NSA Polygraph Control Questions

[Guest]

On NSA polygraphs, the Polygraph begins with a series of questions about the day of the week eg:

Is today Monday?
Is today Tuesday?
Is today Wednesday?
etc..

Candidates are told to answer the questions correctly for the given day of the week. 

Which question is the control question?

[George W. Maschke]

Any question series such as that which you describe above would be a so-called stimulation or "stim" test (also called an acquaintance test). It's a gimmick that's used to try to convince the examinee that the polygraph can actually detect deception. It doesn't include any control questions, and it isn't used to determine a person's eligibility for a security clearance.

The main procedure used by the NSA for screening purposes is the relevant/irrelevant test, which you'll find documented in The Lie Behind the Lie Detector.