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.

中文翻译：

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在射击/不射击模拟过程中，无意的线索如何影响威胁评估

目标

确定上下文信息是否会在致命武力训练期间无意中改变决策。

背景

致命武力决策本质上涉及威胁评估，其中个人学会识别威胁并使用与情况相称的武力。这个决定最终会受到许多认知影响，特别是在训练期间，人为因素可能会影响决策。

方法

参与者对呈现敌对刺激（指点枪）和非敌对刺激（拿着手机）的任务进行威胁评估。实验 1 通过将记分环用作目标的线索来确定目标设计中的问题，而实验 2 使用弹孔来评估由于目标重复使用而产生的线索。实验 3 将这些线索同样应用于敌对和非敌对刺激，以防止形成预测关系。

结果

在实验 1 和 2 中都观察到了显着的提示效果。对于实验 3，响应时间不受无效提示的影响，因为参与者无法再可靠地使用提示来区分敌对和非敌对刺激。

结论

与刺激相关的因素可能会在致命力量训练期间无意中产生预测关系。这些预测因素是有问题的，因为它们允许参与者在培训期间以一种在现场永远不可能实现的方式进行威胁评估。

应用

应对敌对和非敌对目标进行同等程度的修改，以避免创建识别敌对目标的无意预测关系。在实践中，应在非敌对刺激中加入刻痕环和弹孔，以更好地平行敌对刺激。