A Field Study on the Validity of the Quadri-Track Zone Comparison Technique

by Daniel J. Mangan, Thomas E. Armitage and Gregory C. Adams

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Abstract

This field study tested and demonstrated the validity and reliability of the Quadri-Track Zone Comparison Technique designed for specific Single-Issue Psychophysiological Veracity (PV) examinations using the polygraph, using one hundred and forty confirmed real-life cases from a private polygraph firm under contract with a metropolitan police department. The Quadri-Track Zone Comparison Technique's unique inside Track accurately increased the scores for the innocent by 43.6% and the guilty by 37.1% thereby reducing the overall inconclusive rate from 19.5% to 1.4%, which effectively remedies the major cause (Fear/Hope of Error) of inconclusive results in single-issue polygraph tests. The Quadri-Track Zone Comparison Technique correctly identified 100% of the innocent as truthful with no inconclusives and no errors. It further correctly identified 97.8% of the guilty as deceptive and 2.2% as inconclusive, with no errors. Inconclusives excluded, the Quadri-Track Zone Comparison Technique was 100% accurate in the identification of the innocent and the guilty. Inconclusives included, the utility rate was 98.6%. Blind scoring of polygraph charts showed extremely high correlations for the individual and total scores with a combined accuracy of 98.3%.

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