Complex Motor Learning and Police Training: Applied, Cognitive, and Clinical Perspectives

Abstract

The practices surrounding police training of complex motor skills, including the use of force, varies greatly around the world, and even over the course of an officer’s career. As the nature of policing changes with society and the advancement of science and technology, so should the training practices that officers undertake at both central (i.e., police academy basic recruit training) and local (i.e., individual agency or precinct) levels. The following review is intended to bridge the gap between scientific knowledge and applied practice to inform best practices for training complex motor skills that are unique and critical to law enforcement, including the use of lethal force. We begin by providing a basic understanding of the fundamental cognitive processes underlying motor learning, from novel skill acquisition to complex behaviors including situational awareness, and decision-making that precede and inform action. Motor learning, memory, and perception are then discussed within the context of occupationally relevant stress, with a review of evidence-based training practices that promote officer performance and physiological responses to stress during high-stakes encounters. A lack of applied research identifying the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying motor learning in police is inferred from a review of evidence from various clinical populations suffering from disorders of cognitive and motor systems, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease and stroke. We conclude this review by identifying practical, organizational, and systemic challenges to implementing evidence-based practices in policing and provide recommendations for best practices that will promote training effectiveness and occupational safety of end-users (i.e., police trainers and officers).

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on European police officers: Stress, demands, and coping resources

“…Confirming the effectiveness of situational response training, some officers asked for more training for exceptional situations. This is in line with the general request for more frequent and realistic police training ( Di Nota & Huhta, 2019 ; Renden, Nieuwenhuys, Savelsbergh, & Oudejans, 2015 ). To ensure that the majority of the officers benefits from training experiences, transferability into real-world contexts can be achieved by training under stress ( Nieuwenhuys & Oudejans, 2011 ) and following the recommendations of non-linear pedagogy ( Körner & Staller, 2018 ).…”

Commentary: Complex Motor Learning and Police Training: Applied, Cognitive, and Clinical Perspectives

“…As such, the authors suggest first learning basic skills and techniques up to a proficient level before further develop expertise “through exposure to increasingly complex and demanding situations” (p. 10) and applying them in performance settings. Concerning this assumption of a linear and modular approach to training (Moy et al, 2015), we raise two issues informed by the ecological dynamics perspective on skill development (Araújo and Davids, 2011; Seifert et al, 2019) that may extend some of the suggestions of Di Nota and Huhta (2019). First, the problem of isolation in complex motor learning and second, the problem of neglecting representative task design before the utilization of complex scenario trainings.…”

“…Di Nota and Huhta (2019) recently provided an informative overview concerning complex motor learning in the context of police training. Reflecting the emphasis on complex motor learning in the context of police training, there are a number of pedagogical practices and coaching decisions which are informed by this paper.…”

“…Reflecting the emphasis on complex motor learning in the context of police training, there are a number of pedagogical practices and coaching decisions which are informed by this paper. As Di Nota and Huhta (2019) explain, that “police trainers generally agree that basic skills training should begin with learning the fundamentals, or component “chunks,” in order to develop proficiency, comfort and safety with a given technique” (p. 10). As such, the authors suggest first learning basic skills and techniques up to a proficient level before further develop expertise “through exposure to increasingly complex and demanding situations” (p. 10) and applying them in performance settings.…”

“…Firstly, from an applied coaching perspective, the issue of isolating parts of movements in order to integrate them later on in a more complex movement or isolating the movement from the performance context has been observed in the police training domain on various occasions (Cushion, 2018; Staller et al, 2019) and has been met with criticism particularly with regards to transfer (Cushion, 2018; Körner and Staller, 2018; Staller and Körner, in press). The proposition of Di Nota and Huhta (2019) of “chunking” movements in order to “facilitate gaining competence in smaller, more manageable units of information” (p. 2) builds on several implicit assumptions in accordance with Information Processing Theory (Schmidt et al, 2018), that are relevant to the field of policing: (a) isolation of performance components effectively contribute to skill development and transfer to the field, (b) the existence of an ideal movement solution, (c) their repetition with low degrees of variation, and (d) the learning process as a coaching centered endeavor with emphasis on prescriptive instruction and feedback. These assumptions are heavily challenged by the ecological dynamics framework (Araújo et al, 2017; Seifert et al, 2017, 2019), which started to gain traction in the sport (Correia et al, 2018) and policing domain (Körner and Staller, 2018).…”