SOVIET CAPABILITIES IN THOUGHT DETECTION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP68R00530A000100120030-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 18, 2004
• Sequence Number: 30
• Publication Date: September 2, 1965
• Content Type: MF

Distribution:
Orig & 1 - Addressee 1 - IPS/SI C '
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2 - D/OSI 1 - CSB/LSD/SI
OSI/LSD (I Sep 65)
Sf P 1965
MEMORANDUM FOR: Director of Central Intelligence
THROUGH: Deputy Director for
Science and Technology
SUBJECT: Soviet Capabilities in
Thought Detection
Request for
Material on a Surveyor
Item, Same Subject
1. This memorandum is for information only; partic-
ular reference is made to paragraph 3.
2. requested additional support material
concerning a Surveyor item "Can Cybernetic Machines
Accomplish Mind Reading?" published on 12 August 1965.
Appendix 1 describes Soviet research on the subject.
Appendix 2 gives additional background information on
Soviet attitudes which led to the research in question.
3. The prospect for Soviet use of a "mind reading"
technique seems to be relatively good in view of the sup-
portive research and development that is being carried out
in the USSR. Such a process does not really constitute
mind reading but rather consists of detecting subvocalized
expressions of thought. This can be of most utility in a
modified lie detector where a good possibility exists that
the subject will respond to direct questions in a manner
which can be detected by monitoring the laryngeal apparatus.
The actual achievement of such an. advance in physiological
monitoring now seems to be a few years in the future at the
present level of effort. In addition, technical advances
in electroencephalography (brain wave techniques) could
provide support to facilitate this so-called mind reading.
To summarize, there in a distinct possibility that in the
next several years the Soviets will achieve a device use-
ful for very advanced lie detection procedures.
DONALD F. CHAMBERLAIN
Director of Scientific Intelligence
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SOVIET TECHNIQUES APPLICABLE TO THE
OBSERVATION OF SPEECH--ASSOCIATED BEHAVIOR
The Soviets have used the polygraph in many experi-
mental situations. It provides information on the
visceral changes associated with any type of somatic
behavior including speech and thought. Visceral changes
are part of the emotional complex. The emotional complex
is, in turn, dependent upon the cultivation of personal
and social moral codes. If these are quite stereotyped,
so also would be the visceral responses to somatic stimu-
lation, such as questions to be answered.. Unusual
visceral response should identify an unusual somatic
effort, such as falsification.
The early Soviet efforts in the area of lie detection
established a different approach. A. E. Luriya carried
out a series of investigations, many years ago, which set
a procedure still used in the field of lie detection. He
chose to examine somatic correlates such as muscle tension,
rather than the vegetative correlates obtainable by the
use of the polygraph. He felt that muscle tension was a
step closer to the tension changes in the vocal apparatus
than were, any of the vegetative reflexes. He also rea-
soned that limb gestures were very closely associated
with articulative efforts and probably also with tensions
observable in thinking.
Lurlya's tests were simple and conducted speedily
with little apparatus. Be worked out an elaborate system
of word associations to fit most any suspected situation.
The subject being examined simply placed his hand upon a
sensitive pressure recording device. Luriya could obtain
a tension curve, not only for word associations, but for
the total discourse involved in the test situation. He
felt that his tests were quite objective since all sorts
of simulated crimes were worked out on many subjects
over a period of live years. Testing diagrams of speech
patterns were worked out for both overt and thought-out
answers to word associations and answers to questions.
These permitted "quick-look" diagnoses which were useful
in determining the nature of emotional tension as well
as the unusual situations which needed more detailed
testing. !/
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Luriya's interest in bodily activity associated with
eech and thought led him into an investigative career
on speech development in young children, both normal and
lefecti.ve. Associated with him was the psycho-physiologist
Ye. X. l okolov, who had wor=~ed out the behavioral corre-
lates for the orienting reflex. Together they defined
experimentally the somatic and, visceral responses also
d ated with the learning of words and the development of
speech. Their apparatus and investigation techniques
lecame quite sophisticated. The polygraph was usee to
test the vegetative responses such as changes in respira
Lion, pulse rate and blouc. pressure. The plethys:ttoggraph
i was used to determine changes in blood distribution to
the limbs. The electroencephalograph was used to deter
mine the effects of speech and thought upon the brain
waves. The myograph was used to cetermi n.e the effects
of speech upon eye movements ano the reflectometer was
used to record reflected light from the eyeball surface
a photographic recorder.
The war:. of SoItc lov and Luriya established an eider
.xta.ncdiog of behavioral stability in the learning process.
