posted 01-14-2011 11:39 AM
I totally agree with everything said in this thread and I am trying to teach myself "ole dog new tricks" by learning the scientific side of polygraph, probabilities, statistics and best practices based upon research not legends. I've also tried to change my language to utilize more scientifically acceptable terms.
Where I'm confused, frustrated and quite frankly angered is the apparent unwillingness to put into practice what we know to be the best practices in polygraph based upon the overwhelming research.Cases in point:
1. We know that the symptomatic/outside issue questions in the ZCT provide no meaningful daignostic information and don't add to decision accuracy yet we still use them and teach them at the Federal school.
2. We know that the ZCT, by design, is a single issue test and that the third relevant question on the ZCT must be one to which the examinee could not be deceptive if the examinee is truthful to the primary relevant questions (5&7) yet we continue teaching the use of "knowledge questions" and secondary relevant/evidence connecting issues at R10 which the examinee could be deceptive to even if non-deceptive to the primary relevant question.
3. We continue to teach the modified MGQT or the "comparison test formats" when we know that the Utah formats (single issue and multi-faceted) are superior.
4. We continue to rely on plastic overlays and other devices to measure minute differences down to a "gnat's eye" when we know that ESS has shown us that obvious differences not subtle differences work equally well with greater inter-rater reliability.
5. We continue to use “plus in all spots and plus 6 overall” as the cutoff for an NDI decision rule for a ZCT when we know that the Senter two stage rules are superior. We also know that a large percentage of NDI examinees can score "0" or even negative on the ZCT and still be non-deceptive.
Why won't our Federal school and others change the doctrine, even in the face of its own research and that of others? NCCA has become by design or by acceptance, the "gold standard" that many examiners rely upon for the proper way to conduct a polygraph test.
I asked my boss a couple of years ago if we could start using the Utah testing formats. His question to me was "Is DACA teaching it? I told him no. He said "Well when they start teaching it, we'll start using it. I then asked Bill Norris why the school didn't teach the Utah testing formats and he asked me "Are there any Federal programs using it? to which I replied "not that I know of." He replied "We'll start teaching it when the programs start using it." (paraphrased). This is straight out of the great book “Catch 22”.
Polygraph Place Bulletin Board
posted 01-14-2011 11:39 AM
