Correlation between Physical Activity and Stress Response in Polygraph Tests
Date
2014Author
Beguin, Catherine
Gray, Jennifer
Hepper, Valentine
Hetz, Kristin
Markson, Ian
Publisher
Journal of Advanced Student Sciences (JASS)
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
This study investigated whether active individuals would be able to better cheat a
polygraph test by virtue of a more controlled heart and respiration rate and a lower stress
response. The subjects were asked 25 questions, nine of which were control questions, and the
remaining were more intrusive, personal questions. The stress response to each question was
measured as the participant’s skin response (EDA), heart rate (ECG), and respiration rate. After
recording the truthful answers to the questions previously asked via a questionnaire, the
participants were separated into active and non-active groups based on their average minutes of
exercise per week. The physiological responses to each question were compared to the subject’s
baseline to find the magnitude of the response, and this data was then normalized. The mean of
the normalized data for the respective groups were compared using unpaired t-tests. Although
not statistically significant, the mean responses for lies were generally higher than the mean
responses for truths. The data showed no conclusive or significant results, indicating that we can
not, at this time, show that more physically active individuals are better able to cheat a polygraph
test than more sedentary individuals.
Subject
GSR
EDA
activity
heart rate
polygraph test
exercise
Permanent Link
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/80034Description
An article that appeared in JASS, issue 2014