF). The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of the complex overnight assessment of HNIV in adults performed at home and the efficacy of HNIV after one year of treatment. MethodsStable patients with CHRF on HNIV for more than 12 months had unattended polygraphy (PG) with transcutaneous monitoring of PCO2 (tcPCO2) at home during one night. The recording quality was regarded as excellent when 100% and good if 80–99% of the analysis time was registered. The following efficacy criteria were approved: (1) SpO2<90% for <10% of analysis time, (2) increase in PtcCO2 ≤7.5 ​mmHg between baseline and average value at night, (3) apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) ≤5/h. ResultsEighteen patients with CHRF (median age 66 [60–74] years, 10 female) were included. The quality of the PG tracings was good to excellent in 16 (89%) patients and the quality of the tcPCO2 data was good to excellent in 14 (78%) patients. There was no difference in the quality of tcPCO2 between patients who lived alone and those who lived with family (100 [50–100]% vs. 100 [90–100]% of analysis time, respectively). Only 4 (22%) patients fulfilled all three efficacy criteria. ConclusionsHome-based monitoring using PG and tcPCO2 is a feasible and adequate tool to assess the efficacy of HNIV. In most of the patients on HNIV for more than 12 months, the treatment was not effective based on the predefined efficacy criteria.

A comprehensive meta‐analysis of the comparison question polygraph test

AbstractWe conducted a meta‐analysis on the most commonly used forensic polygraph test, the Comparison Question Test. We captured as many studies as possible by using broad inclusion criteria. Data and potential moderators were coded from 138 datasets. The meta‐analytic effect size including inconclusive outcomes was 0.69 [0.66, 0.79]. We found significant moderator effects. Notably, level of motivation had a positive linear relationship with our outcome measures. Information Gain analysis of CQT outcomes representing the median accuracy showed a significant information increase over interpersonal deception detection across almost the complete range of base rates. Our results suggest that the CQT can be accurate, that experimental studies are generalizable, and no publication bias was detected. We discussed the limitations of the field research literature and problems within polygraph profession that lower field accuracy. We suggest some possible solutions.

Lie detection during the interview and interrogation process: a psychosocial criminal approach

Lie detection is an important skill for any representative of the law involved in the interview and interrogation process. Unfortunately, there is much misinformation regarding what type of lie detection methods work. This paper is a review of the most important psychosocial criminal research on lie detection and identification the most effective methods. The method of lie detection by reading facial expressions (particularly micro-expressions) is with the conclusion that it is not an effective method. I propose that, considering what the scientific research has unveiled thus far, lie detection methods based on thorough information gathering and comparative analysis work best. Finally, I provide some specific recommendations on effective ways to apply such methods during the interview and interrogation process.

Успешность сокрытия информации в процессе тестирования на полиграфе индивидами разных типов ментальности

The goal of this study was to identify the information concealment features during polygraph testing by persons with analytical and holistic types of mentality. Participants of the study (N = 23) were individuals who underwent personnel polygraph testing, which ensured environmental validity. The experiment was di- vided into three parts: a pre-test conversation to find out information about the events being checked; tests filling; polygraph testing (concealed information test in the option of the name and number hiding). The analysis revealed that if the subject is closer to the holistic pole of the analytical-holistic scale, there are less pronounced differences in the physiological parameters changings when answering relevant and irrelevant questions about numbers (p&lt;0.05). There was no such correlation in the test about the names. It was also shown that if the individual is closer to the analytical pole, there is the greater the subjective experience of a polygraph testing as stressful (p&lt;0.05). The data obtained allow us to raise the issue for further research aimed at clarifying the systematic organization of information concealment behavior by individuals of different mentality types.

Морально-етичні засади в діяльності спеціаліста-поліграфолога

The purpose of the study – is to highlight a topical issue related to the introduction of moral and ethical principles in the professional activity of a polygraph specialist. Methodology. The methodological tools are chosen taking into account the goal, the specifics of the object and subject of research. It is a general dialectical method of scientific knowledge of real phenomena, as well as their connection with the theory and practice of introducing moral and ethical principles in the professional activity of a polygraph specialist. Also special research methods, namely: the method of system analysis, comparative law, system-structural and forecasting method. Scientific novelty. Taking into account new trends in the formation and development of the interdisciplinary science of polygraph, for the first time the need to raise the issue of introducing moral and ethical principles in the activities of a specialist polygraph. The content of its key components is revealed and the ways of ordering the existing existing gaps related to these principles in the activity of a polygraph specialist are suggested. The content of its key components is revealed and the ways of ordering the existing existing gaps related to these principles in the activity of a polygraph specialist are suggested. Conclusions. The scientific position is substantiated that the moral and ethical principles in the activity of a polygraph specialist are an important part of the whole polygraph process. They simultaneously perform both an educational and a controlling function without which the activity with the use of a polygraph is not completely orderly. The specifics of this field of scientific knowledge require polygraph examiners to pay special attention to people who, due to certain life circumstances, turn to this process and the professionals who provide it, in order to obtain additional information on specific issues relevant to them. The disorder of moral and ethical principles in the activities of a polygraph examiner leaves this process out of control, which can negatively affect the reputation of the specialist who provides it, and in general a negative attitude to polygraph activities and its specifics. Keywords: polygraph; polygraph; polygraph examiner; moral and ethical principles of activity; communication.