The Test with Keywords Removed
Sketch detective story based on the concept of a new polygraph testing method.
London. New Scotland Yard
«Good afternoon, Chief,» Detective Clark greeted as he entered the office of Divisional Commissioner James Hugh.
«Hello, take a seat,» the divisional commissioner glanced at his watch with a cracked bulletproof glass. «Time is short, so let’s get straight to the point. I’ve been approached by our younger brothers in mind.»
«Interpol colleagues?»
«Yes. By the way, they’re good guys over there, just lacking a bit of culture. Anyway, they’ve identified an employee leaking classified information to a criminal group.»
«Quite an achievement to expose a mole,» Bobby Clark nodded approvingly.
«It’s not that simple. The Interpol team has only a couple of indirect pieces of evidence against this employee.»
«Suspicio? Possible error?»
«They believe the likelihood of error is minimal. However, there’s not enough solid ground for an arrest.»
«Place him under round-the-clock surveillance, bug his house, and track all his mistresses…»
«Already done, but who knows when he will make contact again?»
«With the criminals or the mistresses?»
«Jokes aside. With the criminals. It could be in a month or six months…» The divisional commissioner lit his favorite pipe. «The main problem is that this employee has extensive experience in operational and investigative work.»
«I see, he can easily detect surveillance and go underground.»
«Exactly. Apprehending him, a professional, on circumstantial evidence and trying to break him is not an option,» the divisional commissioner adjusted his holster. «In two weeks, Interpol will conduct a routine polygraph check of employees.»
«Great!»
«Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. This guy is well-versed in polygraph techniques and has conducted polygraph tests on suspects numerous times. Most likely, he’ll easily pass the routine check, as he probably has before.»
«So far, fortune smiles upon him,» observed Detective Clark, unbuttoning his shirt and loosening his tie. «What do our younger brothers in mind want?»
«Interpol is asking for our help to prove the mole’s guilt. And they want it done as quickly as possible.»
«Not an easy task.»
«What ideas do you have? Take your time answering. You can smoke and think for five minutes.»
«Thank you, Chief,» Bobby Clark took a cigarette from his pack and lit it.
For several minutes, the office owner and Detective Clark smoked in silence. Clark finally broke the pause.
«I have one idea, Chief. The mole must fail the routine polygraph test.»
«But he’s a polygraph expert himself…»
«We’ll create a completely new polygraph test that he doesn’t know about.»
«A new test, one that will be a total surprise to him… I like the idea. Can you quickly develop such a test? You’re a detective, stepping into uncharted territory.»
«I’m ready to step onto unfamiliar ground, Chief.»
«This is a true intellectual challenge. Do you have the intelligence and knowledge to solve this task?»
«Chief, as your favorite quote from the great physiologist Hans Selye goes: ‘Neither your knowledge, the power of your tools, nor the precision of your plans can replace the originality of your thought.’«
«I like your response. Get to work, and remember, time is short.»
.
Three Days Later.
New Scotland Yard.
«I call this method ‘The Test with Keywords Removed‘. Its foundation was inspired by recent scientific articles on neurophysiology and functional MRI, focusing on how the brain works when solving various tasks, tests, insights, and reading,» Detective Clark said, placing his laptop on the table.
«What’s the essence of the method and its main difference from existing techniques?» asked Divisional Commissioner James Hugh.
«All classic polygraph tests are based on questions containing key words.»
«For example?»
«For example: ‘Did you steal the jewelry?’ ‘Did you kill Mr. Smith?’ ‘Did you break into the safe on Butcher Row?'»
«And these questions may provoke physiological reactions in individuals involved in the crime: changes in pulse, breathing, and skin conductivity, which the polygraph detects.»
«Yes, Chief, but not always and not in everyone tested. Sometimes innocent individuals respond, while guilty ones show no reaction.»
«Judging by the name of your method, you remove key words from the questions. Why, and what does that achieve?» asked the Divisional Commissioner.
«I remove key words, but not all of them. Some key words remain in the question. These become key questions with key spaces.»
«Spaces where the deleted words should be? How can the test subject see these spaces if the question is asked aloud?»
«That’s another fundamental distinction, based on neurophysiology research. We shift from the auditory channel of information delivery to the visual one.»
«The questions are displayed on a screen?»
«Yes, the questions are sequentially displayed on a monitor in front of the subject, and they must read them aloud. Then they respond with ‘Yes,’ ‘No,’ or ‘I don’t understand the question.'»
«Is the subject warned that the questions may contain spaces and that they might not understand them?»
«Of course. This is always explained during the pre-test briefing.»
«Give me an example.»
«Take a look at this,» Detective Clark said, opening his laptop and turning it toward the Divisional Commissioner. «The investigation concerns a murder in a car. In a black car, parked near a fallen tree, the body of a woman showing signs of violent death was discovered.»
«Let’s assume that’s the case,» the Divisional Commissioner nodded.
«We create a question with key words:
The victim was killed in a black car near a fallen tree?
Key words: killed, black, car, near, fallen tree. We remove the key words car and tree. We leave in the question the key words killed, black, near, fallen. This creates a question with key spaces:
The victim was killed in a black ……….. near a fallen ………..?
«What’s next?»
«Next, we create random similar non-key questions with spaces:
The victim was killed in a city ……….. near a concrete ………..?
