Chapter 3.

5 Contemporary Methods of
Learning Objectives:
Detecting Deception
At the end of this chapter, the student will be able to:
a. Learn the contemporary methods used in detecting deception.
b. Learn the significant events In the history of lie detection
c. Learn the personalities involved in the history of lie detection

Discussion
The effort of ferreting out the deceiver has been in practice since the ancient years. The methods are
conducted in various forms and have developed across culture and history. Ancient procedures are mostly
centered on superstition or religious beliefs which are painful and dangerous as practiced. The process gradually
evolved through numerous studies and experiments. Instruments intended to record certain parameter for detection
of deception was devised and eventually lead to the evolution of polygraph.

CONTEMPORARY METHODS OF DETECTING DECEPTION

1. Physiological Lie Detection

Use of modern equipment to record the physiological changes that occur on a person was employed in
determining guilt or innocence.
The polygraph is one that is used to accurately records and measures physiological changes which
include respiratory, electro-dermal, cardiovascular, and vasomotor activity.
These parameters are monitored by the sensors connected on a particular parts the body of the person
being tested.

a. Deception Test – An approach in polygraph testing that is conducted to determine the involvement of
an examinee to a known incident or to multiple issues of concern:
 Comparison Question technique
 Non-Comparison Question Technique

b. Recognition Test – an approach in polygraph testing that is intended to determine if the examinee has
knowledge about the issue being tested. An examinee who are knowledgeable on the case information
or facts, will exhibits physiological reaction when confronted with the item relevant to the test. These
type of recognition test are as follows:
 Searching Peak of Tension Test
 Known Solution Peak of Tension Test
 Concealed Information Test
 Acquaintance Test

2. Non-Verbal Lie Detection

a. Multifactor Model – there are elements that may influence cues to deception and each has distinct
effect on the non-verbal behaviour of liar (Zuckerman et al., 1981).

 Emotional Reactions – According to Eckman, (1985) telling a lie is most commonly

associated with different emotions such as fear, guilt, or delight. A lying person may feel guilty,
afraid to discover his lie, or elated about fooling someone. The strength of these emotions
depends on the personality of the liar and the circumstances under which the lie takes place
(Eckman, 1985; Vrij, 2008)

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 Emotion Indicators of Reaction

1 Guilt  Gaze Aversion

2 Fear and Excitement  Increase in movements

 Speech hesitation
 Speech errors (stutters)
 Repetition of words
 Omission of words
 Increased pitch
 Cognitive Load – there are various aspects that may explain why lying requires more
cognitive demand than telling the truth:

1. Formulating a lie demands more cognitive effort

2. Liars are typically less likely than truth tellers to take their credibility for granted.
3. Liars monitor the interviewer’s reactions more carefully in order to assess whether they
appear to be getting away with their lie
4. Liars may be preoccupied by the task of reminding themselves to act and role-play,
which requires extra cognitive effort
Liars who engaged in cognitive complex tasks experiences speech hesitations and
errors, speaks slower, and takes time to give answer (Goldman-Eisler, 1968). It also
resulted in less hand and arm movements (Eckman & Feiezen, 1972). It further resulted
to more gaze aversion due to difficulty in maintaining eye contact (Doherty-Sneddon et
al., 2002).

 Attempted Behavioral Control – Liars are aware that they must appear convincing in the
eyes of an investigator, thus they will try to control their behaviour. They must subdue their
nervousness while trying to hide their difficulty of answering questions. Liars need to act and
appear honest and keep away from dishonest behaviour. These effort of controlling behaviour
increases on high stakes situation (Eckman, 1985).

b. Self-Presentational Perspective – this approach predicts that as liars experience one or more factors
in multifactor model, it is plausible that signs of deception will occur (Zuckerman et al.’s, 1981).
However, DePaulo et al argued that emotions, cognitive load, and behavioural control may also
influence the bahavior of truth-tellers. Liars and truth-tellers will succeed in their social interaction goals
only if they appear sincere and convincing (DePaulo, 1992; DePaulo et al, 2003).

c. Interpersonal Deception Theory – this theory suggests that liars must performed several
simultaneous communication task during a face-to-face encounters (Buller and Burgoon’s 1986). Their
verbal message must be credible while projecting plausible non-verbal behaviour. Liars must control
their behaviour, while maintaining smooth conversation with their partner. The response is in
accordance of what they say, and must conceal any intent to deceive their partner. IDT embraces the
three multifactor model of Zuckerman as fundamental reasons for cues of deceit (Burgoon, et al,
1999).

