Lastly, Agent G took out a piece of computer paper. On the paper, he wrote the numbers 1, 2 and 3 in a vertical line. He left a large space, and then wrote the number 5. He then handed me his pen, and instructed me to write the number "4" in the blank space. I did as I was told. "I’m going to use this to calibrate the machine," he told me. When I ask you if you wrote the number 4, I want you to say "no." "O.K.," I replied. 

That's an irrelevant question, a rather interesting little thing that the polyboy uses.  It's not used to calibrate anything, nor to compare to another question, nor to see how you might react.  It's a bag of poop, like the rest of the "test" is.

This IQ stim is essentially used to make you believe that (1) everything counts in a poly, including how you react to a directed lie, which isn't really a lie at all; and (2) to try to convince you that the box is so precise in its lie detection that it has to be set juuuuust right for you.  It's a big con to make you believe in the efficacy of the ploygraph, er, polygraph... why do I keep typing that same mistake? Hmmm...

Whether you buried the needle on the reply or flat-lined, your response isn't scored.  The polyman might bother to look to see if you reacted -at all-, but he may well not.  The result doesn't matter to him.  It's smoke and mirrors...

And he will tell you that you buried the needle, btw, whether you did or not...

Thanks for all the input. I am a slow learner, but I believe I understand the Poly-Game now. I did a great deal of reading some of the stories that are found within the links provided on this site. 

Now that I have read stories about those who had dreams about becoming special FBI agents, etc and go through all the hoops only to have some ass hole flush it all down the toilet without a second thought it very disturbing, but it fits in with the justification arguments that are being used by those who have power and use it as they see fit.
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flechettes wrote on Jul 26^th, 2006 at 12:32am:


Yes, it is used for comparison purposes.  Those of us sitting in the "tank" waiting for our security clearances were advised to augment our response to these questions by thinking about something bad that had happened to us, such as a pet that died.

When I was asked this question on a poly, I was specifically told to think about how I had taken the marker and written the number, and then answer "no" to the question (instead of answering immediately).  

In essence, the polygrapher was instructing me to use mental countermeasures on the directed lie question (and, for some reason, to wait until the mental countermeasure was complete before answering)!

trying to find out if there is control guestions on a post conviction maint/monitoring poly   thanks

Quote:


Triple X,

I would expect that the test would consist of 3-5 relevant questions, 2 CQs, and some number of IQs.

If not a control type test, what kind of test do you think they would use?

Quote:


triple x,

All the evidence I've seen indicates that the probable-lie CQT is the standard technique used in post-conviction polygraph screening in the United States.