Word: polygraphers
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Drexel's computerization, however, come from the humanities, not the sciences. English Professor Valarie Arms, who has developed software to coax better writing out of fledgling scientists, reports that students in every subject are expressing themselves with more clarity and coherence. Psychologist Doug Chute uses the Mac to replace polygraph machines and other behavioral lab paraphernalia. No longer dependent on limited laboratory space and equipment, he can now assign individual research projects to 1,200 introductory-psych students a year. History Professor Eric Brose discovered that by displaying on a Mac the political boundaries and disarmament terms established...
...took the random examinations were applying for Government jobs, some held Government posts. Most of those tested had been cleared for sensitive security access through normal checks. In one chilling incident, a U.S. citizen seeking top-secret clearance was found dead in his car shortly after he failed a polygraph test. National Security Agency investigators later learned that he had been spying for the Soviet Union. Said Senator Phil Gramm of Texas, who wants to broaden the Government's authority to test employees: "If (John) Walker had known of the possibility of random polygraph tests, I'm certain he would...
...information, the Pentagon has been working on an older and more basic problem: how to screen out security risks. Increasingly, the Pentagon is turning to the lie detector for this purpose. In 1983, the last year for which a count is available, the Defense Department administered 21,000 routine polygraph checks to its employees. This year, with special congressional authorization, some 3,500 key officials who have access to highly secret information, or may be under consideration for such access, will be given additional polygraph tests. They will be specifically designed to see whether those being examined have already divulged...
Stilwell insists that anyone failing the test would merely lose access to sensitive information while a further investigation was conducted to see whether the polygraph findings properly had designated the person as a security risk. Stilwell says the Pentagon is aware that a polygraph test is not wholly reliable, but he is satisfied that it is a useful tool since it has "an accuracy between 75% and 90%" when administered by skilled examiners...
Critics of the polygraph, which measures pulse rate, blood pressure, breathing patterns and perspiration, contend that it is most apt to be wrong in random screening where the tested person is not asked about a specific act of wrongdoing. Dr. John Beary, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for health affairs and now associate dean at the Georgetown University School of Medicine, further insists that "there is no physiological response unique to lying." The machine, he contends, detects excitement, not lies. Beary adds that Soviet agents are routinely trained to beat the machines and that the Pentagon's increasing...