Non-Verbal Cues of Deception

According to DePaulo et al (2003), the most consistent indicators of deception are the following:
1. Verbal and vocal immediacy 12. Changes in foot movements
2. Pupil dilation 13. Pupillary changes
3. Discrepant / ambivalent 14. Genuine smile
4. Verbal and vocal uncertainty 15. Indifferent, unconcerned
5. Nervous tense 16. Specific hand and arm movement
6. Vocal tension 17. Intensity of facial expression
7. Chin raise 18. Direct orientation
8. Pitch frequency
9. Lip pressing
10. Illustrators
11. Facial pleasantness
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Tools for Non-Verbal Lie Detection

a. Facial Emotional Expression

The aspect of facial communication are beyond control and can betray a deceiver’s true emotion
via micro expressions of that emotion (Eckman, 1985). However, researchers have found out that micro
expressions of emotions are common to both liars and truth-tellers (ten Brinke et al., 2012)

b. Behavioral Analysis Interview (BAI)

The procedure includes asking of non-threatening, investigative, and behaviour-provoking
questions.
The guilty suspects is supposed to probably display nervous behaviors such as crossing their legs,
shifting seating position, and performing grooming behaviour when giving answer to the questions.
Innocent suspects are expected to lean forward, maintain eye contact and use illustrators to
supplement confidence in their statements (Vrij, Ganis, 2014).
The guilty suspects swiftly answer the question with lack of sincerity.
They are more likely to exhibits anxiety reducing behaviour like shifting seating position (Inbau et
al, 2001, 2013).
Investigators are inclined to observe nervous behaviors to classify the innocent and guilty suspect.
Succeeding experiments on the use of BAI produced contradicting results on the findings of Inbau.
It was found out that liars were less likely to cross their legs and shift posture than the innocent.
Another subsequent experiment showed that BAI procedure failed to distinguished innocent from truth-tellers
(Vrij et al., 2006b; Vrij et al., 2007).

The concepts about non-verbal indicators of lying has been subjected to comprehensive
researches and experiments. These tools are found to be unreliable in determining truth-tellers and liars. There
is no available evidence to support that it can effectively discriminate the truthful and guilty person.

3. Verbal Lie Detection

The basic premise of verbal lie detection are that liars have to think harder to fabricate a lie and will
try to make more convincing impression than truthful persons.
Verbal lie detection is a memory-based approach, regarded as a unique signs of deception.
It is presumed that people remember differently the events that he experienced from the events
that are fabricated. Hence they talk about them in different ways (Vrij & Ganis, 2014).

Tools for Verbal Lie Detection

a. Statement Validity Assessment (SVA)

The SVA is a tool designed to verify the accuracy of the testimony of child witnesses during the
trial of the sexual cases.
There are times that an investigator encountered difficulty in determining the facts of sexual
offense involving children due to unavailability of evidence.
Also, because of the absence of possible witness that could provide independent version of the
events to validate contradicting statement of victims and accused.
The SVA assessment are accepted as evidence in some North American courts and in criminal
courts in several West-European countries, including Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden (Vrij, 2008).

Stages of Statement Validity Assessment

 Case-file analysis
 Semi instructed interview
 Criteria-based content analysis (CBCA)
 Validity checklist

b. Reality Monitoring (RM)

This method is used only for scientific research and said to have strong theoretical support. It is
based on memory theory and is centered on the concept that memories of experienced events differs in quality
from memories of imagined events (Johson and Raye, 1981, 1998).

c. Scientific Content Analysis (SCAN)

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 This tool was developed by Avioam Sapir, a polygraph examiner and a former Israeli police
lieutenant.
It supposed in this approach that truth-tellers and liars differ from each other. However, no
theoretical support is available to support the said assumptions (Nahari et al, 2012a).
The procedure requires an examinee to write down in detail his/her activities on a crucial period of
time.
Handwritten statement is then analysed based on the criteria set for this tool.
SCAN criteria like denial of allegation and use of self-references mostly occur in truthful than
deceptive statements, while other criteria like change in language and missing information are likely to appear
in deceptive than truthful statements (Sapir, 1987, 2000).

