Measuring Relative Cue Strength as a Means of Validating an Inventory of Expert Offender Profiling Cues

Abstract

Cues have been identified as important precursors to successful diagnoses among expert practitioners. However, current approaches to the identification of expert cues typically rely on subjective methods, making the validity of cues difficult to establish. The present research examined the utility of a Paired-Concept Association Task (P-CAT) as a basis for discriminating expert and novice cue activation in the context of offender profiling. Three studies are reported: 1A employed a cognitive interview for the acquisition of cue-based concepts used by experts and novices; 1B presented pairs of concepts as part of the P-CAT, which recorded response latency; and, 1C employed a survey to further gauge participants' perceptions of the concepts. The results revealed differences between experts and novices in the cue-based associations activated, and in the response latencies associated with the P-CAT, across expertise. The P-CAT accurately discriminated expert from novice cue activation and consequently offers a new method for objectively validating expert cue use.

Cue Utilization and Cognitive Load in Novel Task Performance

“…Examples include the related terms ‘heavy traffic’ (feature) and ‘short-cut’ (event) and relatively less related terms ‘traffic-light’ (feature) with ‘free-way’ (object). Higher levels of cue utilization are associated with a greater variance in the perceived relatedness of terms ( Ackerman and Rathburn, 1984 ; Schvaneveldt et al, 2001 ; Morrison et al, 2013 ).…”

Using critical-cue inventories to advance virtual patient technologies in psychological assessment

“…For instance, one proposition could be the development of hybrid virtual patients, which combine simulation with real-word cue representations (e.g., extracting patient responses from clinic assessment and treatment recordings); however, the obvious limitations relating to the sensitive nature of the current context must be weighed. Further, the method for initial cue-elicitation (i.e., CTA/CDM) could be enhanced by using it in combination with other more objective and/or on-line methods (e.g., eye-tracking), including those that gauge relative cue strength (e.g., Paired-Concept Association Task: Morrison, Wiggins, Bond & Tyler, 2013).…”

“…The importance of cues in decision-making has been demonstrated across numerous domains, including firefighting (Klein, Calderwood, & Clinton-Cirocco, 1986), medical diagnoses (Hammond, Frederick, Robillard, & Victor, 1989), courtroom judgments (Ebbesen & Konecni, 1975), aviation (Stokes, Kemper, & Marsh, 1992), driving (Fisher & Pollatsek, 2007), nursing (Shanteau, 1991), and crime-scene investigation (Morrison, Wiggins, Bond, & Tyler, 2013). Furthermore, differences in cue-use have been shown to, in part, differentiate differences in performance (Wickens & Hollands, 2000) It is proposed here that the extraction of knowledge from experienced clinical practitioners, in the form of criticalcues engaged during psychological assessment, may present a promising avenue in the development of more ecologically valid simulations of practitioner-patient interaction.…”

Accomplishments of Naturalistic Decision Making Research and Applications to Emerging Defense Challenges

“…& Carr. 2002;: Loveday, Wiggins, & Searle, 2013Morrison, et al, 2013;Schriver et al, 2008 ;Perry, Wiggins, Childs, & Fogarty, 2013). As a result, cue use is viewed as a prominent avenue of interest for NDM researchers looking to model proficient processes in training programmes.…”

“…This suggested that players do not just use cues in isolation, but rather, it is the association between each of the cues which activates the conditioned-action response. Morrison, et al (2013) suggested that cues which are correlated together form cognitive links. These links result in a reduction in amount of cognitive resources used rather than if the individual had to consider the cues separately.…”