When words, phrases, or more complicated verbiage was
presented to experimental subjects, the orienting reflex
appeareo and then gradually decreased as learning became
secure. This, according to c'=:olov, established a brain
odel. It represented learned fact for the subject am
no more orienting occurred in this particular motel
unless the fact was distorted in some manner, at which
time orienting again appeared. To rearrange the model.,
.s in the case of falsification, seems reasonable. In
L1161, Leese affirmed the capability of the Soviets to
)apt the Soy olov-Luriya techniques to lie detection if
they chose to do so. 2/
By l0611, the Soviets ha.c: worked out most all of the
visceral and somatic correlates of the learning process
including the learning and the manipulation of language.
It would be most stimulating to develop techniques to
read these behavioral correlates in reverse and arrive
at the original verbiage which created them.
Now claims have been made by the ~cviets for their
advances in e lectroencerahalographic techniques. I t has
been stated that analyses of high frequency brain waves
it c-ifferentiation between different types of mental
activity, i.e., a shift from such an activity as language
translation to wor,:ing arithmetic problems.. 3/ These
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analyses are being done with 100 to 400 lead, high fre-
quency machines not possessed by the West. The use of
the electroencephalograph machine for rating emotional
changes has long been known in both Nast and West, but
the addition of the intellectual diagnostic accomplish-
ment is strictly a Soviet claim.
In 1958, N. I. Zhinkin pointed out that Pavlov's
concept of signaling in the higher nervous system pro-
vided sufficient grounds for the investigation of the
general theory for the function of signals. 4/ This is
the course of development followed also by tle theory
of information which has raised the question about basic
units for transmitting and measuring communications, and
is making use of the mathematical theory of probability
with a view to solving it. The investigation of the
structure and types of signals, (including words and
speech stimuli) has made it possible to find a common
value which is being studied in engineering theory of
communications, linguistics, psychology and physiology.
The most remarkable fact, states Zhinkin, is the possi-
bility of producing a conditioned reflex response to
word meanings. In his opinion the process of thinking
contains some elements that can be successfully performed
by a cybernetic machine.
Such a statement as this was, no doubt, of interest
to A. N. Sokolov also of Moscow State University. For
many years he has been working with muscle action cur-
rents (myogramss) obtained directly from the muscles of
speech. 5/ He has found similarity between the myograms
obtained during overt speech, on the one hand, and
thinking, on the other. On this basis, he has proposed
that the thinking process is a "feedback" mechanism
involving the vocal musculature in a fashion quite like
that observed in audible speech. It was A. N. Sokolov's
notation which prompted the Surveyor item of 12 August 65
n Cybernetic Machines Accomplish Mind Reading?"
The technique for testing the proposition is not
too difficult, but tedious. It would entail the recording
of electromyograms from vocal musculature during the
recitation of fixed verbiage. Phonograms of the voice
should assist in matching the muscle potential character-
istics in order to establish probability values. The
data gathered would be used to establish an algorithm or
formula for programming the computer. When the data
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samples are large enough and varied as to verbiage input,
the myograms recorded during the thinking process may be
scanned by the machine. If the operation is successful
on a limited experimental basis, it could be enlarged to
cover the average verbiage of the populace in general.
Such a "mind reader" seems not too far in the future,
and should simplify the art of lie detecting, since it
is direct. The polygraph would still be useful as an
emotional detector.
REPENCE MATERIAL:
1. Luriya, A. R., The Nature of Human Conflicts,
(Translation) p 80, 1960.
2. Leese, C. E., Scientific Intelligence Digest 61-17,
21 Aug 61.
3. A---64-17
4. Zhinkin, K. I., "Some Problems in the Application of
the information Theory to Psychology," Problems of
Psycholcog , no 1, 1958. ~.. .
Sokolov, A. N.$ "The Characters of Unspoken Thought ,
CIA Summary #5281, 9 Jan 64.
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BACKGROUND MATERIAL ON SOVIET VIEWPOINTS
LEADING TO THE 'MIND READING' RESEARCH
art ATM- Signal Sysstes>se
An introduction to the position of speech in the
Russian approach to a behavioral hierarchy would begin
with the consideration of phylogenetic learning. This
represents the species accumulation of instinctive
responses to natural stimuli, chiefly survival, which
have developed over eons of time and constitute the
organism's inborn behavioral repertory. The whole
inborn behavioral complex constitutes the organism's
battery of unconditional reflexes, or its only `fixed
reactive patterns.
