P.O. Davidson

Davidson is a polygraph researcher whose work contributed to the foundational field studies examining the validity of the Control Question Technique (CQT) in the 1960s. Davidson's study used cases from military polygraph examinations, distinguishing it from other field studies of the era that relied primarily on police files or private polygraph firm records. Based on the publication record, Davidson appears to have been affiliated with military or Department of Defense polygraph operations during the 1960s-1980s.

Davidson's most significant contribution to polygraph science was a field validity study conducted in 1968 that became one of only ten studies selected for inclusion in the influential 1983 Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) review of polygraph validity. The study, cited as Davidson (1968), was included among the key field studies analyzed by the OTA to assess the scientific validity of polygraph testing for criminal investigations. Davidson's study results were noted as basically similar to studies conducted by Reid and Associates, with the notable exception of an absence of false positives, though one-third of the originally selected sample could not be used. The study examined only theft cases and showed a zero false positive rate, though it had a substantial inconclusive rate, representing an unusually conservative outcome pattern in polygraph field research.

The Davidson study's inclusion in the OTA analysis marked it as meeting rigorous methodological standards for field validity research in an era when studies were required to consist of actual polygraph examinations conducted by professional examiners using field-tested techniques, with some independent criterion to assess actual guilt or innocence. Davidson's work was cited alongside other landmark studies by Barland and Raskin, Bersh, Horvath, and others that collectively shaped understanding of polygraph accuracy in the 1970s and early 1980s. The research appears in multiple Department of Defense compilations and reviews from this period, suggesting Davidson's work had particular relevance to military and federal security applications of polygraph testing.