"Forensic Psychophysiology Using the Polygraph" Scientific Truth Verification - Lie Detection Foreword: Cleve Backster, Hon. Ph.D., D.Sc.    Having completed my basic polygraph training in 1948 under the direct tutelage of the late Leonarde Keeler, my field experience until 1959 primarily involved the use of the Relevant-Irrelevant polygraph technique. Although the late John E. Reid had advocated the use of the reviewed control question for years, until 1959 I was not motivated to fully understand the Reid Technique until confronted with the challenge of sharing instruction in a school teaching that technique. This was part of shared instruction with my about-to-be partner, Richard O. Arther, who, along with myself, was co-founder of the National Training Center of Lie Detection. As I became engrossed in this project I felt that a number of logical changes could be made building upon the Reid Technique. The result of these changes constituted the birth of the Backster Zone Comparison Technique. These changes primarily involved alteration of the Reid question sequencing, which has remained unchanged since first appearing in published form in 1947. The Zone Comparison Technique also embraced the first numerical system for the objective evaluation of polygraph charts.    From its outset, challenges were made demanding my "empirical data" to support such changes. My consistent response was "common sense" does not require empirical data. Privately though, I knew that the Zone Comparison Technique would have to withstand experimentation by those more prone to conduct laboratory studies.    Finally, more than thirty years after its inception, through the dedicated efforts of Dr. James Allan Matte, a comprehensive assessment has been compiled exploring and summarizing the extended research by others within and outside the polygraph profession. This includes a logical analysis of those original factors involving that which I initially considered as basic common sense changes in then existing techniques.    I truly believe that this textbook laboriously compiled by Dr. Matte will be the enduring source within the polygraph profession for many years, and it is without reservation that I highly recommend this text to all individuals directly and indirectly involved in forensic psychophysiology using the polygraph. Cleve Backster, Hon. Ph.D., Director The Backster School of Lie Detection San Diego, California