Legal Med & Jurisprudence

Methods of Deception Detection

Dures Fe E. Tagayuna, MD
January 26, 2020

OUTLINE - John Larson – inventor of the modern lie detector or polygraph

machine in 1921
METHODS OF DECEPTION DETECTION ....................................................... 1 - Sensors (4-6) are placed to determine:
DEVICES THAT RECORD PSYCHO-PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSE ............ 1 o Pulse rate
Lie detector or Polygraph ............................................................................................... 1 o Respiratory rate
Word Association Test .................................................................................................... 2
Psychological Stress Evaluator ...................................................................................... 2 o Blood pressure
Truth Serum..................................................................................................................... 2 o Perspiration
Narcoanalysis or Narcosynthesis................................................................................... 2
Intoxication with Alcohol ................................................................................................ 3
- Polygraph examiners are designed to look for significant involuntary
Hypnosis .......................................................................................................................... 3 responses going on in a person’s body when that person is
Observation ..................................................................................................................... 3 subjected to stress such as the stress associated with deception.
Scientific Interrogation ................................................................................................... 4
Confession ....................................................................................................................... 4 The exams are not able to specifically detect if the person is lying
according to polygrapher, Dr. Bob Lee, former executive director of
operations at Axciton Systems, a manufacturer of polygraph
METHODS OF DECEPTION DETECTION instruments. But there are certain physiological responses that most
of us undergo when attempting to deceive another person. By
Detecting deception is a very important issue in legal practice. Listed
asking questions about a particular issue under investigation and
here are the traditionally known methods of deception detection. The
examining a subject’s physiological reactions to those questions, a
last decades have seen numerous attempts to determine indicators of
polygraph examiner can determine if deceptive behavior is being
deception empirically. These have applied a series of different
demonstrated.
methodological approaches such as the analysis of non-verbal behavior,
content analysis, computer-based linguistic analysis, polygraphs, EEG,
and even neural imaging. This may well create the impression that the
main aim is to identify just one superior method. Devices that record the
psycho-physiological response include the lie detector machine, the
word association test, and psychological stress evaluator.
Psychophysiology is the branch of psychology that is concerned with the
physiological or the origin or basis of the psychological or life processes.

- Devices which record psycho-physiological response

o Polygraph or a lie detector machine
o Word association test
o Psychological stress evaluator
- Use of drugs that try to “inhibit the inhibitor”
- Hypnotism
- By observation
- Scientific interrogation
- Confession

DEVICES THAT RECORD PSYCHO-PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSE

Lie detector or Polygraph
- Lie detection encompasses basically 2 major equipment systems:
o Polygraph – 1st and most traditional; generally, but not always,
monitors respiration, cardiovascular activity and
electrodermal activity like sweatiness of the fingers by the use
of attached body sensors Figure 1. Lie detector or polygraph.
o Voice stress analyzer – relatively new addition; although there
are several types of VSAs in the market, they are all designed Phases of the Examination
to measure stress resulting from the monitoring of vocal - Pre-test interview
activity without the need for attached polygraph sensors. o Medical and psychological condition or drug use are checked
- A machine that measures various physical attributes such as blood o Purpose of the exam is then explained, and the test questions
pressure, perspiration, heart rate and others, and attempts to are developed
correlate them with telling lies. The recent decades of deception o At this point, the efficiency of the techniques is explained to
research have clearly established that there are no unique know any anti-social activity or criminal record of the subject
behavioral indicators of lying or deceiving. Pinocchio’s nose will - Actual interrogation and recording
always remain a fairytale. Deception research was based on stress o Through the instrument
and emotion-based theories of deceptive behavior. The general idea o Irrelevant questions are asked, and these have no bearing to
being that the act of lying induces specific affective states such as the case, like age, citizenship and marital status. Relevant
fear, shame, or stress, and that these states can be diagnosed using questions are also presented following this and this pertains
behavioral cues. to the issue under investigation

