Oscillatory Neural Correlates of Police Firearms Decision-Making in Virtual Reality

We investigated the neural signatures of expert decision-making in the context of police training in a virtual reality-based shoot/don't shoot scenario. Police officers can use stopping force against a perpetrator, which may require using a firearm and each decision made by an officer to discharge their firearm or not has substantial implications. Therefore, it is important to understand the cognitive and underlying neurophysiological processes that lead to such a decision. We used virtual reality-based simulations to elicit ecologically valid behavior from authorized firearms officers (AFOs) in the UK and matched novices in a shoot/don't shoot task and recorded electroencephalography concurrently. We found that AFOs had consistently faster response times than novices, suggesting our task was sensitive to their expertise. To investigate differences in decision-making processes under varying levels of threat and expertise, we analyzed electrophysiological signals originating from the anterior cingulate cortex. In line with similar response inhibition tasks, we found greater increases in preresponse theta power when participants inhibited the response to shoot when under no threat as compared with shooting. Most importantly, we showed that when preparing against threat, theta power increase was greater for experts than novices, suggesting that differences in performance between experts and novices are due to their greater orientation toward threat. Additionally, shorter beta rebounds suggest that experts were "ready for action" sooner. More generally, we demonstrate that the investigation of expert decision-making should incorporate naturalistic stimuli and an appropriate control group to enhance validity.

"What about Military Decision-Making?": A Bibliometric Review of Published Articles

Decision-making processes in the military domain constitute a strategic field of research in cognitive psychology, although there are currently few scientific publications addressing the topic. Professionals in the field and interested parties need access to data on military decision-making processes to understand where and how the scientific community is directing its investigations on the issue. Military decision-making is a strategic field of study because the military is crucial to the security and defense of a country or community. This work aims to be a point of reference for those involved in various capacities in military decision-making, providing key data regarding research trends over the years, the geographical distribution of scientific productivity, methodologies employed, annual statistics, and the prevalence of the most-investigated terms and topics. Therefore, this study serves as a bibliometric analysis of the literature on military decision-making publihed from 1992 to 2023 on the Scopus and Web of Science databases.

Can cognitive training capitalise on near transfer effects? Limited evidence of transfer following online inhibition training in a randomised-controlled trial

Despite early promise, cognitive training research has failed to deliver consistent real-world benefits and questions have been raised about the experimental rigour of many studies. Several meta-analyses have suggested that there is little to no evidence for transfer of training from computerised tasks to real-world skills. More targeted training approaches that aim to optimise performance on specific tasks have, however, shown more promising effects. In particular, the use of inhibition training for improving shoot/don't-shoot decision-making has returned positive far transfer effects. In the present work, we tested whether an online inhibition training task could generate near and mid-transfer effects in the context of response inhibition tasks. As there has been relatively little testing of retention effects in the literature to date, we also examined whether any benefits would persist over a 1-month interval. In a pre-registered, randomised-controlled trial, participants (n = 73) were allocated to either an inhibition training programme (six training sessions of a visual search task with singleton distractor) or a closely matched active control task (that omitted the distractor element). We assessed near transfer to a Flanker task, and mid-transfer to a computerised shoot/don't-shoot task. There was evidence for a near transfer effect, but no evidence for mid-transfer. There was also no evidence that the magnitude of training improvement was related to transfer task performance. This finding adds to the growing body of literature questioning the effectiveness of cognitive training. Given previous positive findings, however, there may still be value in continuing to explore the extent to which cognitive training can capitalise on near or mid-transfer effects for performance optimisation.

Not according to plan: Cognitive failures in marksmanship due to effects of expertise, unknown environments, and the likelihood of shooting unintended targets

Shooting errors have multi-faceted causes with contributing factors that include sensorimotor activity and cognitive failures. Empirical investigations often assess mental errors through threat identification, yet other cognitive failures could contribute to poor outcomes. The current study explored several possible sources of cognitive failures unrelated to threat identification with live fire exercises. Experiment 1 examined a national shooting competition to compare marksmanship accuracy, expertise, and planning in the likelihood of hitting no-shoot or unintended targets. Experts demonstrated an inverse speed/accuracy trade-off and fired upon fewer no-shoot targets than lesser skilled shooters, yet overall, greater opportunity to plan produced more no-shoot errors, thereby demonstrating an increase in cognitive errors. Experiment 2 replicated and extended this finding under conditions accounting for target type, location, and number. These findings further dissociate the roles of marksmanship and cognition in shooting errors while suggesting that marksmanship evaluations should be re-designed to better incorporate cognitive variables.

