Accuracy Demonstration of the Horizontal Scoring System Using Field Cases Conducted with the Federal Zone Comparison Technique

• NCJ Number: 226480
• Journal: Polygraph Volume: 37 Issue: 4 Dated: 2008 Pages: 263-268
• Author(s): Donald Krapohl; Nathan Gordon; Christopher Lombardi
• Date Published: 2008
• Length: 6 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Test/Measurement
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article reports on testing of the accuracy of the Horizontal Scoring System (HSS), which was devised to reduce the level of subjectivity in the manual scoring of polygraph examinations conducted with a comparison question technique (CQT).

Abstract

The HSS was found to produce high accuracies in polygraph scoring. Using both the traditional multiple-facet decision rules and new decision rules, the HSS has accuracies sufficiently high to meet investigative purposes (80 percent). The HSS correctly called 84 percent of the deceptive cases and 68 percent of the truthful cases, a difference that was not statistically significant. HSS accuracy fell below that necessary for paired testing (86 percent) and evidentiary testing (90 percent). Excluding inconclusive results, HSS had an accuracy of 84 percent with the multiple-facet decision rules and 86 percent for the new decision rules. Future research may find ways to improve the accuracy of the HSS process. The testing involved 100 cases previously selected for the development of Evidentiary Decision Rules (Krapohl and Cushman, 2006). All were Federal Zone Comparison Technique examinations conducted in the field. Each had three relevant questions, three probable-lie comparison questions, and three charts. The cases were delivered to the scorer in electronic form. The scorer was experienced in using the HSS. 2 figures, 1 table, and 11 references