1 of 4
 Legal Med & Jurisprudence | Methods of Deception Detection
o There are control questions which are unrelated to the matter - Time interval between interviewer words and subject’s answer is
under investigation but are similar of nature which are recorded
presented - The important factor is the time of response in relation to stimulus or
- Post-test interrogation non-stimulus words
o Seeks to clarify the findings, to learn if there are any other
reasons for subject’s response to a relevant question and Psychological Stress Evaluator
obtain additional information - Inaudible frequency modulations
- Supplementary tests - When stressed, moderately to completely suppressed
o Peak-of-tension test - Detects, measures and graphically displays the voice modulations
o Guilt complex test that we cannot hear
o Silent answer test
- Based on the science of graphophonics wherein speech is composed
Even if the accepted error for polygraph tests is about 25%, it is largely of audible and inaudible frequencies at an oscillation rate of 8-14
inadmissible in court for the reasons listed below. cycles per second.
- When a person is stressed or lying, the micro tremor in the voice is
Reasons for Inadmissibility to the Court of the Result of Polygraph suppressed.
Examination
- Techniques still experimental Psychological Stress Evaluator Polygraph
- The tier of fact is apt to give almost conclusive weight to the analyze yes or no answers and only do yes or no answers
polygraph expert’s opinion phrases or entire sentences.
o There is some bias towards the expert opinion of the polygraph only needs the voice and does not need these painful attached
expert use attached wires wires
- No way to assure that a qualified examiner administered the test can be done in person in any can only be done with
- It is necessary to determine the scope of the defendant’s waiver if he language over the telephone, subject present and knows
voluntarily submits to the test television, radio from any previously they are being tested
o Waiver of the defendant may not make it admissible made tape recordings or videotapes
- The test itself can’t be relied on because it has many errors not affected by drugs, alcohol, or may be fooled by drugs,
any type of countermeasures alcohol, and manual
manipulations
The factors that are responsible for the 25% errors of the lie detector are
never have inconclusive results polygraphs and computer
as follows.
polygraphs that do have
inconclusive findings
Error Factors always uses recorder to preserve never use tape recorder and
- Nervousness and extreme emotional tension experienced by the confessions for court and protect suffer from these problems
subject people from false accusations during
o Who is telling the truth regarding the offense in question but is the interview with the subject
nevertheless affected by apprehension induced by the mere
fact that suspicion or accusation has been directed against Truth Serum
him
- Hyoscine hydrobromide
- Physiological abnormalities
- Repeatedly injected IV until state of delirium is induced
o Include excessively high or excessively low blood pressure,
- Very dangerous, seldom used by law-enforcement agencies
diseases of the heart and respiratory disorders
- Mental abnormalities
o Include feeble-mindedness, psychosis or insanities, - Administration of truth serum allows the induction of the state of
psychoneurosis, and psychopathia delirium. When the proper point is reached, the questioning begins,
- Unresponsiveness in a living or guilty subject and the subject feels the compulsion to answers the questions
o Because of no fear of detection or the rationalization of the truthfully.
crime in advance of the test
- Attempts to beat the machine - Scopolamine hydrobromide isn’t the only truth serum. Truth serum
o By controlling breathing or by muscular flexing refers to a number of psychoactive medications which alter a
person’s cognitive ability in such a way as to make the person more
Word Association Test susceptible to divulging information they would have not otherwise
done. In that sense, even alcohol can be used in such a serum at
- Is a procedure for investigating how word meanings are stored in
times.
memory
- The researcher presents a series of words to individual respondents.
For each word, participants are instructed to respond with the first Narcoanalysis or Narcosynthesis
word associate that comes to mind. Freud believed that such - Similar administration of truth serum
responses provided clues to people’s personalities, which he called - Sodium amytal or sodium pentothal causes depression of the
free association inhibitory mechanism of the brain
- Cognitive psychologists, however, use this procedure to investigate
how semantic information is stored in memory - Narcosis is from the Greek word meaning “to be numb”. A soporific
- The reaction time, verbal response and test behavior were recorded or insensible state, a state produced by a narcotic drug. In
and analyzed psychology, narcosynthesis is interchangeable with narcoanalysis
- Verbal responses were classified according to several linguistic and refers to a group of techniques which has its origin in the
categories practice of narco-hypnosis.
- Used to diagnose psychological topology and psychopathology
- Stimulus/non-stimulus words

2 of 4
 Legal Med & Jurisprudence | Methods of Deception Detection

- Narcohypnosis as its name implies is the use of various narcotics to Blood Alcohol Concentrations
induce various types of hypnotic states. The search of effective aids mg/dL Response
to interrogation is probably as old as man’s need to obtain
20-79 Impaired coordination and euphoria
information from an uncooperative source and as persistent as his
impatience to shortcut any tortuous path. In the annals of police 80-199 Binge drinking: Ataxia, poor judgement, labile mood
investigation, physical coercion has at times been substituted for Marked ataxia, slurred speech, poor judgement,
200-299
pain staking and time-consuming inquiry in the belief that direct labile mood, nausea and vomiting
methods produce quick results. 300-399 Stage 1 anesthesia, memory lapse, labile mood
400+ Respiratory failure coma
- Development of new tools of investigation lead to the emergence of
scientific tools of interrogation like a narcoanalysis test. Such test is
a result in advances in science, but they often raise doubts regarding As drinking increases, people become sleepy or fall into a stupor after a
basic human rights and about their reliability. very high level of consumption, the respiratory system becomes
depressed and person will stop breathing. Comatose patients may
- Legal questions are raised about their validity with some upholding aspirate their vomit and later have pneumonia if they survive.
its validity in the light of legal principles and others rejecting it as a
blatant violation of constitutional provisions Hypnosis
- The alteration of consciousness and concentration in which the
Intoxication with Alcohol subject manifests a heightened state of suggestibility while
- Alcoholic beverages given to almost intoxication awareness is maintained
- Confessions obtained not admissible in court - Not all persons are hypnotizable

