Search

The response time-based Concealed Information Test (RT-CIT) is an established memory detection paradigm. Slower RTs to critical information (called ‘probes’) compared to control items (called ‘irrelevants’) reveal recognition. Different lines of research indicate that response conflict is a strong contributor to this RT difference. Previous studies used electromyography (EMG) to measure response conflict, but this requires special equipment and trained examiners. The aim of this study was to explore if response conflict can also be measured with an analog gaming keyboard that is sensitive to minimal finger movements. In a preregistered study, participants completed an autobiographical RT-CIT (n = 35) as well as a cued recognition task (modified Sternberg task; n = 33) for validation purposes. Partial errors, partial button presses of the incorrect response key, were more frequent in trials with response conflict than in trials without conflict. Partial errors were rare (CIT: 2.9%; Sternberg: 1.7% of conflict trials), suggesting analogue keyboards have lower sensitivity than EMG. This is the first evidence that analog keyboards can measure partial errors. Although likely less sensitive than EMG measures, potential benefits of analog keyboards include their accessibility, their compatibility with all tasks that use a standard keyboard, that no physical contact with the participant is needed, and ease of data collection (e.g., allowing for group testing).

The aviation industry is one of the sectors that has been heavily impacted by the pandemic. While the major body of literature has focused on passenger experience and behaviour, this study focuses on airport employees instead—their experiences, perceptions, and preferences following the emergence of COVID-19. More than 1000 participants from 4 major airports—Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Singapore Changi Airport, Taipei Taoyuan Airport, and Zurich Airport—representing over 10 different occupations, have provided a variety of sentiments about the airport as an employment ecosystem in the wake of COVID-19. Quantitatively and qualitatively surveying four different airports enabled a cross-border analysis of the results to identify interesting geographic contrasts, as well as global themes, among the responses. Regional differences regarding, the feeling of preparedness, confidence in measures, and optimism are presented. A significant difference in confidence in non-pharmaceutical measures between employees from Asian and European airports is shown. Wants and needs such as better physical/IT workplace infrastructure and more flexibility regarding job scope and hours are pointed out. The results of this research provide insights for future airport employee experience research by outlining areas to study in greater detail. Furthermore, practical implications for airport stakeholders and companies arising from the challenges experienced by the workforce are laid out to provide guidance to prepare for similar circumstances in the future and navigate the aftermath of and recovery from the pandemic.

The response time-based Concealed Information Test (RT-CIT) is an established memory detection paradigm. Slower RTs to critical information (called ‘probes’) compared to control items (called ‘irrelevants’) reveal recognition. Different lines of research indicate that response conflict is a strong contributor to this RT-difference. Previous studies used electromyography to measure response conflict, but this requires special equipment and trained examiners. The aim of this study was to explore if response conflict can also be measured with an analog gaming keyboard that is sensitive to minimal finger movements. In a preregistered study (n = 35), participants completed an autobiographical RT-CIT and a cued recognition task (modified Sternberg task). Partial errors, partial button presses of the incorrect response key, were more frequent in trials with response conflict than in trials without conflict (BF CIT = 275; BF Sternberg = 102) but still rare (CIT: 2.9%; Sternberg: 1.7% of conflict trials). This is the first evidence that analog keyboards can measure partial errors. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.

To detect if someone hides specific knowledge (called "probes"), the response time-based Concealed Information Test (RT-CIT) asks the examinee to classify items into two categories (targets/non-targets). Within the non-targets, slower RTs to the probes reveal recognition of concealed information. The preferred protocol examines one piece of information per test block (single probe protocol), but its validity is suboptimal. The aim of this study was to improve the validity of the single probe protocol by presenting the information in multiple modalities. In a preregistered study (N = 388) participants were instructed to try to hide their nationality. The items referring to the nationality were presented as words, flags, and maps. Increasing the number of modalities of the targets (BF10 = 37), but not of the probes and irrelevants (BF01 = 6), increased the CIT-effect. This broadens the range of the RT-CIT’s applicability, which is an important step towards application in practice.

