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On October 1st, the
Science Policy Office hosted a meeting between leaders of the behavioral and
social science research community and the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit (BSU).
The planning dinner was convened as a follow-up to a successful half-day
colloquium entitled “The Role of Human Factors in Homeland Security”
at
the annual meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) in
Baltimore. The overall purpose of these and other meetings APA has held in
conjunction with FBI Academy staff is to help facilitate their interaction
with a range of behavioral scientists to help guide the FBI as it begins
re-orienting to a domestic terrorism agenda.
While the FBI is receiving a critical review from the
Intelligence and Homeland Security Committees on Capitol Hill, the reforms
called for by congress will ultimately be implemented from within the
Academy where all agents receive their primary and specialized training. In
the discussions held October 1 as well as in on-going communications with
the BSU Chief, we are assured that these discussions are having an impact on
field operations.
The October 1 discussions were diverse and
free-ranging but in general oriented around a number of practical
operational and human performance issues. Examples of discussion topics
included decision-making under stress, avoiding hindsight bias in analyses
of intelligence failures, diversionary tactics in cyberespionage, and use of
robotics in critical incidents.
It is hoped that these preliminary discussions will
lead to a larger conference similar in scale to the one convened last
February entitled "Countering Terrorism: Integrating Theory and
Practice"
Representing the FBI on October 1 were BSU Chief,
Steve Band, PhD; forensic psychologist Tony Pinizzotto, PhD and Agent Harry
Kern. In addition we were joined by Jim Griffin, PhD from the White House
Office of Science and Technology Policy, Clark McCauley, PhD and Ian Lustick,
PhD from the University of Pennsylvania and the Solomon Asch Center for
Ethnopolitical Conflict, Eric Niederman, PhD from the Transportation
Security Administration, Colin Drury, PhD, Chair of the Security
Subcommittee of the Federal Aviation Administration’s, Research
Engineering and Development Advisory Committee, Doug Harris, PhD, President
of Anacapa Sciences, Peter Hancock,PhD and Eduardo Salas,PhD from the
Department of Psychology and the Institute for Simulation and Training at
the University of Central Florida, Sandra Hart, special advisor for
Strategic Planning for the Chief of NASA's Human Factors Division at the
Ames Research Center, Mark Scerbo, PhD, Chair of the Technical Program
Committee of HFES and Gerald Krueger, Past-President of Division 21. APA was
represented by Susan Brandon, PhD, Senior Scientist and Geoff Mumford, PhD,
Director of Science Policy.
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Mark W. Scerbo, Chair
Peter A. Hancock, Co-chair
List of Participants
Session 1
Mark Scerbo, Old Dominion University, An Overview of Human Factors and its Relevance to Homeland Security
James Griffin, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, The Role of Science and Technology in Homeland Security
Eric Neiderman, Transportation Security
Administration, Human Factors Contributions to Aviation Security
Colin Drury, SUNY Buffalo, A Unified Model of Security Inspection
George R. Smith, U. S. Department of Justice, Domestic Preparedness and Consequence Managemential"
Norman Groner, University of California Berkley,
Cognitive Issues Related to Building Evacuations
Jake Pauls, Jake Pauls Consulting Services in Building
Use and Safety, The World Trade Center Evacuation, Lessons Learned
Session 2
Doug Harris, Anacapa Sciences, Intelligence Analysis:
Critical Techniques for Combating Terrorism
Daniel Pond, Los Alamos National Laboratory, The Role
of Human Errors in Safeguards and Security Infractions
Raja Parasuraman, Catholic University, Giving Human Factors Away to a Lay Audience: Integrating Human Factors into Science and Technology for Countering Terrorism
Susan Brandon, American Psychological Association,& Anthony Pinizzotto, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Forging New Partnerships to Assist Homeland Security Efforts
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