Deck 3: Lie Detection

Question 1

The polygraph's invention is attributed to:

A) Franklin Pruitt in 1942.
B) Arnold Writtenmore in 1937.
C) William Marston in 1915 .
D) Carl Randolph in 1924.

Answer 1

William Marston in 1915 .

Question 2

Which is NOT one of the Canadian agencies listed in the text as using the polygraph for employment screening?

A) Halifax firefighters
B) Canada Revenue Agency
C) CSIS, the national intelligence agency
D) The Royal Canadian Mounted Police

Answer 2

Canada Revenue Agency

Question 3

The control question test (CQT) posits that guilty individuals react to _____ questions, whereas innocent individuals react to _____ questions.

A) relevant; control
B) control; relevant
C) known; unknown
D) unknown; known

Answer 3

relevant; control

Question 4

According to a study conducted by Honts, Raskin, & Kircher (1994), the use of countermeasures reduced the detection of guilty suspects by _____ percent.

A) 20
B) 30
C) 40
D) 50

Question 5

According to one study, _____ percent of individuals reported that squirming, glancing askance, and fidgeting were indicators of untruthfulness.

A) 30
B) 50
C) 60
D) 70

Question 6

According to the text, police mistakenly believe that they can detect lies with an accuracy of _____ percent when in reality their accuracy rate is about_____ percent.

A) 85; 38
B) 80; 26
C) 77; 52
D) 70; 44

Question 7

The theory behind the polygraph test is that:

A) lying causes physiological arousal.
B) lying suppresses physiological stimuli.
C) being truthful causes physiological arousal.
D) being truthful suppresses physiological stimuli.

Question 8

According to a study of college student interactions noted in the text, on average, study participants told _____ lies in about 10 minutes.

A) 2.9
B) 3.8
C) 4.5
D) 5.3

Question 9

As one Canadian Supreme Court Justice explained, determining who is telling the truth involves a number of factors. Which is NOT one of the factors?

A) the significance placed on any inconsistencies
B) the demeanour of the witness
C) the availability of lie detection testing
D) the common sense of the jury

Question 10

According to the text, polygraphers fail to snare about _____ percent of guilty suspects and falsely accuse approximately _____ percent of innocent individuals.

A) 16; 21
B) 21; 16
C) 25; 10
D) 30; 20

Question 11

According to research completed by Bond and DePaulo (2006), people's ability to distinguish lies was noted as:

A) only slightly better than chance.
B) better if the liar was given more time to prepare.
C) not improved by being able to witness the same liar also telling the truth.
D) better if the liars were of the same age and gender as the person observing them.

Question 12

The tendency to seek out information about people that supports our beliefs and discount information that does not is known as:

A) expected outcome.
B) integration of thought.
C) confirmation bias.
D) attribution error.

Question 13

Research on the accuracy of the polygraph is generally done in one of two ways. Those two ways are:

A) re-enactments and mock trials.
B) laboratory studies and field studies.
C) clinical exams and university samples.
D) random samples and quasi-experimental designs.

Question 14

Lying is considered to be an adaptive behavior from a(n) _____ point of view.

A) psychodynamic
B) cognitive
C) behavioral
D) evolutionary

Question 15

When one study compared police detectives and college students in their ability to detect whether prisoners were telling the truth in staged videotaped confessions, which was NOT one of the findings?

A) The police were more likely to judge false confessions as true than the students were.
B) The police were not as effective as the students in distinguishing between true and false confessions.
C) The police were almost 15 percent more accurate than the students at distinguishing true from false confessions.
D) The students performed only slightly better than chance at detecting true and false confessions.

Question 16

According to Porter and ten Brinke (2009), when investigators, judges and jurors rely on irrational cues such as gut feelings or intuition in their assessments and thus bias subsequent information, it is called:

A) Stereotype Threat.
B) Liar's Bias.
C) Confirmation Bias.
D) Dangerous Decisions Theory.

Question 17

Techniques such as the use of drugs, alcohol, and physical distractions are all examples of:

A) resistance to polygraph testing.
B) countermeasures to polygraph testing.
C) aversion to polygraph testing.
D) liar's stereotype.

Question 18

The major criticism of research attempts to replicate the conduct of actual criminal uses of the polygraph is that:

A) it may be unethical.
B) it is impossible to duplicate what a test subject and what a criminal feels they have to lose in being caught.
C) it is difficult to find experimental subjects who have experience in the use of counter measures.
D) researchers do not have access to enough funds and incentives to entice subjects not to get caught.

Question 19

According to the text "_____ hypothesis" posits that human intelligence was accelerated by the need for humans to develop social skills related to manipulation and deception.

