short for stimulation test, a technique often used prior to a formal polygraph test to convince examinees that the examiners are infallible in detecting deception. In one variation of the stim test, an examinee is told to select cards from a deck and then to lie about the identity of each card chosen. The examiner ostensibly uses questions about each card selection and the examinee’s own physiological indicators to determine each card’s actual identity. In reality, the examiner relies on a marked deck to correctly identify the cards chosen by the examinee.