Modification of the Marston Deception Test

Abstract

In his latest article in this JOURNAL, Marston describes a test whereby deception or the emotional syndrome involved in lying may be detected in an individual. In brief, he studies the changes in the systolic blood pressure which are produced by emotional disturbance (4). According to his description he has obtained 100 per cent accuracy in cases upon which the tests were tried, both in court cases and upon a number of individuals in an army test. Before mentioning his own technique, Marston sums up, or rather criticizes, the hitherto prevalent methods for the determination of the presence of emotional disturbances. For our own purpose it may be well to mention them briefly.