NCJ Number
226477
Journal
Polygraph Volume: 37 Issue: 4 Dated: 2008 Pages: 240-249
Date Published
2008
Length
10 pages
Annotation
This Israeli study examined the Backster “Either-Or” Rule (EOR) in polygraph scoring, using 100 Backster field cases that were blind-scored by field examiners who used either the Backster scoring system or the U.S. Federal scoring system.
Abstract
Both the Backster (EOR) method and the Federal method had higher accuracy levels than the Backster (no EOR) scoring method with the deceptive cases. For the truthful cases, there were no differences between the accuracy levels among all three methods. The study found that the Backster (no EOR) scoring method had the lowest accuracy levels (not different than chance) only among the deceptive cases. Both the Backster EOR method and the Federal method had high accuracy levels in general, both in the deceptive and in the truthful cases. The close similarity in the accuracy of the Backster and Federal scorers is welcome news for practitioners from both schools. If these same results are confirmed in other testing, an established performance equivalency may allow field users to set aside professional disagreements regarding the superiority of their preferred methods. One hundred cases were selected from the archive of verified field cases collected by the Israeli Government. Half were confirmed as deceptive cases, and the other half were truthful. The confirmed deceptive cases were randomly drawn from an archive of all confirmed deceptive cases conducted since 2004. All had been conducted using the Backster “You Phase” (single-issue format) polygraph technique. Three Israeli Government polygraph examiners represented the Backster scorers. Three U.S. Federal scorers were also recruited to score the cases. All scorers were experienced with the scoring methods they used in this study. This article explains the details of the Backster scoring method and the Federal Scoring method. 3 tables, 3 figures, and 8 references