On Wednesday, 28 March 2001, CBS Evening News reported that some scientists at Sandia National Laboratories are refusing to submit to polygraph screening. The report is available on the CBS News website at:

http://www.cbsnews.com/now/story/0,1597,282238-412,00.shtml 

CBS News correspondent David Martin interviewed senior scientist Alan P. Zelicoff, who stated, "What has precipitated the crisis within the Department of Energy is that the polygraphers are asking individual subjects what medications they're taking despite their promises not to do so." Some might wonder what all the fuss is about, and I'd like to share here some information about this topic that should help shed light on the situation.

As anyone who has submitted to a polygraph interrogation is no doubt aware, it is standard operating procedure for polygraphers to ask subjects during the "pre-test" interview what medications they are taking. Most no doubt answer the question without a second thought, thinking that it is important for the polygrapher to know this information because it could somehow influence the outcome of the "test."

But Dr. Gordon Barland, formerly chief of countermeasures research and instruction at the Department of Defense Polygraph Institute (DoDPI) and recently retired, is reported to have claimed at a "technical briefing" on polygraphy held on 7 September 1999 at Sandia National Laboratories that there are no medications that have any effect on the utility of polygraphy. Speaking at the Department of Energy's public hearing on polygraph policy at Sandia National Laboratories on 16 September 1999, Dr. Zelicoff stated:

Quote:


A transcript of the 16 September 1999 hearing cited above may be downloaded in PDF format (190kb) at:

http://antipolygraph.org/hearings/doe-1999/9-16hear.pdf 

If there are no medications that have any effect on the utility of polygraphy, then why do polygraph examiners routinely ask subjects what medications they are taking?! And if, on the other hand, Dr. Barland's claim was untrue, and medications can indeed influence the outcome of a polygraph "test," then what medications produce what effects? And what specific steps do polygraphers take to factor in the effects of specific medications in scoring polygraph charts? And what peer-reviewed scientific research supports any such practice? (Dr. Barland, if you're reading this, any light you could shed on this question would be most welcome.)

For further (and highly illuminating) reading, see Dr. Zelicoff's forthright comments to former DOE security "czar" Eugene Habiger and his correspondence with Dr. Andrew Ryan of DoDPI, which are available on the Society of Professional Scientists and Engineers website at:

http://www.spse.org/Polygraph_comments_Zelicof.html 

I have an idea of what Dr. Barland may have had in mind when he spoke of drugs not having any effect on the utility of polygraphy. He was at Sandia to give a briefing about polygraphy with regard to the DOE's then-proposed (and now adopted) polygraph regulation, and he was no doubt speaking of "control" question "test" (CQT) polygraphy (as opposed to the guilty knowledge test, which is fundamentally different), since the polygraph technique used by DOE, the so-called "Test" for Espionage and Sabotage, is a CQT technique. In CQT polygraphy truth vs. deception is inferred based on the relative strengths of the subjects physiological responses to the "control" vs. the relevant questions. Thus, for a drug to change the outcome of the procedure from a pass to a fail or a fail to a pass, the drug would presumably have to differentially influence physiological reactions to one type of question. Certainly there are drugs that effect the physiological responses recorded by the polygraph instrument, but it seems likely that any drug taken would tend to produce the same effects with regard to all questions asked. It also seems plausible that a drug which inhibits physiological reactions might tend to increase the likelihood of an inconclusive outcome (where reactions to both relative and "control" questions are about the same), but I don't know if this is supported by research. (In any event, meaningful research would be made difficult by the fact that CQT polygraphy lacks standardization and control to begin with.)

Regarding the Barney Bellomo case, Gino wrote:

Quote:


I suspect the FBI would have taken hair samples to test for the presence of lithium whether or not lithium were known to have any effect on the physiological measurements recorded by the polygraph instrument, and whether or not any such effects were known to enable deceptive persons to pass the "test." Here's why: the important thing is that if, as the jailhouse informant indicated, Mr. Bellomo had taken lithium in the belief that it would help him pass, then if the Bureau could have found evidence of his having taken lithium, it could have used it to undermine Bellomo's credibility.