d. Assessment Criteria Indicative of Deception (ACID)

The process of Assessment Criteria Indicative of Deception, involves detailed examination of the
length of response, admitting potential errors, and use of Reality Monitoring (RM) criteria to distinguish the
differences due to memory and impression management or control of information.
This extended approach to RM corresponds to the unique external, contextual, and internal details
as observe during the process of investigative interview for detection of deception.
The first experiment with this approach indicates 95% of the statements of honest and deceptive
participants were determined accurately.
The statements of honest participants are more clear and spontaneous:
1. It has more external and contextual detail overall
2. Response are more detailed due to the recall enhancement effect of the mnemonics.
The most salient and statistically powerful features of the study was the details that were not
provided during free recall but rather were added in the course of later recall task (Colweell, Hiscock-Anisman ,
Memon, et al., 2007).

4. Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging-Based Lie Detection (fMRI)

The method of monitoring brain activity has been employed by several researchers in an attempt
to detect deception. The fMRI approach involves measurement of changes in regional cerebral blood flow
cause by the activity of the nervous system. The activity of the brain in response to a specific type of events is
measured through fMRI procedures (Vrij & Ganis, 2014).

Classes of postulated neural processes engaged during deception:

 Cognitive control processes
It includes working memory, memory retrieval conflict monitoring, and response inhibition. These
refers to the processes with higher complexity of producing lies relative to telling the truth.
 Memory-relate process
These refers to the fact that lies and truths may differ in how well they are encoded, and in the
richness and quality of these memories.
 Social cognitive processes
It refers to the idea that a successful liar needs to take into account the perspective of the target of
the lie in order to be able to deceive the target.

5. Optical Motor Detection of Deception

The idea of measuring the size of pupil can be traced from the theory suggested by Charles
Darwin that pupil dilation was associated with fear and other emotion (Andreassi, 2000). It was speculated
based on research that sympathetic nervous system influenced the pupillary changes which could be used to
measure the value of interest and pleasure on visual stimuli. Succeeding researches suggests that cognitive
effort can be related to pupil dilation (Hess & Polt, 1960).
The Autonomic Nervous System controls the dilation and constriction of the pupil. The iris dilates
when the sympathetic nervous system is activated, the parasympathetric subdivision of the ANS causes the
constriction of the iris (Andreassi, 2000).
CAUSES OF PUPILLARY CHANGES
1. Light Reflex 5. Emotional Arousal
2. Startle Response 6. Cognitive Load
3. Fatigue
4. Pain
OTHER SIGNIFICANT EVENTS AND PERSONALITIES IN THE HISTORY OF LIE DETECTION
a. THE WORD ASSOCIATION TEST – conceptualized in 1879
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 - Sir Francis Galton, was the first to conduct experiments about the idea of word association test
- The procedures involves presenting numerous words that are irrelevant and inserted with words
that are pertinent to the issue under investigation.
- It supposed that a guilty examinee will indicate obvious mental conflict that becomes observable
when answering the words related to crime and words that have no connection to crime under
investigation,
- In 1908, Hugo Munsterberg prescribed the use of word association test in forensic application to
determine guilt (Trovillo, 1939)

b. THE INK POLYGRAPH

- Sir James Mackenzie, a famous heart surgeon, was credited
for the invention of Ink polygraph.
- The machine based sphygmograph was designed not for lie
detection but for medical use.
- The instrument record tracings of the radial, jugular, and
hepatic pulse.
- He first described the instrument in an article entitled the ink
polygraph in 1908.

c. The Cardio-Pneumo-Psychogram or Breadboard Polygraph

- John Larson was credited for developing the cardio-pneumo-psychogram.
- The instrument is capable of continuously recording blood pressure, pulse,
and respiration during examination.
- It was assembled in portable form and was used successfully in the test of
criminal suspects.
- He also designed a relevant irrelevant interviewing techniques which he used
in the investigation of criminal cases.

d. Keeler Polygraph
- Has three (3) Tambours: a cardiosphymograph, a pneumograph, and a
second pneumograph or muscular movement device.
- The kymograph could be adjusted to run the cart paper to 3, 6, or 12
inches per minute.
- Keeler polygraph was called Emotograph, it is more advance than the
breadboard polygraph of John Larson.

