Control Questions--Please help me

[shieldsoon]

If the control question is: "Have you ever lied to a loved one"? and "have you ever broke the law"? ..am I supposed to use Counter Methods in cojunction with telling the truth or do I used Counter methods and lie? Do use counter methods and  openly lie on all the control questions? Thanks

[George W. Maschke]

If the control question is: "Have you ever lied to a loved one"? and "have you ever broke the law"? ..am I supposed to use Counter Methods in cojunction with telling the truth or do I used Counter methods and lie? Do use counter methods and  openly lie on all the control questions? Thanks

Note that in probable-lie "control" questions your answer is expected to be less than completely truthful. The key to passing the "test" is to show stronger reactions to the "control" questions than to the relevant ones. It doesn't really matter whether your answer to any of these questions is actually truthful or not.

The expected answer to the probable-lie "control" questions you mentioned is "no." If, during the pre-test interview, you initially answer such control questions "yes," then your polygrapher will ask you to explain, and then move to exclude your admission(s) from the scope of the question, so that it will finally end up as, "Other than what you told me, did you ever lie to a loved one?" And you are expected to answer, "No."

I suggest that you re-read Chapters 3 & 4 of The Lie Behind the Lie Detector, where you'll find polygraph procedure and countermeasures explained in detail.