How speed impacts threat assessment in lethal force decisions

Despite the importance of being both fast and accurate in lethal force decisions, there is little empirical evidence to identify how speed impacts threat-related decisions and perception. Two experiments used speeded and unspeeded manipulations to determine how the speed imperative impacted threat assessments. Experiment 1 used drift diffusion modeling to quantify decision parameters, including rate of information processing, decision threshold, bias, and non-decisional processes. Speeded conditions reduced the information threshold needed to make decisions and shortened non-decisional processes, yet this manipulation had no impact on the rate of information processing or starting bias. Experiment 2 explored perceptual differences in threat assessment. Participants confidently made threat assessments despite only 30 ms exposure to stimuli with little impact on their subjective threat ratings based on exposure duration. Taken together, these results document the influence of speed on decision-making parameters of threat assessments while demonstrating little impact on threat perception.

Cognitive Coaching in Special Operations: Design Principles and Best Practices

Cognitive enhancement platforms have received growing interest as a means to improve workplace performance. Among the many commercial and professional organizations exploring cognitive training, the United States military has begun exploring the potential added value of cognitive enhancement tools. Whereas most platforms offer automated or algorithm-based solutions to support cognitive training, special operations have developed the role of a cognitive coach to support training. The current discussion provides several lessons learned when trying to bridge cognitive systems and enhancement tools within military operations that should apply to any organization seeking to improve cognitive performance among already high-performing personnel.

Perception Over Personality in Lethal Force: Aggression, Impulsivity, and Big Five Traits in Threat Assessments and Behavioral Responses due to Weapon Presence and Posture

The use of lethal force is a combination of threat perception and individual judgment that sometimes warrants a behavioral response. This simplified description implicates perceptual factors and individual differences in lethal force decision making, which ongoing research continues to address. However, personality-based factors have been less explored as to how they might affect either threat perception or behavioral responses in a lethal force decision. The current investigation examined multiple personality traits with the potential to influence lethal force decision making, including aggression, impulsivity, and the Big Five traits. These measures were compared to threat perception and behavioral responses made to a variety of lethal force stimuli broadly categorized as clear threats, ambiguous threats, and clear nonthreats. Samples were recruited from combat-trained infantry, military recruits, and the civilian community to control for prior lethal force training. Although there was a strong omnibus relationship between threat perception and the likelihood of a behavioral response, neither military training nor personality differences had any impact on threat perception or a binary (e.g., shoot/don't-shoot) behavioral response. Therefore, we conclude that perception dominates personality in lethal force decision making when the threat assessment decision is limited to factors such as weapon presence or posture rather than emotion.

Training and Transfer Effects of Combining Inhibitory Control Training With Transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation in Healthy Adults

Inhibitory control training (ICT) is a promising method to improve individual performance of inhibitory control (IC). Recent studies have suggested transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS) as a novel approach to affect cognitive function owing to its ability to modulate the locus coeruleus-noradrenaline system. To examine the synergistic effects of combining ICT with tVNS, 58 young males in college were randomly assigned to four groups: ICT + tVNS, ICT + sham tVNS, sham ICT + tVNS, and sham ICT + sham tVNS. Participants were instructed to complete three sessions that comprised pre-training tests, a training session, and post-training tests sequentially. Results showed that the ICT + tVNS group significantly improved training and near-transfer effects on the stop-signal and Go/No-go tasks, and these effects were larger than those of the other groups. However, none of the groups exhibited the far-transfer effect on the color-word Stroop task. These results suggest that tVNS augments the intervention effects of training and similar inhibition tasks to achieve the synergistic effect; however, it does not modulate the effects of non-training tasks and obtain the far-transfer effect. ICT combined with tVNS may be a valuable intervention for improving IC in healthy individuals in certain industries and offers novel research ideas for using tVNS for cognitive improvement.

Shoot or Don't Shoot? Tactical Gaze Control and Visual Attention Training Improves Police Cadets' Decision-Making Performance in Live-Fire Scenarios

Police officers often encounter potentially dangerous situations in which they strongly rely on their ability to identify threats quickly and react accordingly. Previous studies have shown that practical experience and targeted training significantly improve threat detection time and decision-making performance in law enforcement situations. We applied 90-min traditional firearms training as a control condition (35 participants) and a specifically developed intervention training (25 participants) to police cadets. The intervention training contained theoretical and practical training on tactical gaze control, situational awareness, and visual attention, while the control training focused on precision and speed. In a pre- and posttest, we measured decision-making performance as well as (tactical) response preparation and execution to evaluate the training. Concerning cognitive performance training (i.e., decision-making), the number of correct decisions increased from pre- to posttest. In shoot scenarios, correct decisions improved significantly more in the intervention group than in the control group. In don’t-shoot scenarios, there were no considerable differences. Concerning the training of response preparation and execution in shoot scenarios, the intervention group’s response time (time until participants first shot at an armed attacker), but not hit time, decreased significantly from pre- to posttest. The control group was significantly faster than the intervention group, with their response and hit time remaining constant across pre- and posttest. Concerning the training of tactical action control, the intervention group performed significantly better than the control group. Moreover, the intervention group improved the tactical handling of muzzle position significantly. The results indicate that a single 90-min session of targeted gaze control and visual attention training improves decision-making performance, response time, and tactical handling of muzzle position in shoot scenarios. However, these faster response times do not necessarily translate to faster hit times – presumably due to the motor complexity of hitting an armed attacker with live ammunition. We conclude that theory-based training on tactical gaze control and visual attention has a higher impact on police officers’ decision-making performance than traditional firearms training. Therefore, we recommend law enforcement agencies include perception-based shoot/don’t-shoot exercises in training and regular tests for officers’ annual firearm requalification.

