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.

Don't Shoot Me: Potential Consequences of Force-on-Force Training Modulate the Human Stress Response.

ABSTRACT: Jensen, AE, Bernards, JR, Hamilton, JA, Markwald, RR, Kelly, KR, and Biggs, AT. Do not shoot me: potential consequences of force-on-force training modulate the human stress response. J Strength Cond Res 37(9): 1761-1769, 2023-Close-quarters combat (CQC) engagements trigger the "fight-or-flight" response, activating the sympathetic nervous system and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis in response to perceived threats. However, it has yet to be shown if a force-on-force (FoF) CQC training environment will lead to adaptations in the physiological stress response or performance. United States Marines and Army infantry personnel participated in a 15-day CQC training program. The CQC program focused heavily on FoF training with the use of nonlethal training ammunition (NLTA). Data collections occurred on training days 1 and 15, during a simulated FoF-hostage rescue (HR) scenario and photorealistic target drill. For the FoF-HR, subjects were instructed to clear the shoot house, rescue the hostage, and only shoot hostile threat(s) with NLTA. The photorealistic target drills were similar, but replaced the role players in the FoF-HR with paper targets. Salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) and salivary cortisol were obtained immediately before entering and exiting the shoot house. Time to completion significantly decreased, between days 1 and 15, for both the FoF-HR and the photorealistic drills by 67.7 and 54.4%, respectively ( p < 0.05). Analyses revealed that the change in sAA, nonsignificantly, doubled from day 1 to 15 during FoF-HR ( p > 0.05), whereas the change in sAA decreased during the photorealistic drills across days ( p < 0.05). Cortisol was significantly higher during the FoF-HR in comparison to the photorealistic drills ( p < 0.05). These data suggest that potential consequences of FoF training heighten the stress response in conjunction with enhanced performance.

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.

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.

Real-time visualization of cross-sectional data in three dimensions.

This paper describes a technique for viewing and interacting with 2-D medical data in three dimensions. The approach requires little pre-processing, runs on personal computers, and has a wide range of application. Implementation details are discussed, examples are presented, and results are summarized.