W4 Polygraph Postlab

What is electrodermal activity

Measures the electrical conductance of the skin in response to sweat

How is EDA measured

Placing electrodes on index and middle fingers which are dense in sweat glands

Does EDA increase or decrease if hands are sweating and why

Increase, because salt in the sweat increases conductivity

Explain why establishing a baseline is important in polygraph tests

It creates a reference point for an individuals physiological baselines, to be able to observe if recorded values change during lying

What major physiological processes account for changes in electrodermal activity?

Activation of the sympathetic nervous system causes changes in EDA, as the heightened sympathetic activation during lying causes an increase in sweating of the hands, which increases its conductance

Would you expect a cognitive task such as counting to increase or decrease HR, RR, and EDA? Explain why this might be physiologically.

We would expect a slight increase in all three, since cognitive effort increases sympathetic stimulation

Why may the polygraph data for the counting tasks not have matched the expected increase in all three values in the experiment

Environmental factors such as the loud lab classroom may have caused an irregularly high baseline to be established