To tell the truth

[img1]Perfect stillness flooded the examiner's office. I could feel my heart beating, almost as fast as the thoughts racing through my mind:

"What's a polygraph like? What will they think about me?"

The silence and stillness broke by the voice of one man, asking a seemingly simple question: "Did you take the missing coin from the interview room?"

The man was Detective Wes Burns of the Lynwood Police Department, and the question related to a crime committed earlier in which a coin was stolen from an interview room in the police station.

The evidence collected, which included a ripped manila envelope and a flashlight, points the blame in one direction: your faithful, honest reporter.

In order to clear my good name, I agreed to take a polygraph test, since I wanted to prove my innocence and make sure no evidence existed that could allow me to be prosecuted for a crime I did not commit.

Truly, I didn't do anything wrong. It was simply a set-up, a mock crime, in order to make the purpose of writing this article more accurate and reminiscent of the real experience. What is that experience? Taking a polygraph test.

The polygraph was invented in 1915 by a Harvard professor, and has remained relatively unchanged for the past 85 years. Since the 1950s, the polygraph test has been used in law enforcement and federal law agencies across the nation.

The 'lie detector' does not measure truth-telling; it measures changes in blood pressure, breath rate and perspiration rate. These physiological changes can be triggered by a wide range of emotions, such as the very stress of taking the test in the first place -- a fact that has caused controversy over the use of the polygraph in legal proceedings and for national security because of the potential for inaccuracy. The Employee Polygraph Protection Act of 1988 (EPPA) prohibits most private employers from using polygraph testing to screen applications for employment.

I must admit the prospect of taking an actual polygraph test was nerve-racking and a little scary, for it only seems as though criminals take lie-detector tests.

Walking into the Lynwood Police Station, I felt like a delinquent. I was told beforehand that I would be performing a mock crime in order to make the test more accurate and the experience itself more life-like. Being an honest Joe, I was slightly apprehensive when the instructions indicated that I must go into a room marked "Personnel Only," find an envelope with a coin inside, and then proceed to take the coin from the envelope and hide it. I did in fact do what I was told: I opened the envelope, took the coin out and hid it, all the while fearing that someone would walk in the room and discover me.

With the "crime" committed and a guilty feeling in my stomach, I proceeded to walk to Burns's office to await my test---the test that was to prove whether I was guilty of theft, or innocent.

Walking into his office, I saw it had the typical office supplies: computer, chairs and books. There were a few things I had to do before I could take the test: One was a personal questionnaire, with questions ranging from your name to a self-rating of your honestly level. The second was a waiver, which allowed me to stop taking the test at any time if I wished to do so.

With all of the paperwork taken care of, he then began talking about what a polygraph test actually is.

"The polygraph process is rather straightforward," he said. "You will know all of the questions to be asked before the test, and will also know how to answer them."

[img2]The questions varied from a simple "Is your name Stephanie?" to specifics concerning the crime. All were to be answered with a simple yes or no.

By this time my nerves were definitely on edge, and I was worried that they would affect the accuracy of the test.

"Absolutely not," Burns said. "Nervousness does not affect a polygraph test. A polygraph test simply measures the body's flight-or-fight response -- how the body's autonomic reflexes, such as pulse, heart rate and blood pressure, respond to a threat. These bodily indicators will increase if the situation permits. In the case of a polygraph test, the threat is the question."

"Some people have no problem lying"

With the reassurance that my anxiety wouldn't affect my results, the test commenced. I sat in what looked to be an electric chair: big, wide and came complete with an arm restraint. Detective Burns attached electrodes on two of my fingers, which allowed the measurement of electrical resistance in my skin. Two tubes, called pneumatic tubes, were attached around my upper chest and stomach. These measured the respiration rate and muscle movements in my upper body. A blood pressure reader, attached around my bicep, monitored my pulse, blood pressure and blood volume because, according to Burns, when you lie, more blood is pumped to your heart and brain. I even sat on a movement censor, which prevents truthful people (like myself) from being labeled as liars.

And instead of having a manual analog machine (the thing that makes the squiggles), a computerized version was used, which, Burns said, has a 97-percent accuracy rating.

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[HTML_REMOVED]How is the lie detected?[HTML_REMOVED]

[HTML_REMOVED]The polygraph will test three aspects of the human physiology, which acts different in times of stress:[HTML_REMOVED]

[HTML_REMOVED]respiration (pneumograph tracings)

[HTML_REMOVED]changes in skin resistance (electrodermal activity tracing)

[HTML_REMOVED]relative blood volume and pulse rate (cardiovascular tracing)

[HTML_REMOVED]Signs that you're lying: [HTML_REMOVED]

[HTML_REMOVED]When a person is truthful, the body functions within its normal patterns with no significant or consistent changes. A polygraph will say you're lying if it detects an....[HTML_REMOVED]

[HTML_REMOVED]increase or decrease in blood volume

[HTML_REMOVED]increase or decrease of the heart rate

[HTML_REMOVED] change in respiration, perspiration.

[HTML_REMOVED]from the American Polygraph Association[HTML_REMOVED]

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If I was going to try to lie my way out of this, it simply wasn't going to work. Burns told me to sit still, to breath normally and, of course, to tell the truth. With all of these machines connected to me, it was a little hard to relax, but once he read the first question ("Is your name Stephanie?"), and I answered with a simple yes, I began to relax. This isn't so bad, I thought, as I answered another control question with ease.

Then he asked me a question concerning my "crime": "Do you know where the missing coin is?"

Immediately I felt my heart rate rise, and I answered "no" to the question, even though I knew I was lying.

After a few more minutes of questioning and answering, I was able to relax and the computer very quickly calibrated my results.

Apparently, it knew I was lying too, for the "probability of deception" as it calls it, was found to be greater than 99 percent. Basically, I lied about stealing the coin.

Although the test only lasted approximately 15 minutes, it felt considerably longer. And even though I had just completed a lie detector test, I didn't feel any differently than I had the day before.

"Under real circumstances, it probably would have felt about the same," Burns said. "It does depend on who you are though. Some people have no problem lying, where as others have such a guilt complex that you know they're going to fail the test as soon as they walk in the door."

Burns did say that no one has been able to successfully lie under his administration of a polygraph exam. The computer system, developed at Johns Hopkins University, is extremely sensitive, and an expert at catching things the naked eye would miss.

So although I was found to be "guilty," taking a polygraph exam isn't as scary as it's stereotyped to be. Although I can join the rankings of those who have taken a polygraph, I learned one important thing that day:

I can't lie to save my life.