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Journal of Applied Psychology
56 peer-reviewed polygraph studies · 1936–2005
Authors in Journal of Applied Psychology [58]
Research topics
All studies [56]
Every peer-reviewed study from Journal of Applied Psychology in our database, ordered newest first.
Behavioral and physiological measures in the detection of concealed information
Skin conductance response (SCR) reliably detected concealed information across both paradigms, but reaction time (RT) differentiated relevant from neutral items…
A comparison of polygraph data obtained from individuals involved in mock crimes and actual criminal investigations
While laboratory and field examinees exhibited salient differences in electrodermal, cardiovascular, and respiratory response magnitudes, logistic regression classification accuracy did…
The Concealed Information Test as a Tool for Investigating Hidden Knowledge of Crime-Relevant Information
Police interrogators' judgments supported the CQT inference rule that guilty suspects show greater concern about relevant questions while innocent suspects…
CIT and Countermeasures
Found that compared with CQT, there is less evidence that individuals tested through CIT could employ countermeasures to alter results.…
Effects of questions' repetition and variation on the efficiency of the guilty knowledge test: A reexamination
Electrodermal detection efficiency showed a dramatic monotonic increase with question diversity, achieving ROC areas of 0.68, 0.81, and 0.99 for…
Using response time measures to assess guilty knowledge
Response times to recognized probe stimuli were approximately 200 ms slower than irrelevant items, enabling reliable discrimination of guilty from…
Leakage of relevant information to innocent examinees in the GKT: An attempt to reduce false-positive outcomes by introducing target stimuli
Informed innocents showed larger electrodermal responses to critical items than uninformed innocents but smaller than guilty participants. The target stimulus…
The Validity of the Lie Detector: Two Surveys of Scientific Opinion
The surveys achieved exceptionally high response rates (91% and 74%) and provided an unbiased assessment of scientific consensus on polygraph…
Deception and nondeception in guilty knowledge and guilty actions polygraph tests
Innocent witnesses tested on the GKT were misclassified as guilty at a rate of 76%, compared to only 24% under…
Effects of countermeasures on the control-question polygraph test
Both mental and physical countermeasures enabled approximately 50% of guilty subjects to defeat the CQT, with strongest effects observed in…
Mental and Physical Countermeasures in CQT Polygraph Testing
Landmark study on countermeasures. Found that trained countermeasure use could affect CQT accuracy, but untrained subjects remained highly detectable. One…
Countermeasures and CQT Accuracy
Definitive study on countermeasures in CQT. Found that trained countermeasure users could reduce detection rates, but detection of countermeasure use…
Validity of an Expanded-Issue (Modified General Question) Polygraph Technique in a Simulated Distributed-Crime-Roles Context
The expanded-issue MGQT successfully differentiated guilty participants (thieves and accomplices) from innocent participants at above-chance accuracy levels, while confidants with…
Awareness of crime-relevant information and the Guilty Knowledge Test
The study achieved perfect or near-perfect detection rates with a hierarchical physiological response pattern (guilty > informed innocent > uninformed…
Detection Measures in Real-Life Criminal Guilty Knowledge Tests
Another critical field study of CIT with real criminal cases. Found detection rates consistent with laboratory predictions, though noted challenges…
Aware of crime-relevant information and the guilty knowledge test
Guilty participants' skin resistance scores were significantly higher than informed innocents', which were higher than uninformed innocents', with perfect classification…
Use of antianxiety drugs as countermeasures in the detection of guilty knowledge
Drug status had no influence on GKT outcomes—diazepam, meprobamate, and propranolol all failed as countermeasures. Innocent subjects who coincidentally scored…
Validity of the control question polygraph test: The problem of sampling bias
The study found 55% accuracy for innocent subjects but could not establish a valid accuracy estimate for guilty subjects due…
Detection of Guilty Knowledge in Real-Life Criminal Investigations
Rare field study of CIT in actual criminal investigations. Provided real-world validity data for the concealed information approach, addressing the…
Psychopathy, threat, and polygraph test accuracy
Psychopathy did not confer any advantage in defeating the CQT — guilty psychopaths were detected just as easily as guilty…
Human Versus Computerized Evaluations of Polygraph Data in a Laboratory Setting
Compared human examiner scoring with computerized analysis. Found computerized evaluations achieved accuracy of at least 90%, equaling or exceeding human…
Detecting infrequent deception.
