Topic > Honesty: the accuracy of the polygraph - 1127

For the moment, the concealed information test (CIT) seems to be the most popular alternative, although its structure allows it to work only for investigations and not for employee screening (Verschuere 2005). During the CIT, examiners read multiple-choice questions about the crime aloud while the suspect is attached to the polygraph machine (Walczyk 2013). So far the CIT has been more accurate than the GKT (Walczyk 3013). For this to work, the intervals between responses must be long enough to clearly identify which response, if any, the suspect is reacting to. It is theorized that the orienting reflex and the defensive reflex are activated when details are recognized, which is why the suspect cannot suppress sympathetic nervous system reactions (Verschuere 2004). Because it is reactions, rather than responses, that the polygraph machine measures, suspects do not need to answer questions for the CIT to be effective (Walczyk 2013). Since only guilty suspects would recognize and react to a detailed description of a crime, the theory is that the guilty suspect is the only one whose physiological reactions will consistently coincide with accurate representations of the crime (Verschuere 2005; Verschuere 2004; Walczyk 2013). The premise appears to be generally valid, as the accuracy of CIT is estimated to be around 76%-83%, and thus is a promising place for future research and refinement. (Verschuere