The victim was killed in a swimming ……….. near a new ………..?
The victim was killed in a suburban ……….. near the last ………..?
The victim was killed in an old ……….. near a wooden ………..?
The victim was killed in a gaming ……….. near a musical ………..?
«So far, so good. Continue.»
«The final test will look like this:
The victim was killed in a city ……….. near a concrete ………..?
The victim was killed in a swimming ……….. near a new ………..?
The victim was killed in a suburban ……….. near the last ………..?
The victim was killed in an old ……….. near a wooden ………..?
The victim was killed in a black ……….. near a fallen ………..?
The victim was killed in a gaming ……….. near a musical ………..?«
«If one of the suspects, while answering these questions with ‘I don’t understand the question,’ exhibits a physiological reaction specifically to the question ‘The victim was killed in a black ……….. near a fallen ………..?’ the investigator notes this,» said Detective Clark.
«So, you’re comparing the test subject’s reactions?»
«Exactly, Chief. Additionally, we can include a third group of questions. These are similar to traditional neutral questions. They don’t have spaces, serve to fill the test, distract attention, and should prompt only ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ answers.»
«Examples of neutral questions?»
«Is your name Michael? Do you live in London?»
«Understood,» the Divisional Commissioner said, pulling out his favorite pipe. «If I remember correctly, the visual analyzer processes up to 80% of all information we receive.»
«It’s the primary channel for information entering the human brain. Its bandwidth is 6.5 times greater than that of the auditory channel, and reading activates up to twenty different brain structures: Broca’s area, Wernicke’s area, the occipital lobes, the angular gyrus, the inferior occipitotemporal cortex of the dominant hemisphere, the visual word form area, the ventral and dorsal visual pathways. Cortico-cerebellar networks and the non-dominant hemisphere are also activated… This topic alone could fill several lectures.»
«I get it. The more brain structures involved in the test, the higher the likelihood of triggering attention and memories related to the investigated crime.»
«Yes, Chief. You’ve got the main idea right. The presence of key spaces in a question creates additional cognitive load, sharpening the attention of someone involved in the crime. Since they know all the circumstances of the crime, when they read a question with key word spaces, they can infer the full meaning of the question from the remaining key word and context.»
«They realize that this particular question directly relates to the crime they committed, distinguishing it from other questions, what might lead to distinct psychophysiological reactions that the polygraph can detect,» the Divisional Commissioner suggested.
«Precisely, Chief,» Detective Clark smiled.
«For someone uninvolved in the crime, the likelihood of experiencing cognitive stress when reading a question whose meaning is unclear due to key word spaces should theoretically be minimal.»
«Questions with spaces for both key and non-key words can be formulated uniformly, briefly, or otherwise. For example, short questions with a minimal number of deleted words will impose minimal cognitive load,» Detective Clark continued, closing his laptop. «Also, having the subject read the question aloud entirely eliminates the influence of the polygraph examiner’s voice on the test subject, as often happens in traditional studies. Moreover, reading the question aloud requires an additional layer of control—control over their own voice, which is a separate aspect altogether.»
«I like your idea. Now the main thing is to see if it holds up in practice. Are we passing the method to our colleagues at Interpol?»
«Of course. They’ll test it quickly, and if the trial results meet their expectations, they can use it to examine the suspect accused of leaking classified information.»
Two Weeks Later
London. New Scotland Yard
«Good afternoon, Chief. You called?» Detective Clark asked, entering Divisional Commissioner Hugh’s office.
«Hello, take a seat,» the commissioner adjusted the holster under his arm. «Congratulations, your method works. I just got a call from the Interpol team. Their suspect failed the ‘Test with Keywords Removed» on the polygraph.»
«Excellent, I’m very glad,» Bobby Clark settled into a chair across from the commissioner. «I hope they can now break him completely.»
«You’ve overworked yourself developing the new method. Maybe you should take a vacation? Fly to Iceland, for example—see glaciers, geysers, waterfalls, black beaches, and active volcanoes.»
«I’ve been afraid of volcanoes since childhood, especially active ones,» Detective Clark admitted. «Mudflows from the crater, ashfall at any moment, and rocks launched into the air that could land on your head…»
«That’s completely unnecessary fear. Don’t be afraid of an active volcano. Mudflows from the crater? Wear high rubber boots and dress casually. If ash falls, just brush it off. And if rocks come flying, simply dodge or jump aside,» the commissioner explained matter-of-factly.
«Thank you, Chief, I’ll think about the vacation,» Bobby Clark smiled. «Chief, I have a big request. The day after tomorrow is my fifth wedding anniversary with my wife. I’d like to tell her something very pleasant, very original, and something no one has ever said before. But I can’t think of anything.»
«Something very pleasant, very original, and something no one has ever said before…» the commissioner repeated thoughtfully, lighting his favorite pipe. «Here’s what you do. Give your wife a bouquet of flowers, a gift, and say this:
‘Darling, five years ago, we were both very lucky, but I was luckier than you.'»
«Yes!» exclaimed Detective Clark, clapping his hands. «Thank you, Chief.»
Epilogue
As the author of this sketch-detective story and the creator of the «Test with Missing Keywords,» I apologize for the abundance of technical details in the narrative. If my test has piqued your interest, feel free to contact me.
Sincerely,
Alexey Benediktov
alekseybenediktov01@gmail.com