e. Relevant Irrelevant Technique

- The first widely used anxiety-based polygraph testing technique
- Developed by Leonard Keeler
- Uses crime-relevant questions which refers to the issue being tested and crime irrelevant
questions which are not related to the case.
- Crime-irrelevant questions are designed to control for interpersonal differences.
- Physiological data is analysed by clinical approach in which the reaction to crime-relevant
question is compared to the reaction of crime-irrelevant question.
- The theory on this technique suggests that physiological responses are produced by anxiety of
being detected when lying (Raskin and Honts, 2002).
- Examinee is pronounced lying if the reaction to the crime-relevant questions is greater than the
crime-irrelevant questions.
- Example: an innocent examinee who is being tested for allege theft issue at her workplace,
became aware that physiological reaction to crime-related questions may cause to lose her
employment. Therefore, it is possible that the innocent examinee may produce reactions to the
crime relevant questions because of the consequence.

f. Peak of Tension Test

- There are two types of Peak of Tension test
- Known Solution Peak of Tension Test – is used to determine if the examinee has knowledge of
details of a crime that have not been disclosed to anyone. It is presumed that only the perpetrator,
the victim, or the investigator have knowledge about the details of the crime being investigated.
- Searching Peak of Tension Test – used to determine details of a crime that are known to
officials, but would be known to a participant in the crime, such as the location of an unrecovered
body.
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 g. Berkeley Psychograph
- Designed by Captain Clarence D. Lee of Berkeley Police Department similar to Keeler polygraph
- Consists of a chart drive recording unit, a pneumograph, a cardiograph, and a stimulus signal unit
(Matte, 1996).

h. Reid Polygraph
- John E. Reid devised an instrument capable of recording muscular activity with changes in blood
pressure, pulse, respiration, and galvanic skin response.

i. The Reid Control Question Technique (General Question Test)

- Introduced in 1947
- Uses control question as basic response indicator
- The techniques is consist of six (6) types of testing procedure which include the Straight-through
test, Card test, Mixed question test, silent answer test, Yes test, and the Guilt Complex test.
- The method of chart analysis is called Global Analysis or Clinical approach, in which the
physiological response are evaluated as a whole.
- Subject’s behaviour and facts of the case is also considered in determining the test outcome.
- In 1923, John Reid introduced the Guilt Complex Test – designed to test the overly responsive
polygraph subject. (Reid & Inbau, 1977, Matte, 1996)

j. Backster Zone Comparison Test

- Developed by Cleve Backster in 1960
- Cleve Backster founded the Backster School of Lie Detection in San Diego, California
- The technique has three zone: green, red, and black which represents the types of polygraph
questions.
- Consist of three testing format, the Backster SKY, Backster Exploratory, and Backster YOU-
phase
- Introduced and incorporated a sacrifice relevant question, earlier in life comparison question, and
symptomatic question to the existing relevant irrelevant test format.
- Developed as modifications of the original comparison question technique of John Reid (Nelson,
2013)
- Cleve Backster introduced the term psychological set theory, super dampening concept, and anti-
climax dampening concept was made the central foundation of his techniques.

k. Numerical Scoring of Polygraph Data

- Cleve Backster was credited for the introduction of numerical scoring approach in the evaluation
of polygraph charts.
- The procedure involves assigning numerical scores on the degree of physiological response
observed in relevant and comparison questions.
- Backster was also credited for developing The Uniform Chart Markings.

l. Comparison Question Test

- Originated from the Reid Control Question Technique of John Reid
- Developed by Dr. David Raskin in 1970s.
- This technique use relevant questions that specifically referring to the crime and comparison
questions that is same in nature of the crime but unrelated by time, place, or category.
- Comparison question is believed to produce stronger reaction than the relevant questions on
innocent examinee.
- Adversely, guilty subject will react strongly on the relevant questions
- The theory of Comparison Question Test suggest that, there are changes in measured physiology
load on one group of questions or the other, as a function of deception or truth-telling to the
relevant questions.

m. Early Studies about Computerized Polygraph

- Dr. Joseph F. Kubis of Fordham University was credited for his idea about the computerization of
polygraph.
- His research work entitled “Studies in Lie Detection, Computer Feasibility Considerations’
was completed in 1962.
- His experiments includes monitoring the cardiovascular, respiratory, and galvanic skin response.

