NCJ Number
226981
Journal
Polygraph Volume: 38 Issue: 1 Dated: 2009 Pages: 34-49
Date Published
2009
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This step-by-step description of how to use the Concealed Information Test (CIT) in polygraph examinations is intended to instruct both novice and experienced polygraph examiners in how to set up conditions to maximize the CIT’s utility, design, testing, and analysis of results.
Abstract
This CIT guide is divided into seven individual steps. The first step, “educating investigators,” involves teaching crime investigators how the CIT can be used as a tool in their investigations. The second step, “gathering information,” requires that the innocent examinee be uninformed about crime details that are to be included in the test. Protecting this information from public dissemination is critical to the success of the CIT. The third step, “constructing CITs,” requires that one key item be embedded among several control items, such as the murder weapon used in a homicide, with the control items being other plausible murder weapons. The fourth step, “pretest practices,” presents the examinee with an overview of the entire process of the CIT, with the examinee being told that he/she will be undergoing a knowledge-based examination that requires determining whether the areas to be tested are known to the examinee. This avoids conducting an exam in which the “correct” answer is already known. The fifth step, “testing,” consists of conducting multiple tests on a single incident; each key item that is embedded in the questioning is a separate test. The sixth step, “scoring rules,” involves ranking the electrodermal response amplitudes on key items. The seventh step, “decision rules,” involves the examiner selecting from three possible outcomes for the CIT: “recognition indicated,” “no recognition indicated,” and “no opinion.” 1 table, 3 figures, and 91 references