Effects of Acute Stress on Psychophysiology in Armed Tactical Occupations: A Narrative Review

The ability to perform under extreme pressure is one of the most sought-after qualities in both sports and tactical (military, law enforcement, fire, and rescue, etc.) occupations. While tactical performance relies on both physical and mental capabilities to achieve a desired outcome, it is often hampered by the stressful environments in which these personnel work. The acute stress experienced by tactical personnel can interfere with occupational performance, impacting both physical execution of tasks and decision-making. This narrative review discusses the implications of acute stress on the psychophysiology and physical performance of personnel serving in armed tactical occupations.

The effect of strategy game types on inhibition

Past studies have shown evidence of transfer of learning in action video games, less so in other types, e.g. strategy games. Further, the transfer of learning from games to inhibitory control has yet to be examined from the perspectives of time constraint and logic contradiction. We examined the effect of strategy games (puzzle, turn-based strategy ‘TBS’, and real-time strategy ‘RTS’) on inhibition (response inhibition and distractor inhibition) and cerebral hemispheric activation over 4 weeks. We predicted that compared to RTS, puzzle and TBS games would (1) improve response and distractor inhibition, and (2) increase cerebral hemispheric activation demonstrating increased inhibitory control. A total of 67 non-habitual video game players (M_age = 21.63 years old, SD = 2.12) played one of three games: puzzle (n = 19), TBS (n = 24) or RTS (n = 24) for 4 weeks on their smartphones. Participants completed three inhibition tasks, working memory (WM), and had their tympanic membrane temperature (TMT) taken from each ear before and after playing the games. Results showed that only the puzzle game group showed an improved response inhibition while controlling for WM. There were no significant changes in the distractor inhibition tasks. We also found that there was an increase in left TMT while playing RTS, suggesting the presence of increased impulsivity in RTS. Our findings suggest that puzzle games involving logical contradiction could improve response inhibition, showing potential as a tool for inhibition training.

The role of inhibitory control in shoot/don't-shoot decisions

Previous work has demonstrated a link between cognitive abilities, specifically inhibitory control and lethal force decision-making performance. However, many previously used approaches to simulating shoot/don't shoot scenarios have lacked ecological validity. There is a need to investigate how inhibitory control impacts shoot/don't decisions using realistic simulations to better translate the findings to military and law enforcement settings. This study used multiple cognitive control tasks incorporating discrete judgements in go/no-go and stop signal tasks as well as subjective judgements in go/no-go tasks with both colour stimuli and emotional faces. These combined tasks provided a comprehensive evaluation of inhibitory control abilities. To ensure ecological validity in shooting performance, existing military training scenarios incorporated realistic weaponry and aiming behaviours across different shoot/don't-shoot simulations. The inhibitory control battery identified five principal components from the various tasks, including: stopping ability, response speed, emotion detection, colour detection, and emotional biases. These principal inhibitory control components were entered into hierarchical linear regressions with the dependent variables of unintended casualties inflicted and lethal rounds fired, respectively. Stopping ability better predicted the likelihood of inflicting an unintended casualty, whereas response speed better predicted the number of lethal rounds fired. These regression models included baseline metrics of marksmanship and shots fired, which supports a role for inhibitory control above and beyond basic shooting abilities or strategy. These collective findings provide mechanistic support for the relationship between inhibitory control and errors in shoot/don't-shoot decision-making while using realistic military training scenarios.

How unintentional cues can bias threat assessments during shoot/don't-shoot simulations

OBJECTIVE

Identify whether contextual information may unintentionally alter decision-making during lethal force training.

BACKGROUND

Lethal force decisions inherently involve a threat assessment, where an individual learns to identify a threat and use force commensurate to the situation. This decision is ultimately subject to numerous cognitive influences, particularly during training where artificial factors may bias decision-making.

METHOD

Participants made threat assessments for tasks that presented hostile stimuli (pointing guns) and non-hostile stimuli (holding cell phones). Experiment 1 identified issues in target design by applying scoring rings as cues to targets, whereas Experiment 2 used bullet holes to assess cues due to target reuse. Experiment 3 applied these cues equally to hostile and non-hostile stimuli to prevent a predictive relationship from forming.