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 - Peak of tension technique was employed and the data collected from test subject was numerically
evaluated.
- Despite the favourable result of his experiments, he made significant recommendations for the
improvement of the deception method for computerized application (Kubis, 1962, Matte, 1996).

n. Arther II Polygraph and Arther Specific-Accusation Test

- Richard O. Arther, Director of National Training Center for Lie Detection, was the first polygraph
examiner to record two pneumograph tracings.
- In 1965, he introduced the Arther II polygraph manufactured by Stoelting consisting stimulus
marker designed to record the time when the question was asked and answered.
- Arther was also the first to record two galvanic skin response set in self centering and floating
mode.
- He suggested that automatic or self centering is better than manual mode (Arther, 1971;1986)
- Arther designed a polygraph technique which include behavior analysis in the interpretation of
polygraph data (Matte, 1996)

o. Guilty Knowledge Test

- Developed and introduced by Dr. David T. Lykken, professor at University of Minnesota, Medical
School in 1960

p. American Polygraph Association (APA)

- Established in 1966
- Membership is composed of polygraph professionals from law enforcement, government, and
private sector
- Was formed by merger of several polygraph associations including the Academy of Scientific
interrogation, American Academy of Polygraph Examiners, National Board of Polygraph
Examiners, and International Association of Polygraph Examiners (Matte, 1996;Krapohl and
Sturm, 2002).

q. Electronic Analog Polygraph

- Evolved from mechanical channel to electronic component
- In 1974, Stoelting introduced the polyscribe – an all-electronic polygraph instrument with multi
function capability.
- In 1979, the Ultra-Scribe was introduced replacing the polyscribe. This new model has the
capability to record simultaneous heartbeat, pulse rate and strength, and changes in blood
pressure using both the conventional arm cuff and CAM
- The electronic enhancement enable the examiner, to adjust the amplitude of tracings (Miller,
1995; Matte, 1996).
- The Lafayette Instrument Company also introduced their electronic polygraph instrument.
- In 1984, Lafayette, made modification by adding an auto base response circuit, designed to
increase the amount of baseline amplification at lower sensitivity settings.
- Lafayette introduced the factfinder model using 10 inches chart available in 3, 4, or 5 channels
(Decker & Pochay, 1985; Matte, 1996).

r. Department of Defense Polygraph Institute (DoDPI)

- Established in 1986 by virtue of Department of Defense directive 5210.78.
- Rooted from the US Military Police School (USAMPS)
- Dr. William J. Yankee was appointed as the first director
- Was renamed Defense Academy for Credibility Assessment
- DACA was named National Center for Credibility Assessment in 2010

s. Army Modified General Question Test

- The analysis is through numerical evaluation unlike with the Reid techniques that is clinical
approach (Matte, 1996)
- Designed by the Department of Defense Polygraph Institute

t. Employee Polygraph Protection Act

- Enacted in 1988 in the United States
- Prior to enactment, polygraph is administered on job applicant screening, periodic employee
testing, and investigation of specific cases in private sectors

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 - The growing complaints raised against the abused on the use of polygraph leads to the creation
of the EPPA.
- Membership of the American Ppolygraph Association was greatly affected by this act (Vaughan,
2009)

u. Computer Assisted Polygraph System (CAPS)

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 - Developed by David Raskin and John Kircher of the University of Utah
- It allowed a modified analog polygraphs to interface with a computer
- The signals extracted from the pen drive motors were processed using an analog-to-digital
converter. This procedure leads to the development of Computerized Polygraph Sytem (Krapohl,
Handler & Sturm, 2012)

v. Computerized Polygraph
- Developed by Dr. David Raskin and Dr. John Kircher
- Introduced into the market by Stoelting Company in 1991
- CPS algorithm analysed the physiological changes measured from respiration, skin
conductance/skin response, cardio, and finger pulse and reports the probability of truthful to
deceptive results (Miller, 1995, Matte, 1996)
- In 1988, Bruce White developed and introduced the Axciton Computerized Polygraph System with
its own A/D converter system and custom hardware/software which was very flexible, user
friendly, but at that time had an inadequate algorithm
- In 1989, The Polygraph Automated Scoring System (Polyscore) was developed at John Hopkins
University Applied Physics Laboratory.

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