- Alcohol intoxication also known as “drunkiness” or “inebriation” is a Hypnosis is a term frequently used to refer to any trans state and
physiological state that may also include psychological alterations of probably, equally, frequently to any condition in which unusual degree
consciousness induced by the ingestion of ethanol or alcohol. It is of suggestibility is found. It has been greatly abused and misused by
the consequence of alcohol entering the bloodstream faster than it laymen and professionals and has a time that it has been given a broad
can be metabolized by the liver which breaks down the ethanol into denotation as to render it meaningless. In particular, there are still an
non-intoxicating by products. extensive confounding between matters of definition, observation,
theory and plain belief.
- Some effects of alcohol intoxication such as euphoria and lowered
social inhibition are central to alcohol’s desirability as a beverage Reasons Why Hypnosis Results Not Admissible
and its history as one of the world’s most widespread recreational 1. Lacks scientific acceptance of the reliability of hypnosis
drugs. 2. The trier of fact will give uncritical and absolute reliability to a
scientific device
- Despite this widespread use and alcohol’s legality in most countries, 3. Possibility that hypnotized subject is suspended will deliberately
many medical sources tend to describe any level of alcohol fabricate
intoxication as a form of poisoning due to ethanol’s damaging effect 4. The prospect of distorting the fact rather than the truth
on the body in large doses. Some religions even consider alcohol 5. The state of mind skill and professionalism of the examiner are too
intoxication to be a sin. subjective.

Six Stages of Alcohol Intoxication Observation

- Euphoria - Psychological and physiological signs and symptoms of guilt
o Difficulty in concentrating, talkative, lowered inhibitions, - Sweating, color change, dryness of mouth, excessive activity of
brighter color in the face, fine motor skills are lacking Adam’s apple, fidgeting
- Excitement - Swearing, inability to look at investigator “straight in the eye”
o Sensed are dulled, poor coordination, drowsy, beginnings of
erratic behavior, slow reaction time, impaired judgement Guilt is both a cognitive and emotional experience when a person
- Confusion realizes that he or she has violated a moral standard and is responsible
o Exaggerated emotions, vomiting, unconsciousness is possible, for that violation. A guilty conscience results from the thoughts that we
decreased response to stimuli, apathetic have not lived up to our ideal self. Guilt feelings may also inhibit us from
- Coma our ideal again in the future. Individual guilt is an inner reflection on
o Unconscious, low body temperature, possible death, shallow personal wrongdoing.
breathing, slow pulse
- Death
Psychological and Physiological Signs and Symptoms of Guilt
o Death as a result of respiratory arrest
- Sweating
o Loss of water, salts, and urea from the body surface of many
Acute alcohol poisoning is a related medical term used to indicate a mammals, result of the action of certain glands
dangerously high concentration of alcohol in the blood high enough to - Color change
induce coma, respiratory depression, or even death. It is considered a o Change in the visual appearance of skin complexion
medical emergency. The term is mostly used by healthcare providers. - Excessive activity of the Adam’s apple
Toxicologists use the term alcohol intoxication to discriminate between - Dryness of mouth
alcohol and other toxins. Ethanol’s acute effects are due largely to its - Fidgeting
nature as a central nervous system depressant and are dependent on o Act of moving about restlessly
blood-alcohol concentration. - Swearing to the truth
- Peculiar feeling inside
- Inability to look at the investigator straight in the eye

3 of 4
 Legal Med & Jurisprudence | Methods of Deception Detection
- “Not that I remember” expression
- Spotless past record

Scientific Interrogation
- Questioning of a person suspected of having committed an offense
or of persons who are reluctant to make a full disclosure of
information in his possession which is pertinent to the investigation
- May be done on a suspect or a witness

The suspect is a person whose guilt is considered or reasonable ground

to be a practical possibility and the witness is a person requested to give
information concerning the incident.

Techniques of Interrogation
1. Emotional Appeal
o Being sympathetic or friendly to the subject
2. Mutt and Jeff
o Situation with 2 investigations where one acts as a mutt or
arrogant and restless, and the other is Jeff, sympathetic, kind
and friendly
3. Bluff on Split Pair Technique
o Puts all suspects to be interrogated separately and results to
individual statements are not known to one another
4. Stern Approach
o Utilizes harsh language and immediate response is demanded
5. Lengthy, Time Consuming Narration

Confession
- Expressed acknowledgement by the accused in a criminal case of the
truth of his guilt as to the crime charged, or of some essentials
thereof
- Confession is a statement of guilt
- Admission is a statement of fact by the accused which does not
directly involve acknowledgement of guilt of the accused
- Extra-judicial and Judicial

Voluntary declaration to another person by someone who has committed

a crime is misdemeanor in which he admits agency or participation is
the same as the confession. When made without bias and improper
evidence, confession are admissible in evidence as the highest and most
satisfactory proof because it is fairly presumed that no man makes such
a confession against himself if the facts confessed are not true. They are
excluded if unfairly obtained.

- Components:
o It must be voluntary
o Made by the party himself
o Made to another person

Confession forced in the mind by the flattery of hope or the torture of

fear is so questionable that when it is considered as evidence of guilt,
there can be no credit given to it. The confession must be made by the
party to the affected by it as it is evidence only against him. It may be
made to a private individual or under examination before a court of law.
The whole of the confession must be taken together with whatever
conversation took place of the time of the confession. It is considered
when a prisoner being arraigned for an offense confesses or admits the
crime with which he’s charged where upon the plea of guilty is interred.

4 of 4