Polygraph

A polygraph, popularly referred to as a lie detector, measures and records several physiological indices such as blood pressure, pulse, respiration, and skin conductivity while the subject is asked and answers a series of questions. The belief underpinning the use of the polygraph is that deceptive answers will produce physiological responses that can be differentiated from those associated with non-deceptive answers; the polygraph is one of several devices used for lie detection.

The polygraph was invented in 1921 by John Augustus Larson, a medical student at the University of California at Berkeley and a police officer of the Berkeley Police Department in Berkeley, California. The polygraph was on the Encyclopædia Britannica 2003 list of greatest inventions, described as inventions that "have had profound effects on human life for better or worse."

The efficacy of polygraphs is debated in the scientific community. In 2001, a significant fraction of the scientific community considered polygraphy to be pseudoscience. In 2002, a review by the National Academies of Science found that in populations untrained in countermeasures, polygraph testing can discriminate lying from truth telling at rates above chance, though below perfection. These results apply only to specific events and not to screening where it is assumed that polygraph would work less well. Effectiveness may also be worsened by countermeasures.

Polygraph (film)

Polygraph (French: Le Polygraphe) is a film by Canadian director Robert Lepage, released in 1996.

The film stars Marie Brassard as Lucie Champagne, an actress who is given the role of Marie-Claire in a film dramatizing a real-life murder, and Patrick Goyette as François, Lucie's former boyfriend who was Marie-Claire's neighbour and is a suspect in the real crime. The film's cast also includes Josée Deschênes, Maria de Medeiros, Peter Stormare, Marie-Christine Le Huu and Richard Fréchette.

Awards

The film garnered nine Genie Award nominations at the 17th Genie Awards, including Best Motion Picture, Best Director (Lepage), Best Actress (Brassard), Best Supporting Actress (Deschênes, de Medeiros), Best Adapted Screenplay (Lepage, Brassard), Best Cinematography (Guy Dufaux), Overall Sound (Jocelyn Caron, Claude Hazanavicius, Hans Peter Strobl and John Nestorowich) and Sound Editing (Jean-Pierre Pinard, Jérôme Décarie, Serge Fortin, Raymond Vermette, Mario Rodrigue and Jacques Plante).

Polygraph (author)

A polygraph (from Ancient Greek: πολύς, poly = "many" and γράφειν, graphein = "to write") is an author who writes in a variety of fields.

In literature, the term polygraph is often applied to certain writers of antiquity such as Aristotle, Plutarch, Varro, Cicero and Pliny the Elder. Polygraphs still existed in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, but, other than writers of books for children, they have become rarer in modern times due to the specialisation of knowledge. Voltaire and Diderot are examples of modern polygraphs.

Polygraph writers

Classical Antiquity

Middle Ages

Early modern period (1500-1800)