al case on a polygraph answer or use polygraph for employment screening.
“…the evidence is scanty and scientifically weak”.
Referring to accuracy using the polygraph for security testing for employees.
“Almost a century of research … provides little basis for the expectation that a polygraph test could have extremely high accuracy”
“most polygraph testing procedures allow for uncontrolled variation in test administration that can be expected to result in variations in accuracy…”
“The theoretical rationale for the polygraph is quite weak”.
“It (research) has not accumulated knowledge or strengthened its scientific underpinnings in any significant manner”.
Referring to the research done on the polygraph machines and training techniques, almost all by the polygraph business.
“The inherent ambiguity of the physiological measures used in the polygraph suggest that further investments in improving polygraph technique and interpretation will bring only modest improvements in accuracy”.
“…we believe that estimates of polygraph accuracy from existing research overestimate accuracy in actual practice, even for specific-incident investigations.”
“Accuracy may be highly variable across situations”.
“the evidence does not provide confidence that polygraph accuracy is robust against potential countermeasures”.
“Polygraph examinations may have utility …that they can get admissions or confessions…However, such utility is separate from polygraph validity.”
“There is no evidence to suggest that admissions and confessions occur more readily with the polygraph than with a bogus pipeline” (a object that a suspect thinks is a real lie detector)
“there is inconsistency about whether the polygraph test is being judged on its ability to detect major security violations or on its ability to elicit admissions of security violations of any magnitude”.
Referring to the polygraph being used for employment screening in the government.
“…federal agencies that use the polygraph for screening do not collect data in a form that allows data …to be used to assess polygraph accuracy”.
“…uncertainty about the accuracy of (employment) screening is greater than for specific-incident polygraph testing.”
“The relevance of available research to preemployment polygraph screening is highly questionable…”
“Basic science and polygraph research give reason for concern that polygraph test accuracy will be degraded by countermeasures, particularly when used by major security threats…”
“All of the physiological indicators measured by the polygraph can be altered by conscious efforts…”
“…successful countermeasures can be learnable”.
“Research does not clarify, however, whether users of countermeasures can be detected…”.