My first poly, need advice.

[upinsmoke]

I have been reading TLBTLD and the message boards for the past week.  I will be taking a polygraph test regarding theift pretty soon.  I have a few questions; 1) When the polygrapher is asking "control" questions, do i just use countermeasures (anal sphincter, biting tounge, mental thoughts)  to increase my reactions? 2) How exactly do they increase the reactions? 3) Do I just maintain my breathing while relevant questions are asked? Or can I use another countermeasure? Any additional tips and advice is welcome. I'd like to thank antipolygraph.org for providing  an exceptional amount of info. Will post results of poly somtime next week. Thanks guys!

[George W. Maschke]

My first suggestion to you would be not to sit for the polygraph "test" at all. As used in criminal investigations, polygraph "testing" is often little more than a pretext for getting a suspect alone with an interrogator in the absence of legal counsel. There is a risk that no matter what the polygraph charts "say," you'll be accused of deception and subjected to what may be a very unpleasant interrogation. I think you'd be better off rejecting the polygraph and getting a lawyer.

If, however, you choose to reject this advice and to proceed with the polygraph instead, then, to answer your questions:

1) Yes, countermeasures should be applied with the asking of those questions that one clearly understands to be "control" questions.

2) The countermeasures provided in Chapter 4 of The Lie Behind the Lie Detector tend to cause increases in such areas as palmar sweating, heart rate, blood pressure as well as changes in breathing to create "scorable" reactions on the polygraph charts.

3) Yes, one should simply maintain one's baseline breathing rate during the asking of the relevant questions.

All of the above points are discussed in Chapter 4 of TLBTLD, which you may wish to review. Perhaps as important (and maybe even more so in the context of a criminal investigation) are the behavioral countermeasures discussed in that chapter. One wants to avoid inadvertent behavior that might be erroneously interpreted as indicative of deception.

In addition, a review of the discussion thread, Counter-countermeasure Techniques may be helpful.

[francis]

George,
I recently read the book published online about the whole polygraph process, its history, and countermeasures. I have an upcoming test with a large LE agency in the state of Arizona(which ive heard horrible things about on this site). I have nothing to hide, however, I have heard horror stories of honest people failing these tests, so naturally I began to research countermeasures. From what I've read, the mental calculations seem to be th best fit for me(counting by 7s backwards from and arbitrary number). The only information I have found, however, is to use this when ANY control question is recognized. I suppose I was hoping for more hands-on examples in the book, such as a sample test which tells you when to use the calculations, or something of that nature.
Maybe Im just confused since my understanding of the control question concept is a little fuzzy. They are designed to make you lie? one of the sample questions the book gave was, "have you ever lied before?" to me, it would seem reasonable to answer this one truthfully, so why would I want to augment my reactions to that? or am I just missing the whole concept. If possible Id just like some clarification on this matter. Ive read a lot of other posts searching for this info and you seem to be the best person to answer these questions. Maybe a test sample which tells when to employ the measures and when not to, anything like that. Im not sure how to use personal messages on this site, but feel free to send one and I will figure it out. I just dont want to blow this opportunity because of some dumb machine. To me it seems almost as dumb as it would be for colleges to use the "magic 8ball" for admission decisions. thanks for your time and I look forward to your response.

This message has been edited to protect your anonymity. Specifically, information about your testing arrangements was removed. -- AntiPolygraph.org Administrator

[George W. Maschke]

Francis,

It's natural that most people will initially make some admissions in response to probable-lie "control" questions such as "Did you ever lie to a loved one?" The polygrapher will note these admissions and move to discourage further admissions, explaining, for example, that honesty is of utmost importance and that people who would lie to their own loved ones are the same kind of people who would lie on the witness stand in court. The polygrapher will then re-phrase the question as, "Other than what you told me, did you ever lie to a loved one?" At this point, most people will answer "no." And this is precisely what the polygrapher operator wants, expecting that the examinee will still have considerable doubt about the truthfulness of his denial.

The foregoing is explained in The Lie Behind the Lie Detector (at p. 97 of the 3rd edition), and I suggest that you carefully re-read Chapters 3 and 4.

Note that it is critically important that you be able to recognize "control" questions on-the-fly. To do this, you need to understand the rationale for them. Studying a sample question series with instructions on where to augment reactions is the wrong approach. You need to understand the concept of the control questions.

With this in mind, I suggest that in addition to re-reading Chapters 3 & 4 of the book, that you also download the DoDPI Law Enforcement Pre-Employment Test document:

http://antipolygraph.org/documents/dodpi-lepet.pdf

The "Phase I" (counteintelligence) questions may not be asked, but the "Phase II" (suitability) portion of this procedure is very similar to that which you are likely to encounter on your polygraph examination.

[francis]

george,
thank you very much for the advice. i actually just returned from arizona after taking the written and physical tests for the police officer position. after passing both of these tests the remaining candidates received their background packets. i noticed when the officer was explaining our packets, he was already preparing us for our polygraph interviews by telling us how it is important that we are honest above all else and how reliable the machine is. i have nothing to hide but even in there i think i was only taking about 5 breaths a minute! i hope i dont get tripped u by this.
francis

[francis]

also, are the "comparison questions" listed in the dodpi manual the control questions?

[George W. Maschke]

Francis,

Polygraphers expect everyone to breathe at 15-30 breaths per minute. If you breathe at a rate of only five breaths per minute, you can expect to be accused of attempted polygraph countermeasures and removed from the hiring process.

And as you correctly surmised, "comparison" and "control" questions are different terms for the same thing.