Introduction
This summer the C-NERVE faculty presented our first introductory program for the pre-college students who visit Stout every summer. Our goals were to introduce them to the C-NERVE program, the methods that psychophysiologists use, teach them a little bit about the brain and its relationship to behavior, and perhaps get some of them interested in the idea that this might be the sort of thing they want to study when they graduate from high school.
Method
Each session was broken into three parts:
- Part 1: Introduction to us and our lab. Brain and behavior, and the use of electrophysiological techniques to study brain behavior relationships.
- Part 2: First exercise: using EMG to record facial expressions in response to highly emotional images.
- Part 3: Second Exercise: using ECG, GSR, and Respiration to try to identify a liar in a mock crime version of the guilty knowledge test. We conducted this using a single-blind technique, where only the “guilty party” knew he was guilty until a final reveal at the conclusion, once we had decided who we thought was guilty. You can find a link to a pdf file of a paper on this technique HERE.
Results
Peizhong Introduction to Cog-Neuro and Psychophys |
Desiree Recording Facial EMG while viewing pics |
Richard Student squinching for EMG calibration |
Polygraph Setup Student gets 3rd degree on polygraph |
Hands up! Getting strapped in with resp cuff |
Mike Are you licensed to drive a car in Wisconsin? |
Looking Guilty Did you just take $5? |
Lie Detector? The computer can see what the jury can’t |
Jury Deliberates Who was lying? Who’s the guilty party? |
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In our mock crime scenario, we questioned 9 subjects in four sessions, and based our decision of who we thought was guilty in two ways:
- the “jury” could decide based on “intuitive knowledge” gained from facial expression, body language, and verbal cues that they witnessed as the subject was being questioned.
- The evidence given by the polygraph, a combination of ECG, GSR, and respiration
Accuracy
- Jury Poll-Intuitive Knowledge: 1 in 4 (lower than chance guessing
- Polygraph-Physiological Indices: 3 in 4 (better than chance, and close to published accuracy data)
Last update: Sunday, October 01, 2006