Federal Zone Comparison Technique

Introduction

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• Definitions

  Directed-lie comparison (DLC) question: Used to elicit a response for comparison with that evoked by the relevant question. The examinee is instructed to answer the DLC question untruthfully. Example: Have you ever violated a traffic law? Answer: No.

  Exclusionary comparison question: Type of comparison question that has no overlap with the relevant issue. These are separated from the relevant issue by time, place, or category.

  Friendly Examiner Hypothesis: Proposed by Dr. Orne (1973), who suggested that polygraph examinations conducted for defense attorneys will be prone to error. The central principle is that guilty polygraph examinees, for whom there will be no adverse consequences for failure, will produce false negative results. Research has not supported the effect for the CQT.

  Probable-lie comparison (PLC) question: Used to elicit a response that is compared with the response evoked by the relevant question. Though careful development, the examinee will give an untruthful answer, or at least be unsure of the truthfulness of the answer.

• References

  • American Polygraph Association (2011). Meta-analytic survey of criterion accuracy of validated polygraph techniques., Polygraph, 40 (4), 203 to 305.
  • Ansley, N. (1998). The zone comparison test. Polygraph 27(2), 108-122.
  • Ansley, N., & Krapohl, Donald J. (2000). The frequency of appearance of evaluative criteria in field polygraph charts. Polygraph 29(2), 169-176.
  • Light, G.D. (1999). Numerical evaluation of the Army zone comparison test. Polygraph 28(1), 37-45.
  • Matte, J.A. (1996). Forensic psychophysiology using the polygraph: Scientific truth verification - lie detection. J.A.M. Pub-lications: Williamsville, NY.
  • Swinford, J. (1999). Manually scoring polygraph charts utilizing the seven-position numerical analysis scale at the Department of Defense Polygraph Institute. Polygraph 28(1), 10-27.