NCJ Number
86597
Date Published
1979
Length
23 pages
Annotation
This report summarizes the work conducted at the Lovelace Medical Foundation in Albuquerque, N. Mex., toward development of an automated stress/duress detection system designed for application to individuals guarding nuclear materials.
Abstract
Physiological response monitoring equipment and high temporal resolution computer analysis of the recorded data have been developed and implemented for automatic duress detection. Twenty-two police volunteers were instrumented with small, body-worn electrocardiographic tape recorders. In laboratory tests, computer analysis indicated that officers' mean heart rate and beat-to-beat variability increased during the psychological test, but the variability dramatically decreased during a physiological test. This allows for differentiation between responses to physiological and psychological stressors, necessary to reduce false alarms due to physical activity. After laboratory tests, officers were instrumented during their normal daily activities. Officers kept log sheets to record times and severity of stressful events, and events were recorded in which the criterion heart rate (CHR) was exceeded. Four major life threatening events occurred during the field studies. During these events, heart rates exceeded a value 20 percent greater than the CHR and were higher than an absolute value of 150 beats per minute. These results suggest the ultimate feasibility of a remote telemetry system to automatically monitor psychological stress/duress. Tables, 11 references, study materials, and photographs are supplied. (Author summary modified)