Hello,

I'm about to take a polygraph with a private polygrapher, and I have one question that I need answered before I go...

I've read TLBTLD.  Should any sort of countermeasures be applied during irrelevant questions?  Or should the normal relaxed breathing used during relevant questions be used?

I ask this, because I've had a friend who's failed the FBI entrance poly.. because he kept the same breathing rate during irrelevant questions as he did during relevant questions, and even though he applied successful countermeasures, they nailed him because they didn't understand why his breathing was the same between IR and R questions.

Any response in the next 2 hours would be EXTREMELY appreciated!

Thanks

I don't think it would be helpful to augment reactions to irrelevant questions. To begin with, they are not scored. Moreover, irrelevant questions tend to be innocuous, and polygraphers don't expect to see strong reactions to them. In fact, one counter-countermeasure is to intentionally refer to the irrelevant questions as "control" questions during the pre-test phase, and then to see if the examinee reacts strongly to them.

Your anecdote about the supposed detection of countermeasures through a comparison of breathing during irrelevant and relevant questions is new to me.

Thank you for your response so quickly!

My anecdote stems from my friend's advice about how he failed the polygraph.  He said he used the information on this site to use countermeasures with controlled breathing, and thinking of pleasant, or unpleasant thoughts at the appropriate time.  He said at the end of the exam, the polygrapher told him they were concerned that he was using countermeasures because there was no difference between his reactions during irrelevant questions, and during relevant questions.  The main issue he was concerned with was with some minor marijuana use during his college years.  My friend explained that he felt he would have passed if he had adjusted minorly his breathing rate during irrelevant questions, adjusted it majorly during controlled questions, and then used his normal breathing rate during relevant questions.

I will take your advice and not adjust during irrelevant questions.

Wish me luck with my polygraph today.  I'll inform this forum of the results.

No results yet?