The effectiveness of a national security screening interview conducted by a computer-generated agent

To determine the feasibility of automating the process of interviewing applicants for Federal security clearances, the authors examined behavioral and physiological responses of individuals (n = 120) to questions concerning their mental health, drug, alcohol, and criminal histories. The interviews were administered by a computer-generated (CG) agent. The results indicated that the number of relevant admissions during the CG interview exceeded the number of admissions made using a self-report questionnaire. In addition, significant blood volume and skin conductance amplitude differences were observed between individuals who made two or more relevant admissions and individuals who made less than two admissions. An interaction between perceived locus of interview control (either computer or human) and behavioral activation systems (BAS) on skin conductance (SC) responses was also observed.