EFFECTS OF PHYSICAL COUNTERMEASURES ON THE PHYSIOLOGICAL DETECTION OF DECEPTION by Charles R. Honts, Robert L. Hodes and David C. Raskin SUMMARY:    The following is a summary of Part I of the above titled study by Honts, Hodes and Raskin, wherein the Backster Zone Comparison Technique was used. In Experiment I of this laboratory study, 48 students were involved in a mock crime wherein 75 percent of the students were assigned to the guilty role and instructed in the use of physical countermeasures. In addition, between each presentation of the questions, the examiner reviewed the control questions with the subject in an effort to prevent habituation to the control questions. They were then administered a polygraph examination using the Backster Zone Comparison Technique. Excluding inconclusives, the original examiner was 80% correct. Independent evaluator’s decisions using the Backster System, excluding inconclusives, was 83% correct. The use of physical countermeasures in this experiment had no significant effect on either the categorical decisions of the original examiner or on the semi-objective scores of the independent evaluator. The complete study can be found in Volume 70, Number 1, 1985, Journal of Applied Psychology. NOTE: You are invited to read Guiding Principles and Benchmarks on Validity Studies for a thorough discussion of the merits of field versus laboratory studies on polygraph techniques.