The following informed commentary was forwarded to AntiPolygraph.org with a request that it be posted anonymously: Underlyingtruth,
You write:
Quote:Sergeant1107 states it clearly. If the polygraph were truly an effective, reliable devise, it would be able to detect (scientifically) when someone is telling the truth or being deceptive regardless of the way one may breathe.
I think this is a touchy subject for examiners because breathing is one input that the tester can consciously control. If there are only minimal variations in the breathing patterns throughout the test questions, this will somewhat eliminate that variable all together. Compound that with deliberate fluctuations on CQs and you have skewed up to half of their data.
Although you are correct in your assertion that the respiratory channel can be manipulated knowledgably, at will, and under control by the examinee, the phenomenon is much more all-encompassing and significant than you realize. Polygraphers are taught that there are roughly a dozen or less scorable respiratory responses (see various AntiPolygraph.org
reading room documents outlining these responses)* that you and anyone can be taught to produce with about 5 minutes of practice. Let me repeat--not only can you generally affect the respiratory channels, but also you can easily and specifically produce the responses to control questions that are widely recognized and scored.
Adding even more significance to this phenomenon is the fact that the eletrodermal (sweating) center and the respiratory center are in close proximity in the medulla of the examinee's brainstem. Trust me--lol---this little bit of anatomical trivia does have some significance--almost any manipulation involving respiration (because of the cross or dual activation of the two centers) will be mirrored in some way in the electrodermal channel, i.e., you get twice the bang for your buck as it were, i.e., affecting two dependent variables (respiration and sweating) for your efforts at manipulating one (respiration). This latter connection is so well known in polygraph circles, that your examiner would like you to take a deep breath before the substantive test without his instructing you to do so just to see if the electrodermal channel is functioning properly. Make no mistake--taking a
deep breath at control questions (or any other point within the exam) is
not a successful respiratory countermeasure (either thought by your examiner to be a countermeasure or an artifact leaving you likely to be accused of the former), but producing the known and widely scored respiratory pattern alterations (part of the public record available to everyone on this site) is most definitely one part of a logical route for successful countermeasure effort(s).
* Note: See, especially, the DoDPI Numerical Evaluation Scoring System. --AntiPolygraph.org Administrator