Benjamin Kleinmuntz

Benjamin Kleinmuntz was a Professor of Psychology and Director of Graduate Training in Clinical Psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle (now University of Illinois at Chicago). He was a pioneer in the study of computers in clinical reasoning and a founder of the field of judgment and decision research, passing away at his home in Wilmette, Illinois, on June 28, 2006, at the age of 76. Earlier in his career, he worked at Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie-Mellon University), where he met Allen Newell and Herbert Simon and found their work with computer simulations of problem solving compatible with his own interests.

During the 1980s, Kleinmuntz (with his student, Julian Szucko) investigated polygraphic lie detection and became an outspoken critic of the method. His field study findings showed high false-positive and false-negative rates among polygraph interpreters, with error rates that agreed with the conclusions reached in the 1983 U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment report, leading him to conclude that the validity and reliability of polygraphic interrogation had yet to be established. His critical work on the Control Question Test (CQT) has been widely cited in scientific literature challenging polygraph validity. Kleinmuntz also contributed to the influential 1983 Office of Technology Assessment report on polygraph testing, which reviewed the scientific validity of the technique.

Kleinmuntz and Szucko's research is frequently cited in major scientific assessments of polygraph validity, appearing in publications supporting conclusions that the CQT is biased against innocent individuals. Beyond polygraph research, Kleinmuntz focused on investigating the use of computers in clinical diagnosis and wrote or co-wrote textbooks on general psychology, abnormal psychology, and personality assessment. He was a great teacher and advisor with a unique personal style emphasizing both rigor and relevance, receiving multiple awards for teaching excellence, with his two all-University teaching awards being as important to him as his many publications and professional recognitions.

In the 1960s, when the idea that clinical judgments should be aided or replaced by computerized algorithms was quite radical, Kleinmuntz focused on investigating the use of computers in clinical diagnosis, publishing an article in Science in 1963 that demonstrated the superiority of computerized personality test interpretation—a distinctly cutting-edge idea at the time. In 1990, he published "Why We Still Use Our Heads Instead of Formulas: Toward an Integrative Approach" in Psychological Bulletin, which synthesized the extensive research literature on statistical and intuitive judgment, with many of its themes remaining central in judgment and decision research. His work bridged clinical psychology, computer science, and decision-making research, establishing him as a multidisciplinary scholar whose polygraph studies represented just one facet of his broader contributions to psychological assessment and clinical reasoning.