Law enforcement interrogations are inquiries, in which criminal investigators systematically question potentially uncooperative individuals legally held in custody to attain dependable information that suspects may have knowledge of and potential responsibility for (Evans et al., 2010). Seasoned law enforcement interrogators (SLEIs) follow prescribed requirements in the course and conduct of the interrogation, but they also have extraordinary discretionary and flexible decision-making powers to use a variety of interrogation strategies and tools to fulfill their objectives in conducting dynamic adversarial interviews (Leo, 2008). Although substantial research has been conducted on the relative efficacy of a wide variety of interrogation approaches that are at the disposal of these investigators depending upon the situation (Kelly et al., 2013; Meisner et al., 2014; Vallano & Compo, 2015) less is known about the cognitively complex naturalistic decision-making process that must be performed
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Naturalistic decision-making (NDM) is a process that interrogators use requiring dynamic situational awareness (SA) in time-pressured contexts to manage goals and future expectancies, multiple information flows such as ambiguous situational cues and responses from suspects, self-monitoring of biases, and consideration of optional tools in executing forward targeted action steps (Klein et al., 1991; Zimmerman, 2006). What makes NDM an especially challenging process in law enforcement is SLEIs are required to make decisions in the face of contradictory goals, expectancies, procedural mandates, and imperfect knowledge that sometimes confound one another. In contexts in which so much is unknown about suspects and case evidence, and pressure is put on to produce confessions and resolve cases quickly, SLEIs can be forced to spontaneously develop and use biased approaches containing predisposed preconceptions and stereotypes (Davis & Leo, 2014; Leo, Neufeld, Drizin, & Taslitzz,
Naturalistic decision-making (NDM) is a process that interrogators use requiring dynamic situational awareness (SA) in time-pressured contexts to manage goals and future expectancies, multiple information flows such as ambiguous situational cues and responses from suspects, self-monitoring of biases, and consideration of optional tools in executing forward targeted action steps (Klein et al., 1991; Zimmerman, 2006). What makes NDM an especially challenging process in law enforcement is SLEIs are required to make decisions in the face of contradictory goals, expectancies, procedural mandates, and imperfect knowledge that sometimes confound one another. In contexts in which so much is unknown about suspects and case evidence, and pressure is put on to produce confessions and resolve cases quickly, SLEIs can be forced to spontaneously develop and use biased approaches containing predisposed preconceptions and stereotypes (Davis & Leo, 2014; Leo, Neufeld, Drizin, & Taslitzz,