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Inattentional Blindness

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Accountability Meets Inconvenient Truths

Cognitive dissonance: that terrible feeling you get when confronted with information that challenges your view of the world. You can ignore the new information, blindly accept it, or interrogate it. Look for distinctions between what you believed and what you are being told. If there are none, maybe you just learned something and can adjust...
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New, Free Guide On Human Factors Affecting Perception & Memory

A succinct guide to the human factors that can affect an officer’s memory after a shooting or other use-of-force crisis has been posted for free access online by Lexipol, the law enforcement policy and risk-management organization. Click here to download a copy. The four-page “Explainer Document,” written by two Force Science graduates, is a handy...
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New Study: Many Officers “Blind” To Plain-View Threat

As a veteran officer approaching a traffic violator, would you notice a gun lying in plain sight on the dashboard of a vehicle you’ve detained for running a stop sign? Before too quickly thinking “of course,” consider the findings of a new study of the phenomenon known as “inattentional blindness.” That term refers to the...
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New “Invisible Gorilla” Study Adds To Proof Of “Inattentional Blindness”

Additional evidence of the phenomenon known as inattentional blindness has emerged from a new study of sensory focus and memory, this time with a professional group other than cops. “At Force Science, we write and teach about inattentional blindness in a law enforcement context,” says Dr. Bill Lewinski, executive director of the Force Science Institute....
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When You Don’t See What’s Visible: The Inattentional Blindness Factor & More

Experiments mirroring a real-world case that resulted in an officer going to prison for perjury have confirmed that a trick of the mind called inattentional blindness—the failure to see something important that is clearly within your field of view—can occur under stressful circumstances on the street. The officer’s conviction was described in detail in a...
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What Force Science Still Teaches About BART Case, Despite Court Ruling

In the nation’s highest-profile case of weapons confusion, the California Court of Appeal has ruled that a jury verdict of involuntary manslaughter was reasonable and a two-year prison sentence was warranted for former officer Johannes Mehserle, who swore that he thought he was deploying his Taser when he actually drew his pistol and fatally shot...
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“Mind Traps” That Can Trick You And Those Who Judge Your Actions

The jury didn’t believe the Boston cop. During a foot pursuit by multiple officers of multiple suspects in a shooting, he’d run right past a spot where fellow LEOs were mercilessly beating a black man, but he swore he hadn’t seen a thing, didn’t even know the other officers or their victim were there. The...
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