Does anyone have information or ideas on how sensory impairments (hearing loss, deafness, partial visual impairment, blindness, and others) affect the administration, reading and outcome of polygraph examinations?

Any resources?

Any knowledge about effective accommodations and the problems accommodations present in polygraph administration?
Thanks!

Gino,

I was not aware of the AMA's position on polygraphy, and am heartened by the news that they go so far as to disagree with it outright. That should be a strong message to the NAS scientists working on the study. Thanks for the heads up, Gino.

Gentlmen,

The position statement was online roughly a year or so ago at http://www.ama-assn.org. ;

It was something to the effect of "polygraph screening should be stopped until additional research is done."

Unfortunately, I can no longer find this page on the website.  I will look around for additional citations.

I do, however, have the URL from a similar position statment made by the America n Nurses Assocation

Dbird,

You wrote in part:

Quote:


Chapter 22 of Forensic Psychophysiology Using the Polygraph by James Allen Matte (J.A.M. Publications, 1996) deals with the administration of polygraph "tests" to the deaf or hearing impaired, but it doesn't really address the impact of hearing impairment on the accuracy of polygraphy.

It is important that you realize that polygraphy is not science. Polygraph "testing" is a pseudoscientific fraud and is without diagnostic value. Polygraph "tests" are not tests within the scientific meaning of the word, but are instead unstandardized interrogatory interviews. Because polygraphy is not standardizable and is fraught with uncontrolled (and uncontrollable) variables, it can have no validity. See Chapter 1 of The Lie Behind the Lie Detector and the sources cited there for further information.

With regard to your personal situation, I think it would be more productive to challenge the validity of polygraphy itself rather than pointing to your hearing loss or any other health-related condition in an attempt to explain your polygrapher's accusation against you. As Gino has noted elsewhere, one might as well try to expain why a coin toss ended up either heads or tails.