Cops who multitask well less likely to shoot unarmed persons when threatened, study shows

In the midst of life-threatening situations requiring split-second decisions, police officers with a higher ability to multitask are less likely to shoot unarmed persons when feeling threatened during video simulations, a new Georgia State University study suggests.

Heather Kleider, Dominic Parrott and Tricia King, assistant professors of psychology at Georgia State, have taken a unique look at officer-involved shooting situations, signs of negative emotions and working memory capacity — the capacity to perform multiple mental tasks, such as reasoning, at the same time.

Other studies have examined factors such as ethnicity, stereotypes, neighborhood crime rates and other factors, but this study examines the effects of police officers’ characteristics on shooting decisions.

“In cognitive psychology, operation span, or working memory, is an overarching cognitive mechanism that indicates the ability to multitask, and the amount of available capacity to perform tasks varies by individual and situation,” Kleider said. “People with a higher capacity are able to keep more things ‘in play’ at one time.”

Urban police officers participated in the study, completing a test of working memory capacity, and then watched a video of an officer-involved shooting that resulted in the death of the officer, during which time negative affect and stress indicators were measured; including elevated heart rates and increased sweating.

Following the video, officers participated in a computer-based simulation where they were required to make split-second decisions whether to shoot or not to shoot someone, based on 80 slides that presented a person holding either a gun or a harmless object like a cell phone, for only a fraction of a second. Officers then pressed either a “shoot” or a “don’t shoot” button.

Analyzing the data, the researchers found that lower levels of working memory capacity increased the likelihood of shooting unarmed people among those officers who had higher levels of negative emotionality — a score determined by comparing readings of facial movement and heartbeat rates between a baseline reading and readings taken during the stressful situation.

Officers with a higher working memory capacity seemed to buffer officers against the negative effects of a threat when making shooting decisions.

“An important thing to consider is that some decision making requires controlled processing wherein balanced/accurate decisions require impulse control” Kleider explained. “For some people, this usurps a substantial amount of available working memory capacity to control impulses, and if you are someone with a lower capacity, it's harder to do.”

Psychologists are not sure whether working memory capacity can be increased with training, but Kleider and her colleagues are planning to investigate this, and are also planning to work with several police departments on a broader study to see if training and years of experience influence shooting decisions.

The study, “Shooting Behavior: How Working Memory and Negative Emotionality Influence Police Officer Shoot Decisions” will appear in a 2009 edition of Applied Cognitive Psychology.

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DOE Awards UGA $3.1 Million to Support Complex Carbohydrate Study Nationwide

The Department of Energy has awarded the University of Georgia Complex Carbohydrate Research Center a four-year, $3.1 million grant to continue as a national resource for researchers who study the complex carbohydrates of plants and of microbes that interact with plants. The grant for the DOE Center for Plant and Microbial Complex Carbohydrates, the only center of its kind in the U.S., has been renewed six times since it was originally awarded in 1986.

“As interest in complex carbohydrates has grown, the DOE center has provided us the ability to transfer our knowledge, expertise and technology to academia, government and industry,” said Regent’s Professor Alan Darvill, co-founder and director of the CCRC and the grant’s principal investigator.

Scientists from U.S. and international biotechnology companies, universities and government agencies send carbohydrate samples derived from animal, plant, and microbial sources to the DOE center for characterization and structural analysis using the latest technologies, collaborate with CCRC scientists and attend specialized training courses at the center.

“Demand for CCRC’s analytical services and training has doubled approximately every four years, as understanding of the importance of complex carbohydrates in biological systems has grown,” said CCRC technical director Parastoo Azadi. Azadi is co-principal investigator with Russell Carlson, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.

“We’re unmatched in the world,” said Azadi. “There’s really nowhere else where scientists doing cutting-edge research can go for analysis, expert consultation and training in one place.”

Carbohydrates have primary roles in normal growth and development, disease processes and a variety of regulatory processes in plants, animals and microbes. The involvement of complex carbohydrates in most cell activities makes understanding their structure and function essential to many fields of basic research and biotechnology, as well as human health, biomedical sciences and bioenergy.

The CCRC was founded at UGA in 1985 to answer the national need for a center devoted to increasing knowledge of the structures and functions of complex carbohydrates. The DOE-funded center was the first of the five federally designated centers dedicated to carbohydrate research that are now located at CCRC.

In addition to the DOE center, the National Institutes of Health funds the Research Resource for Integrated Glycotechnology, the Integrated Technology Resource for Biomedical Glycomics, and the Southeast Collaboratory for Biomolecular NMR. The National Science Foundation funds the Genomics Center: A Monoclonal Antibody Toolkit for Functional Genomics. CCRC faculty also are part of UGA’s research team in the DOE-funded BioEnergy Science Center, one of three research consortiums established in the United States to conduct basic research into the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to ethanol and other biofuels.

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Emory Awarded $28.5 Million for Child Health Study

A consortium headed by Emory University today was awarded $28.5 million as part of a second wave of federal funding for the landmark National Children's Study.

Emory will partner with the Morehouse School of Medicine, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga College of Medicine (UTCOMC) and Battelle Memorial Institute to initiate this phase of research. Emory and its partners are one of only 36 U.S. study centers selected to take part in the National Children's Study (NCS), a multi-year study examining the impact of environmental and genetic factors on the health of children in the U.S.

In 2007, Emory was awarded $25.5 million during the first round of federal research funding to initiate the National Children’s Study in DeKalb and Fayette Counties in Georgia. The current award will be used to recruit study volunteers in Baldwin County, Ga., and Bradley County, Tenn.

“We are very pleased that rural Georgia and rural Tennessee will be represented in the National Children’s Study," says Carol J. Hogue, PhD, MPH, professor of epidemiology and maternal and child health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University. Hogue is also principal investigator for the Emory consortium. "Environmental problems for rural infants and children may be quite different from those of our urban centers, like Atlanta, but we wouldn’t know that without including them in the study."

Emory and its partner research teams will collect genetic, biological, and environmental samples from study volunteers in rural Georgia and Tennessee, and compile statistical information for analyses.

"Baldwin County in middle Georgia and Bradley County at the Tennessee/ Georgia border each have unique features that will determine how we will be engaged with the community throughout the course of the study," says Frances J. Dunston, MD, MPH, professor and chair of the Morehouse School of Medicine's Department of Pediatrics. "We look forward to working with community-based organizations and agencies who serve the children and families that will be a part of this major undertaking. Our goal is assure all of the benefits of the NCS to these communities."

"I am very excited about the opportunities the National Children's Study will bring to Bradley County," says Marvin Hall, MD, UTCOMC clinical assistant professor of pediatrics. "Bradley County's citizenry has long been known for working together to benefit the health of all. I am sure that once again, our residents will work hard to help with study efforts. We will all benefit in learning more about the environmental issues associated with the health of local children."

The National Children's Study will follow a representative national sample of 100,000 children from before birth to age 21, seeking information to prevent and treat some of the nation's most pressing health problems, including autism, birth defects, diabetes, heart disease and obesity.

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