Selective security screenings are discussed as a potential strategy to reduce costs and waiting times at airports, while keeping security high. However, the limited literature suggests that traditional security screenings, where all passengers are screened, are perceived as more deterrent for criminal activity and more secure from passengers' perspectives. The goal of this study was to investigate whether targeted communication on an airport's website can counteract the detrimental effect of randomised airport security checks on deterrence. The study results confirm prior findings that people with illegal intentions prefer randomised security checks compared to traditional security checks. However, there are hints that tactical communication could be a tool to improve security at airports. All in all, the insights gathered in this study should be taken as a sign of caution, when considering switching to selective security screenings. Future directions for investigating the effect of tactical communication are discussed., Journal of Transportation Safety and Security, 14 (3), ISSN:1943-9962, ISSN:1943-9970

To detect if someone hides specific knowledge (called ‘probes’), the reaction time-based Concealed Information Test (RT-CIT) asks the examinee to classify items into two categories (targets/non-targets). Within the non-targets, slower RTs to the probes reveals recognition of concealed information. The preferred protocol examines one piece of information per test block (single probe protocol), but its validity is suboptimal. The aim of this study was to improve the validity of the single probe protocol by presenting the information in multiple modalities. In a preregistered online study (n = 388) participants were instructed to try to hide their nationality. The items referring to the nationality were presented as words, flags, and maps. Increasing the number of modalities of the targets (BF10 = 37), but not of the probes (BF01 = 6), increased the CIT-effect. This broadens the range of the RT-CIT’s applicability, which is an important step towards application in practice.

The reaction time-based Concealed Information Test (RT-CIT) has been used to judge the veracity of an examinees claim to be naïve about an incident by testing his/her memory of relevant details. Here, we explore the validity of the RT-CIT to generate new knowledge about the incident – the searching CIT. In a mock terrorism study (n = 60) the searching RT-CIT allowed to detect crime information well above chance, with sampling error possibly underestimating its true potential. A simulation study confirms the potential of the searching RT-CIT, and identifies conditions under which it best performs. We used an archival data-set that met these conditions (high CIT effect, large number of item repetitions), and found better item classification performance than in the mock terrorism study. Although the classification is far from perfect, the searching RT-CIT could be a new, promising investigative tool to reveal new crime details to the investigative party.

The reaction time-based concealed information test (RT-CIT) has been used to judge the veracity of an examinees claim to be naïve by using RTs to test for recognition of relevant details. Here, we explore the validity of the RT-CIT to generate new knowledge about the incident—the searching CIT. In a mock terrorism study (n = 60) the RT-CIT not only allowed to link suspects to known crime details, but also allowed to reveal new crime details well above chance. A simulation study confirms the potential of the searching RT-CIT and identifies conditions under which it performs best. We used an archival dataset that met these conditions (high CIT effect, large number of item repetitions), and found better item classification performance than in the mock terrorism study. The searching RT-CIT could be a new, promising investigative tool to reveal new (e.g., crime) details to the investigative party.

Intellectual property infringements rank among the top economic crimes, even though there are mechanisms in place to prevent their occurrence. One such mechanism are non- disclosure agreements, which, however, have been reported to fail in practice. This article argues that this may be overcome by strengthening employees’ concept learning. In an experiment, we investigated whether extended nondisclosure agreements, which provide the employee with detailed explanations and examples, lead to better recognition of trade secrets as compared to a standard nondisclosure agreement or no agreement at all. It was found that the extended nondisclosure agreement indeed increased participants’ ability to judge what falls under the trade secret law, whereas the standard nondisclosure agree- ment showed no such effect. Furthermore, the effects of the factors ‘Involvement’, ‘Specificity’, ‘Publicity’, and ‘Purpose’ on the identification of trade secrets could be pro- ven experimentally. Employees’ judgments of whether an information represents a trade secret seem to rely on general cognitive processes. From this follows that concept learning could be integrated into systematic approaches for protecting intellectual property.

Summary Our study investigates if people are able to recognize thieves based on their nonverbal behavior prior to committing the crime. We implemented authentic closed-circuit television footage from thefts committed at an international airport into a computer-based test. Five groups of participants (students, police recruits, inexperienced police officers, experienced police officers, and criminal investigators) were studied. The results show that criminals display nonverbal behavior that can be used by observers for early recognition of criminal intentions. In addition, early recognition seems to benefit from knowledge about the criminals' modi operandi (criminal investigators performed best), which renders early recognition teachable and trainable. Further, all participants seem to be biased towards innocence, but this bias was less pronounced in police officers than in students. These findings are discussed in relation to the well-documented truth-bias and investigator-bias in lie detection research as well as taking our measurement method into account.Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Aviation security strongly depends on screeners' performance in the detection of threat objects in x-ray images of passenger bags. We examined for the first time the effects of stress and stress-induced cortisol increases on detection performance of hidden weapons in an x-ray baggage screening task. We randomly assigned 48 participants either to a stress or a nonstress group. The stress group was exposed to a standardized psychosocial stress test (TSST). Before and after stress/nonstress, participants had to detect threat objects in a computer-based object recognition test (X-ray ORT). We repeatedly measured salivary cortisol and X-ray ORT performance before and after stress/nonstress. Cortisol increases in reaction to psychosocial stress induction but not to nonstress independently impaired x-ray detection performance. Our results suggest that stress-induced cortisol increases at peak reactivity impair x-ray screening performance.

