TY - JOUR
T1 - Gaze Control and Tactical Decision-Making Under Stress in Active-Duty Police Officers During a Live Use-of-Force Response
AU - Murray, Nicholas P.
AU - Lewinski, William
AU - Sandri Heidner, Gustavo
AU - Lawton, Joshua
AU - Horn, Robert
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - Police officers during dynamic and stressful encounters are required to make rapid decisions that rely on effective decision-making, experience, and intuition. Tactical decision-making is influenced by the officer’s capability to recognize critical visual information and estimation of threat. The purpose of the current study is to investigate how visual search patterns using cluster analysis and factors that differentiate expertise (e.g., years of service, tactical training, related experiences) influence tactical decision-making in active-duty police officers (44 active-duty police officers) during high stress, high threat, realistic use of force scenario following a car accident and to examine the relationships between visual search patterns and physiological response (heart rate). A cluster analysis of visual search variables (fixation duration, fixation location difference score, and number of fixations) produced an Efficient Scan and an Inefficient Scan group. Specifically, the Efficient Scan group demonstrated longer total fixation duration and differences in area of interests (AOI) fixation duration compared to the Inefficient Scan group. Despite both groups exhibiting a rise in physiological stress response (HR) throughout the high-stress scenario, the Efficient Scan group had a history of tactical training, improved return fire performance, had higher sleep time total, and demonstrated increased processing efficiency and effective attentional control, due to having a background of increased tactical training.
AB - Police officers during dynamic and stressful encounters are required to make rapid decisions that rely on effective decision-making, experience, and intuition. Tactical decision-making is influenced by the officer’s capability to recognize critical visual information and estimation of threat. The purpose of the current study is to investigate how visual search patterns using cluster analysis and factors that differentiate expertise (e.g., years of service, tactical training, related experiences) influence tactical decision-making in active-duty police officers (44 active-duty police officers) during high stress, high threat, realistic use of force scenario following a car accident and to examine the relationships between visual search patterns and physiological response (heart rate). A cluster analysis of visual search variables (fixation duration, fixation location difference score, and number of fixations) produced an Efficient Scan and an Inefficient Scan group. Specifically, the Efficient Scan group demonstrated longer total fixation duration and differences in area of interests (AOI) fixation duration compared to the Inefficient Scan group. Despite both groups exhibiting a rise in physiological stress response (HR) throughout the high-stress scenario, the Efficient Scan group had a history of tactical training, improved return fire performance, had higher sleep time total, and demonstrated increased processing efficiency and effective attentional control, due to having a background of increased tactical training.
KW - police
KW - training
KW - use of force
KW - use of force
KW - visual control
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85163572073&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/00222895.2023.2229946
DO - 10.1080/00222895.2023.2229946
M3 - Article
C2 - 37385608
AN - SCOPUS:85163572073
SN - 0022-2895
VL - 56
SP - 30
EP - 41
JO - Journal of Motor Behavior
JF - Journal of Motor Behavior
IS - 1
ER -