When base rates are .10 or lower, false positive rates must be equally low regardless of decision threshold. Improving detection…
The Effects of Physical Countermeasures on the Physiological Detection of Deception
First systematic countermeasure study. Trained subjects used physical countermeasures (tongue biting, toe pressing) during control questions. Approximately 50% of trained…
Confidence, Accuracy, and Utility of Polygraph Decisions
Examined the relationship between examiner confidence and decision accuracy. Field study included in the OTA analysis. Highlighted that structural improvements…
Effects of diazepam and methylphenidate on the electrodermal detection of guilty knowledge
Neither diazepam nor methylphenidate impaired the validity of the Guilty Knowledge Test, which achieved an overall classification accuracy of 94%…
Effects of altered outcome experiences stemming from placebo and feedback treatments on the validity of the guilty knowledge test
Despite successfully manipulating subjects' expectations about test outcomes through placebo and feedback treatments, detection efficiency remained unaffected, suggesting the GKT…
Field Validity Study of CQT
One of ten field studies meeting OTA minimum scientific standards. Provided accuracy data from real criminal investigations that contributed to…
An evaluation of polygraphers' judgments: A review from a decision theoretic perspective
Polygraphers systematically weighted detection of guilty suspects far more heavily than protection of innocent examinees, and formal decision-theoretic analysis showed…
A Method for Evaluating the Use of the Polygraph in a Real-Life Situation
Innovative Israeli study using real crime scenario with unknown ground truth to evaluate polygraph accuracy. Demonstrated CQT effectiveness in a…
CQT Lab Accuracy with Community Participants
Used community rather than student volunteers for increased ecological validity. Found accuracy rates comparable to field studies, supporting generalizability of…
Individual differences in electrodermal lability and the detection of information and deception
Electrodermal lability systematically influenced polygraph outcomes: guilty stabiles escaped detection more often than guilty labiles, while innocent labiles were falsely…
Effects of Repeated Examinations on the Ability to Detect Guilt with a Polygraphic Examination: A Laboratory Experiment with a Real Crime
Electrodermal activity (skin resistance) was the only effective physiological measure; cardiovascular channels failed to detect guilt. Detection accuracy vanished entirely…
Decision Theory Approach to the Problem of Polygraph Interrogation
The study demonstrated mathematically that polygraph test accuracy cannot be evaluated in isolation — low base rates of deception in…
Physiological Detection of Deception: A New Approach
Early Utah lab study establishing core mock-crime methodology. Achieved significant discrimination between guilty and innocent groups using physiological measures, validating…
An experimental comparison of the Psychological Stress Evaluator and the galvanic skin response in detection of deception
The PSE showed detection accuracy at chance levels with interrater reliability of only .38, while GSR achieved .92 reliability and…
Effects of Attention, as Indexed by Subsequent Memory, on Electrodermal Detection of Deception
Deceptive subjects who were correctly detected by their electrodermal responses remembered significantly more control words after the test than undetected…
The effects of selected variables on interpretation of polygraph records
Blind chart evaluators achieved only 63.3% accuracy on police cases when denied access to special charts available to original examiners,…
The Effect of Selected Variables on Interpretation of Polygraph Records
Examined factors affecting polygraph chart interpretation including examiner experience. Found that trained examiners achieved significantly higher accuracy than untrained raters,…
Efficiency of GSR detection of information with repeated presentation of series of stimuli in two motivational states
Detection errors were reduced by combining GSR responses across 10 repetitions of the same items. Surprisingly, motivation level (high vs.…
Guilty Knowledge Technique: Application of Signal Detection Measures
Under a fixed a priori decision rule, 98% of innocent and 42% of guilty subjects were correctly classified; applying an…
A Validation Study of Polygraph Examiner Judgments
Pioneering field validity study using panel of attorneys to establish ground truth. Found 92% agreement between polygraph results and panel…
The Relation Between Ethnic Origin and GSR Reactivity in Psychophysiological Detection
The study found that ethnic origin significantly moderated GSR reactivity in psychophysiological detection, with participants from different ethnic backgrounds —…
Validity of the guilty-knowledge technique: the effects of motivation
The GKT achieved 92% accuracy for guilty subjects and 100% for innocent subjects, with perfect specificity and no effect of…
Effects of the type of stimulus employed and the level of subject awareness on the detection of deception
Personally relevant stimuli (name, date of birth) were significantly more detectable via GSR than experimentally assigned code words despite equal…
Effects of realistic stress and procedural interference in experimental lie detection
GSR detection remained robust under realistic stress and was far superior to heart rate analysis, but blood pressure cuff inflation…
Effects of Realistic Stress and the Role of “Lying” in Psychophysiological Detection
Examined how stress and the cognitive act of lying itself affect physiological responses. Found that realistic stress conditions influence detection…
Effects of perceived role and role success on the detection of deception
Detectability on a second polygraph trial was determined not by feedback content alone but by whether that feedback matched the…
Effects of heightened motivation on the detection of deception
Subjects motivated to deceive produced significantly larger skin resistance responses to critical items and were detected at rates far exceeding…
The validity of the guilty knowledge technique: the effects of faking
No subject was able to defeat the objective GSR scoring system, yielding 100% correct classification accuracy — demonstrating that the…
The truth about lie-detector
Ruckmick demonstrated that the so-called psychogalvanic reflex was neither a true reflex nor uniquely indicative of deception, and that electrodermal…
A comparison of the cardio-pneumo-psychograph and association methods in the detection of lying in cases of theft among college students
The cardio-pneumo-psychograph showed higher diagnostic accuracy than word association testing for detecting deception in theft cases, while respiratory measurements were…
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