Netnin,

In answer to your questions:

1) There are no web sites that give a detailed description of how polygraph charts are scored. The file to which you referred on the AntiPolygraph.org Reading Room page is a collection of DoDPI informational sheets titled "Test Data Analysis" and was released under the Freedom of Information Act. It does provide information on the physiological reactions that DoDPI considers significant for chart scoring purposes, and also provides scoring information for the DoDPI Zone Comparison Test and the Modified General Question Test formats.

Although detailed information on how to score polygraph charts is not available on the Web, the American Polygraph Association quarterly Polygraph has published numerous articles on the topic. Volume 28 (1999), No. 1, was a special edition in which all articles are devoted to chart interpretation. (While some articles are more descriptive than others, none provide a tutorial for beginners.)

Note that there is no single, objective standard for polygraph chart scoring.

2) With regard to the tracings on a polygraph chart, the standard order, from top to bottom, is:

• pneumo (thoracic breathing)
• pneumo (abdominal breathing)
• electrodermal (galvanic skin) response
• cardio

See the sample portion of an actual polygram (polygraph chart) below:



The above chart was recorded on an analog (non-computerized) Lafayette polygraph instrument. The x-axis on the graph paper represents time, with each vertical chart division line (spaced a half-inch apart) representing 5 seconds.

At the bottom of the chart, you'll see some hand-written notations that are fairly standardized. The sets of two vertical lines that you see at the bottom of the chart (I I), which might be mistaken for the number "11" by someone not familiar with polygraph notation, mark the asking of each question. When the polygrapher begins asking a question, he makes a vertical stroke. As he finishes asking the question, he makes a second vertical stroke. The minus signs (-) that you see indicate that the question was answered "No." If a question were answered "yes," a plus sign (+) would be written instead. The numbers that you see (7,8,9) indicate that these questions were the 7th, 8th, and 9th questions asked in a series. The red circles indicate that the question asked was a relevant question; the green circle indicates a relevant question, and although not seen in the image above, irrelevant questions are marked with a yellow circle. (This color coding, which I believe Cleve Backster originated, may or may not be indicated on a polygraph chart.)

3) While a pain countermeasure such as the tack-in-the-shoe (or tongue-biting, which is a superior countermeasure) should produce a significant response on the electrodermal channel, I'm not certain that there will necessarily be a concomitant and significant cardio response.

4) With regard to polygraphers making determinations regarding the use of countermeasures, Dr. Barland has indicated that various agency rules allow them to make a determination of countermeasures use absent a confession (see reply #16 in the thread "Countermeasure considerations for the innocent"). However, the criteria that DoDPI-trained polygraphers use to make such a determination is classified.

One consequence of this is that DoDPI at least in theory has the option of turning any "passing" chart into a failing one (because of the subject's alleged use of countermeasures), and such determinations cannot be independently reviewed because the criteria used in making them is an official secret.