Vance Victor MacLaren

V. V. MacLaren (Vance Victor MacLaren) is affiliated with the University of New Brunswick in Canada, where he has worked as a researcher and instructor in the Psychology department. He received his PhD in Psychology from the University of New Brunswick in 2006 and a PsyD in Clinical Psychology from Memorial University of Newfoundland in 2024. During his polygraph research years, he was based at the University of New Brunswick, Saint John campus, where he collaborated extensively with M. T. Bradley in the Department of Psychology.

MacLaren's landmark contribution to polygraph science was his 2001 meta-analysis of the Guilty Knowledge Test (GKT), published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, which analyzed 50 treatment groups from 22 laboratory simulation studies to provide a comprehensive estimate of GKT accuracy under controlled conditions. The study found that electrodermal measures correctly identified 76% of participants with concealed knowledge and 83% of those without information. This quantitative review became one of the most widely cited meta-analyses in the Concealed Information Test literature, establishing baseline accuracy estimates that have guided subsequent research. Earlier in his career, MacLaren co-authored important studies with Bradley on deception and nondeception in guilty knowledge and guilty actions polygraph tests (1996), and research on the Control Question Test with actual controls for truth (1996). MacLaren also authored a paper on counterintelligence polygraph screening (2000) published in Polygraph, and contributed bibliographies of ERP detection research to the American Polygraph Association journal.

MacLaren's 2001 meta-analysis has had substantial impact on the field, being cited in virtually every major review of the CIT/GKT since its publication. His work is regularly referenced alongside Ben-Shakhar and Elaad's meta-analyses as providing key evidence for CIT validity, and continues to be cited in contemporary psychophysiological research on concealed information detection. His collaboration with Bradley produced influential findings on the role of information leakage, the Guilty Actions Test, and methodological refinements to polygraph testing procedures that helped advance understanding of the conditions under which psychophysiological detection techniques perform optimally.