User talk:Aamiller90

What I Changed
I have added two new sentences to the first paragraph regarding the polygraph’s history. The first sentence briefly summarizes how early societies utilized ancient methods of torture for lie detection. I felt that it was important to establish the safety and efficiency of the polygraph and provide a reason why the old methods were eventually dropped. In addition, I wrote that William Marston’s concept machine indicated a strong positive correlation between systolic blood pressure and lying because I felt it was limited. With the source I have provided, it assists in explaining why Marston was the advocate for the modern polygraph. I also included another sentence in the second paragraph regarding Elizabeth Marston serving as inspiration for Marston’s work. It might be an unnecessary addition as the paragraph supports her collaboration, but I felt that another source would suffice. I also added a couple new sentences to the fourth paragraph about Leonarde Keller’s new adaption of the polygraph. Because his device was purchased by the FBI and served as the modern prototype, I felt its significance to be included in the article. I added the effects a pre-test can have on both guilty and innocent subjects to the testing procedure section. The article lacked the potential increase in anxiety for both subjects and how intimidating the pretest can be. Under the validity section, I noticed it mentioned the Green River Case and the polygraph’s failure. I added more information to the paragraph, like the name of the innocent subject who actually told the truth but failed his exam. This addition enhanced the significance of event and of the polygraph’s unreliability. I also added an explanation of the common misconceptions on polygraph measurements to the last paragraph of this section. Misconceptions may be a factor in why many organizations use the polygraph and are surprised by its low reliability. The article also felt limited as it did not discuss studies for alternatives to polygraphs. I added a new section that discusses two studies, one on using the fMRIs and the other using reaction time based tests. Each test’s limitations were listed to emphasize that these are not soon-to-be replacements for the polygraph. I felt that an extensive section discussing the polygraph’s unreliability needed to be followed by a section discussing possible alternatives for lie detection.

Aamiller90 (talk) 21:44, 13 November 2012 (UTC)

Andrew, your work on this page looks fine, but I expected to find your explanation in the Talk page associated with your sandbox, not here in your main user talk page. It's been hard to find out what students are doing on this assignment, so I'm trying to standardize everything. Dperkins16 (talk) 01:24, 28 November 2012 (UTC)