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Tonic arousal during field polygraph tests in guilty vs. innocent suspects in Japan
1Department of Psychology, Fukuyama University, Ichibanchi Sanzo Gakuencho, Fukuyama 729-0292, Japan. hira@fuhc.fukuyama-u.ac.jp
Abstract:
Eighty four sets of GKT field data (52 guilty and 32 innocent persons) were analyzed for tonic level of heart rate and respiration rate during polygraph interrogation. The innocent persons in our sample showed consistently lower heart rate than guilty persons and revealed significant decrease over the course of interrogation, whereas guilty persons did not. Respiration rate was not significantly different between these two groups. Although it is popularly believed that a naïve person tends to show and maintain higher cardiovascular and respiratory activity during polygraphy, and that this makes polygraph interrogation ineffective, such is not the case at least in the GKT polygraph.
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