Reply to Anonymous

[George W. Maschke]

The following is a reply to an inquiry received by AntiPolygraph.org through an anonymous remailer:

1. Your polygrapher may well be bluffing. There are no published articles or book chapters on how to detect countermeasures. No polygrapher has ever demonstrated any ability to reliably detect countermeasures, and the available peer-reviewed research indicates that even experienced polygraphers cannot detect countermeasures at better-than-chance levels.

2.) No research has been published on the optimal time, but about four seconds would probably be the minimum while the beginning of the asking of the next question would be the absolute maximum. My guess is that the optimal time would likely be toward the shorter end of the range.

3.) Possibly, but not necessarily.

4.) No.

5.) That seems about right, though it may have been even more regular than necessary.

6.) Again, no optimal range has been established by research.

It is entirely possible that you were accused of countermeasures simply because the result of the "test" was not what the polygrapher had been led to expect. Alternatively (or additionally), your reactions to the "control" questions may have subjectively appeared to the polygrapher to be "too good to be true."