Next in order are the organism's experiences over
its lifetime. During ontological development, myriads
of stimuli from both the external and internal environ-
ments impinge upon the organism. Through association
with natural (unconditional) stimuli, the unnatural
(conditional) stimuli .gradually become adequate to
produce responses for which they had no original
potential. This type of stimulus--response organization
results in an accumulation of conditional responses
by way of Pavlov's theory of temporary connections
within the nervous system. These temporary connections
create learned behavior. The learning is temporary in
that it must be reinforced by unconditional stimuli, or
it will be forgotten (a process of extinction). This
then constitutes the organism's le_Vngd egPerience as
compared with its unlearned, inborn, behavioral
capabilities.
What has been said applies to the organism as an
individual (self). It represents chiefly a level of
physiological development. The child, in common with
other animals, has inborn reflexes and primary condi-
tional responses derived from sensations, perceptions,
memory, rudimentary thought, and direct impressions of
the environment. His response to the environment, like
that of animals, is expressed as an array of limb,
trun'. and head movements including varieties of facial
expressions and vocal utterances such as crying,
laughing and other vocal expressions below the level
of speech. All of this ontogenetic learning constitutes
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the so called first haling system. It is a stimulus-
response system involving behavioral changes preceding
the level of cognition. In a sense, it represents the
total expressive ability of most animals throughout
their existence, and man up to the average age of
1.2-1.6 years.
The next behavioral advancement is sociological.
It in transitional between sub-speech and speech behav-
ior and provides the stimuli needed for the gradual
conditioning of phonetics for objects in the process
of word formation. Conditioning advances sentence
structure and finally the entire speech capability.
Social contact, particularly parental, is necessary to
shape the course of speech maturation, it cannot be
done by the self. In Pavlovian terms, speech repre-
sents the second s naiiug: 9Ys?tem.
Man possesses two great drives, namely, the self,
which is organized by the first signaling system at
the sub-speech level, and social, which is organized
by the second signaling system at the level of speech
organization. The first drive is chiefly physiological,
the second is sociological. Together they provide the
background for the growth of cognition which marks
man's emergence into the psychological sphere in which
the second signaling system dominates the first. With
his mastery of speech man can delve into memory,
ideation, conceptualization and judgment formation.
All of his cognitive capabilities are made possible
through overt and inner (thought) speech.
t. Vygoteky, L. 3., Thought and Language, Moscow, 1934.
2. Georgiyev, F. I . , The Problems of Sensory and
Rational Cognition, Probleag of Ph_ysic-xo Y,
no 1, p 28-41, 1955.
3. ianov, A. S., 'Problems Connected with Joint
Activity of the First and Second Signal Systems,
Journal of g_ skier ?Nervous Ast3vitp, no 8,
p 192-202, 1958.
4. Luriya, A. R., Verbal Regulation of Brhavior,
The Central Nervous System and Behaviol, Conf. #3,
Macy Foundation, p 359-423, 1960.
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Part B -- Bodily Response to Speech
Man possesses two behavioral systems, one is somatic
which responds to the external environment and the other
is visceral which responds to the internal environment.
These are quite inseparable and both usually respond
simultaneously to any stimulus. Most stimuli of the
external environment call for man*s adjustment to, or
the manipulation of things external and this is accom-
plished by skilled learning or intellect (objective
manipulation and speech). Man is seldom neutral to
these responses unless habituated and expresses a feeling
(affect or emotion) toward them by way of the visceral
system. Emotional factors become strong modifiers of
both overt and inner (thought) speech. Thus bodily
action, speech, and thought trigger both somatic and
visceral behavior.
Ye. N. Sokolov and A. R. Luriya, both of Moscow
State University, an well as other Soviet investigators,
have referred to such behavioral arousals as the orient-
ing reflex. This reflex, which is a pre-conditional
reflex, has been examined in both its somatic and
visceral components. Somatic components are changes
in the tons of body muscles, eye movements, and move-
ments of the head. Visceral components are changes in
blood pressure, heart rate, respiration, vasomotion,
and the psychogalvanic reflex. Beyond the state of
arousal, the personal and social implications of a
imulating word, phrase, or thought prolong the behav-
ioral responses. The quest ion arises as to whether
these behavioral responses to inner speech, or the
thought processes, can be interpreted by way of their
objective analysis.
REFERENCE MATERIAL:
Sokolov, Ye. N., "Neuronal Models and the Orienting
Reflex," The Central Nervous System and Behavior,
Conf. #3, Macy Foundation, p 187-276, 1960.
2. Luriya, A. R., The Role of Speech in the Regulation
of Normal and Abnormal Behavior (A series of
lectures presented by Luriya to the author in 1960).
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