James Allan Matte

James Allan Matte is President of Matte Polygraph Service, Inc., located in Williamsville, New York, and Director of the Matte Institute of Polygraph Science. A former Special Agent with the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI) and a retired Special Agent of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigations Command (CID), he attended the Backster School of Lie Detection in New York City before becoming a civilian polygraphist. Matte graduated from Empire State University with a bachelor's degree in criminalistics in 1976, and founded his polygraph service that same year.

Matte is best known for developing the Quadri-Track Zone Comparison Technique, which extends the method devised by Cleve Backster. First published in 1977 in the Newsletter of the Empire State Polygraph Society and subsequently in greater detail in Polygraph, Journal of the American Polygraph Association in December 1978, the technique introduced significant innovations including an "Inside Track" with questions addressing the examinee's fear and hope that an error may be made on the test. His field research has resulted in three textbooks including "Forensic Psychophysiology Using the Polygraph," an 800-page tome still used in classrooms around the world, including Russia, along with two supplements and more than 50 scientific articles published in peer-reviewed journals. His research has focused on scoring systems, habituation effects, minimum chart requirements, and the psychological structure of comparison question techniques.

Matte is the American Editor of the International Society of Polygraph Examiners and a full member of the American Polygraph Association. He is also the Honorary President of the British Polygraph Association, Honorary Life member of the Pennsylvania Polygraph Examiners Association, the American Society for Testing and Materials, the Society for Psychophysiological Research and the Association for Psychological Science. He is the recipient of the prestigious John E. Reid Memorial Award for Distinguished Achievements in Polygraph Research, Teaching or Writing awarded by the American Polygraph Association. He was also presented with the Robert & Mary Ann Henson Memorial Award as the Outstanding Graduate of the Backster School of Lie Detection. His frequent collaborators include Israeli researchers Tuvia Shurany and Einat Stein, with whom he has conducted validation studies of his techniques.

In 1983, Matte conducted a televised polygraph examination of Khalil Islam for a show produced by Columbia Pictures and hosted by F. Lee Bailey. Islam had been convicted of murdering Malcolm X in 1965 but maintained his innocence. The polygraph showed that Islam was truthful, and in 2021, after decades of investigation, Islam was exonerated by the Manhattan DA's office and the New York State Supreme Court. In 2021, polygraphists in Ukraine were trained to use his Matte Quadri-Track ZCT at an international webinar led by the Academy for Scientific Investigative Training, demonstrating the continuing international influence of his work.