Improving Forensic Expert Decision-Making through Deliberate Practice
PREPRINT: Almazrouei, M., & Houck, M. (2024, April 9). Improving Forensic Expert Decision-Making through Deliberate Practice. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/c5ukx
Abstract
Forensic experts make important decisions to address legal questions, yet there is now ample evidence that their decisions can be subjective and inconsistent. This commentary suggests that elements of deliberate practicemay help in not only having more consistent forensic decisions, but also towards expected accuracy. Specifically, four elements of deliberate practice: (1) setting a goal, (2) motivation, (3) feedback, and (4) repetition are outlined with examples for addressing issues of cognitive bias andmanaging stress at work. If any of these elements are missing, such as delayed or no feedback, then suboptimal or no improvement of experts’ decision-making may result. This tool for deliberately improving decision-making may be applicable to other legal professionals; thus, potentially driving policies that may help enhancing the criminal justice system broadly.
https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/c5ukx