Benjamin L. Blalock

Benjamin "Ben" Blalock founded PEAK Credibility Assessment Training Center and began his career as a polygraph examiner in 2005. He trained at the National Center for Credibility Assessment and International Academy of Polygraph, and holds a Master's level education, is a federally trained examiner and interrogator, and is a former military member. He became the director of the International Academy of Polygraph in 2009, then served as director and chief instructor for Academy of Polygraph Science from 2011 until 2016 when he partnered with Lafayette Instrument Company to open PEAK. His work has been characterized as advancing evidence-based polygraph practices grounded in scientific research.

Blalock's research contributions focus primarily on scoring systems and test data analysis for polygraph examinations. His landmark 2009 study "A replication and validation study on an empirically based manual scoring system" (with Cushman & Nelson) in Polygraph helped validate the Empirical Scoring System (ESS), demonstrating that inexperienced examiners using this standardized method could achieve decision accuracy equivalent to experienced examiners. His 2016 work "Extended analysis of Senter, Waller and Krapohl's USAF MGQT examination data with the Empirical Scoring System and the Objective Scoring System" (with Nelson) further validated these analytical approaches. He has contributed extensively to research on comparison question procedures, including studies on probable lie and directed lie comparison questions.

Blalock published his first article in polygraph in 2008 and has since published over 30 articles and papers regarding best practices in polygraph. He is a prolific collaborator with Raymond Nelson and Barry Cushman, forming one of the field's most productive research teams focused on standardizing polygraph methodology. He serves as an Associate Editor for the journal Polygraph & Forensic Credibility Assessment. His professional memberships span numerous national and international polygraph associations, and he is widely recognized as a frequent presenter at state, national, and international polygraph conferences.