eyes closed during test

[lee61897]

i heard from a couple of guys in my police academy that they had to close thier eyes during the poly?  if this is true, why?  i know when i close my eyes i think of lots of stuff, why would this occur...seems like to set up the examinee for failure...

i'm taking a LEO poly tomorrow for a small dept. in texas...should i be worried?

[George W. Maschke]

Earlier this year, a poster to this message board reported that he/she was instructed to keep his/her eyes closed during the polygraph. Nonetheless, he/she opened his/her eyes, only to observe that the polygrapher was making faces at him/her. It seems that this may have been some kind of test to see if the examinee would follow instructions. If the examinee had visibly reacted to the polygraph operator's antics, the latter might have assumed that the examinee was being uncooperative, and therefore deceptive. See the message thread, What a crock.Perhaps one of the polygraphers who read this message board would care to comment?

While there is good reason to be worried about any polygraph examination (the procedure is completely invalid and inherently biased against the truthful), the instruction to close one's eyes does not in and of itself seem particularly troublesome.

[lee61897]

well it all worked out.  i took the exam today and i didn't have to close my eyes.  i asked the examiner if i passed and he said, "i did good and i'm okay."  he has a good attitude after the test (he did 3 charts) so i feel like i successfully passed.

[MikeDVB]

Did you use countermeasures?

Mike