NCJ Number
196938
Journal
Polygraph Volume: 31 Issue: 2 Dated: 2002 Pages: 114-118
Editor(s)
Deedra Senter
Date Published
2002
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This study investigated the validity and inter-judge agreement of the Psychological Stress Evaluator (PSE) through examining the rate of detection of arousal in spoken words.
Abstract
The Psychological Stress Evaluator (PSE) uses tape-recorded speech for the purpose of voice analysis. This study examined the PSE’s ability to display and detect arousal in the spoken word. The study included 43 university summer students 18- to 50-years-old. The stimuli consisted of 10 neutral words and 10 taboo words. An additional neutral word (pen) was added as an initiating “damper” stimulus. Prior to conducting the experiment, the students completed the Eysenck Personality Inventory. Study findings indicate that pattern identification of voice stress resulting from the utterance of taboo and neutral words was a chance occurrence. The lack of significant difference between the actual accuracy rate and the expected accuracy rate may reflect a state of low-level arousal. Future studies should investigate the PSE in comparison with other physiological measures to determine if it is dependent on some minimal level of stress to be effective. References