NCJ Number
123831
Journal
Polygraph Volume: 19 Issue: 1 Dated: (1990) Pages: 9-20
Date Published
1990
Length
12 pages
Annotation
Seventy subjects each participated in a numbers test evaluated by 7 experienced polygraphers and 4 inexperienced raters.
Abstract
These evaluators provided decisions about the point of deception in these tests based solely upon SCR data obtained from the three question/answer sequences which comprised each subject examination. The accuracy rate for detection of deception for both groups was approximately 80 percent. This rate of accuracy was found to be highly significant (p < 0.001) relative to chance (17 percent). No statistically significant differences were found between the accuracy rate of the experienced and naive group of evaluators. SCR data contained in the random sequence appears to be more useful to evaluators than similar data contained in the other two sequences whose order was known by study subjects. When given the opportunity to choose a number from a restricted sequence of numbers, these subjects did so with demonstrated bias, a bias which had no statistically evident influence on evaluator accuracy rates. 3 tables, 2 figures, and 10 references. (Author abstract)