A) Da Vinci's intelligence
B) Darwin's intelligence
C) Goleman's emotional intelligence
D) the Machiavellian intelligence

Question 20

Which is NOT a criticism of the polygraph explained in the text?

A) Its use creates tensions with employee unions in most provinces.
B) The system lacks standardized questions, formats and scoring.
C) Results can be manipulated if subject employs countermeasures.
D) It is subjectively scored.

Question 21

The case where Canada's Supreme Court first looked at the admissibility of the polygraph was_____, while the definitive word on its use is now_____.

A) R. v. McIntyre; R. v. Larson
B) R. v. Ro;/ R. v. Marston
C) R. v. Phillion; R. v. Béland
D) R. v. Lykken; R. v. Oickle

Question 22

Which statement about polygraph use is FALSE:

A) Examiners must be skilled at developing questions that will elicit strong reactions.
B) Results are based on the differences between a person's scores compared to others who are telling the truth.
C) Polygraph examiners must convince subjects that results are undeniably accurate.
D) Polygraph scores are numerical with negative scores indicating deception.

Question 23

What does the future seem to hold in terms of technology for detecting deception?

Question 24

Discuss the scientific validity of the polygraph.

Question 25

Discuss the contributions and limitations of fMRI studies in the detection of deception.

Question 26

The guilty knowledge test (GKT) uses a multiple-choice question format. When questions are posed, _____ multiple-choice options are provided.

A) three
B) four
C) five
D) six

Question 27

In Lykken's GKT process, the first question that is discarded is known as the:

A) bias interceptor.
B) hypothetical adjustment.
C) practice dichotomy .
D) unscored buffer.

Question 28

What rulings have Canada's courts made in regards to the use of the polygraph as evidence in a criminal trial?

Question 29

According to the text, an EEG reads neural impulses in _____, whereas the fMRI reads brain activity every _____.

A) milliseconds; two seconds
B) two seconds; millisecond
C) milliseconds; three seconds
D) three seconds; milliseconds

Question 30

Credibility assessment in the future will probably involve all EXCEPT which technique:

A) sonoplasmic tracing technology.
B) high-definition infrared thermal imaging.
C) laser Doppler vibrometry.
D) eye-movement memory assessment.

Question 31

Compare and contrast the relevant-irrelevant test (RIT), the control question test (CQT) and the guilty knowledge test (GKT).

Question 32

The _____ shows a video image of the brain in action.

A) fMRI
B) MRI
C) CBCA
D) EEG

Question 33

When the GKT was tested in actual criminal investigations, as opposed to laboratory assessments, what were the results?

A) The results were better than in the lab.
B) The results were not as good as in the lab.
C) The results were about the same as in the lab.
D) Such tests have not yet been conducted.

Question 34

Which statement about research on whether lying and truth-telling produce detectable differences in brain activity is FALSE?

A) Rehearsed lies and spontaneous lies produce differences in brain activity.
B) Small samples used in these studies make any conclusions extremely limited.
C) In individuals there are very small variations in the areas or combined areas active in lying.
D) Overall, it appears that lying and truth-telling seem to generate differences in brain activity.

Question 35

Which is NOT one of the most commonly used polygraph questioning procedures explained in the text?

A) relevant-irrelevant test
B) reflexive-inductive test
C) control question test
D) positive control test

Question 36

Which statement about criteria-based content analysis (CBCA) is FALSE?

A) The approach was developed in Western Europe for use with child witnesses.
B) Trained coders look at written statements and evaluate them on 19 points.
C) Statements are rated on logical structure, amount of detail, and time and space context.
D) To date, CBCA has not been admitted officially into criminal cases in any country.

Question 37

When administering a polygraph using the RIT, researchers have noted a false positive rate of _____ percent.

A) 26
B) 41
C) 59
D) 71

Question 38

The polygraph technique that simply seeks to determine whether the suspect knows facts one would expect only the criminal to know is called the:

A) criminal information checklist.
B) evidence awareness assessment.
C) simple background test.
D) guilty knowledge test.

Question 39

Which statement is FALSE regarding the case that first led the Canadian Supreme Court to consider the admission of polygraph evidence?

A) It was the defence that wanted to use the evidence of the failed polygraph.
B) It was argued that the suspect was trying to protect his son, the real murderer.
C) The defendant is Canada's longest serving wrongfully convicted prisoner.
D) The conviction was eventually overturned because alibi evidence was withheld from the defence.

Question 40

According to research completed by Lykken (1998), when the guilty knowledge test (GKT) is used, _____ percent of innocent suspects were correctly classified, while _____ percent of guilty suspects were correctly classified.

A) 75.2; 83.5
B) 87.1; 90.9
C) 96.7; 88.2
D) 80.3; 90.9