RESULTS

Significant cueing effects were observed in both Experiments 1 and 2. For Experiment 3, response times were not impacted by the invalid cues as participants could no longer reliably use the cue to distinguish between hostile and non-hostile stimuli.

CONCLUSION

Stimulus-related factors can unintentionally create predictive relationships during lethal force training. These predictive factors are problematic because they allow participants to make threat assessments during training in a way that would never be realistic in the field.

APPLICATION

Modifications should be made to hostile and non-hostile targets in equal measure to avoid creating an unintentionally predictive relationship that identifies hostile targets. In practice, scoring rings and bullet holes should be added to non-hostile stimuli to better parallel hostile stimuli.

Correct response negativity may reflect subjective value of reaction time under regulatory fit in a speed-rewarded task

Error-related negativity (ERN), an electroencephalogram (EEG) component following an erroneous response, has been associated with the subjective motivational relevance of error commission. A smaller EEG event, the correct response negativity (CRN), occurs after a correct response. It is unclear why correct behavior evokes a neural response similar to error commission. CRN might reflect suboptimal performance: in tasks where speed is motivationally relevant (i.e., incentivized), a correct but slow response may be experienced as a minor error. The literature is mixed on the relationship between CRN and response time (RT), possibly due to different motivational structures, tasks, or individual traits. We examined ERN and CRN in a go/no-go task where correctness and speed were encouraged using a points-based feedback system. A key individual trait, regulatory focus, describes a person's tendency to seek gains (promotion focus) and avoid losses (prevention focus). Trait regulatory focus was measured, and participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: points gain, points loss, and informative-only feedback. Participants committed too few errors to reliably model ERN effects. CRN amplitude related to RT in all feedback conditions, with slower responses having larger CRN. Participants with stronger promotion focus had a more exaggerated RT/CRN relationship in the point gain condition, suggesting that regulatory fit influences the motivational relevance of speed and thus the negative subjective experience and CRN for slower responses. These findings are consistent with the claim that CRN reflects RT when RT is motivationally relevant and that the CRN/RT relationship reflects the degree of subjective motivational relevance.

Developing scenarios that evoke shoot/don't-shoot errors

Multiple errors can occur in a use-of-force scenario, although some critical errors involve unintended casualties where the target should never have been fired upon. Training instructors utilize a variety of methods to ensure military and law enforcement personnel do not inflict unintended casualties. However, there is little empirical evidence about the best methods to design a shooting simulation that might evoke these errors, which is critical to ensure the validity of any assessment or training exercise. The current study analyzed performance across a variety of simulated shooting scenarios developed and applied for military training purposes. Several factors were assessed based upon either the scenario or human performance. Scenario type, number of shots fired, and the ratio of hostiles-to-non-hostiles were significant predictors for the likelihood of inflicting an unintended casualty. This collected evidence should help improve scenario design for future training simulations that will help avoid these critical shooting errors.

Perception during use of force and the likelihood of firing upon an unarmed person

Stress can impact perception, especially during use-of-force. Research efforts can thus advance both theory and practice by examining how perception during use-of-force might drive behavior. The current study explored the relationship between perceptual judgments and performance during novel close-combat training. Analyses included perceptual judgments from close-combat assessments conducted pre-training and post-training that required realistic use-of-force decisions in addition to an artificially construed stress-inoculation event used as a training exercise. Participants demonstrated significant reductions in situational awareness while under direct fire, which correlated to increased physiological stress. The initial likelihood of firing upon an unarmed person predicted the perceptual shortcomings of later stress-inoculation training. Subsequently, likelihood of firing upon an unarmed person was reduced following the stress-inoculation training. These preliminary findings have several implications for low or zero-cost solutions that might help trainers identify individuals who are underprepared for field responsibilities.

When the response does not match the threat: The relationship between threat assessment and behavioural response in ambiguous lethal force decision-making

Deciding when to use lethal force inherently depends on assessing threat, a process that itself incorporates numerous perceptual factors. This study assessed this relationship between perception-based threat assessment and behaviour-based threat response. Specifically, participants completed multiple tasks designed to elicit either a threat rating (e.g., perception-informed threat assessment) or a binary behavioural response (e.g., shoot/don't-shoot). Actor posture and weapon presence significantly affected the threat assessment, which was an extremely powerful omnibus predictor of threat response. However, for ambiguous threat stimuli, perceived threat became a poor predictor for threat response relative to the omnibus test. Participants appeared to adopt additional rules to inform behaviour independent of the threat assessment when faced with an ambiguous situation. These results demonstrate an intriguing disparity between subjective threat assessment and the behavioural response to use force that does not apply well to ambiguous cases or adequately explain errors in lethal force decisions.