Discriminative Environmental Properties in Terrorist Environments--A Basis for Training.

Abstract

This final report describes a series of three interrelated studies addressing the nature of cues predictive of ambush or terrorist threat available to security force personnel in terrorist environments. The studies were as follows: (1) Eighty four actal or attempted ambush situations were reconstructed through interviews with police participants, analysis of records, etc. in Northern Ireland. (2) One single incident involving the eventual arrest of two RAF terrorists in the Netherlands was reconstructed and analyzed in detail through interviews with police participants, records, etc. (3) A series of observational analyses and experimental simulations were undertaken of selected examples of police patrol work in the Republic of Ireland. The studies are analyzed, presented, and discussed within a behavioral framework, drawing of the conceptual approach known as the rationale Choice Perspective. Police behavior in hostile environments is characterized as being under the discriminative control of critical environment cues, and the studies presented are analyzed in terms of the availability of cues to participants. Contrasts are made in terms of the process of control between rule governance vs. immediate contingency control.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 1996
Accession Number
ADA309460

Entities

People

  • Maxwell Taylor

Organizations

  • University College Cork

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Anthropology
  • Applied Psychology
  • Availability
  • Contrast
  • Ethnic Groups
  • Governments
  • Human Behavior
  • Personality
  • Political Ideologies
  • Political Systems
  • Psychology
  • Republic
  • Simulations
  • Social Sciences
  • Societies
  • Terrorists
  • Training

Readers

  • Brain and Cognitive Science; Experimental Psychology; Cognitive Neuroscience
  • European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP).
  • Military and Counterinsurgency Studies.