The history of airport security shows that the security control process has been subject to substantial changes since its introduction in the early seventies of the last century. In the course of time, threat profiles have changed remarkably. Since 2001, suicide bombing has become a real risk to civil aviation. In the last decade, these changes in threat profiles, in combination with efforts to facilitate transportation by air for passengers, led to large investments into the development of new security technology. This article argues that during the development of security technology, human factor issues as well as different operational aspects should be taken into account at an early stage. It is shown how early operational testing of new technology can contribute to the optimization of security equipment and its integration into the system from a human factors perspective. Operational testing complements laboratory testing and is defined as the testing of (new) equipment in operation with a focus on systemic performance outcomes and operational aspects. Using this methodological approach, a millimeter-wave body scanner and two different liquid explosives detection systems were tested in operation with passengers at a large European airport. Results were obtained by analyzing objective data as well as subjective questionnaire data from passengers and Security Officers. These trials revealed that operational testing is a useful way of enhancing shared knowledge and collaboration between stakeholders.

The present study investigates whether nonverbal behavioral cues to hidden criminal intentions during the build-up phase of a criminal act can be measured. To this end, we created recordings of actors once in a search situation and once committing a mock crime (theft or bomb placing) in a public crowded area. For ecological validation, we used authentic CCTV footage of real crimes in Experiment 1. In this experiment, the two behavioral clusters pattern of movement in space and nonverbal communication behavior were analyzed. The results showed a deviance in pattern of movement in space for offenders’ compared with the nonoffenders’ condition as well as a bystanders’ baseline. There was no significant difference between nonverbal communication behavior in the offenders’ and nonoffenders’ conditions. Experiment 2 was conducted to examine the two behavior clusters use of object- and self-adaptors while controlling for interpersonal differences. The results showed an increased use of object- and decreased use of self-adaptors during the build-up phase of a mock crime compared with a control condition (search). Thus, nonverbal behavior of offenders seems to differ from nonverbal behavior of nonoffenders. However, this holds only under the conditions of a valid baseline and of judging not only a single, typical behavioral cue but a whole cluster of nonverbal behaviors, such as pattern of movement in space or use of object-adaptors in general.

Aviation security strongly depends on screeners' performance in the detection of threat objects in x-ray images of passenger bags. We examined for the first time the effects of stress and stress-induced cortisol increases on detection performance of hidden weapons in an x-ray baggage screening task. We randomly assigned 48 participants either to a stress or a nonstress group. The stress group was exposed to a standardized psychosocial stress test (TSST). Before and after stress/nonstress, participants had to detect threat objects in a computer-based object recognition test (X-ray ORT). We repeatedly measured salivary cortisol and X-ray ORT performance before and after stress/nonstress. Cortisol increases in reaction to psychosocial stress induction but not to nonstress independently impaired x-ray detection performance. Our results suggest that stress-induced cortisol increases at peak reactivity impair x-ray screening performance.

This study investigated the effectiveness, efficiency, and robustness of simple goal setting in airport security control. As outcome, crew performance in terms of productivity (Experiment 1, field setting) was studied. Furthermore, the moderating role of negative and positive priming due to a previous task on the impact of goals (Experiment 2, laboratory setting) was analyzed. This research builds a bridge from goal setting theory to practice and prepares the grounds for its application in security or emergency organizations. In Experiment 1, supervisors of Security Officers at a large European airport communicated goals to their subordinates without any prior intervention or training. Goals were applied to a short “peak” time span (40 min). Dependent variables were objective team-level measures of productivity, namely passenger density and throughput. Experiment 2 featured two different tasks that primed speed (negative priming: puzzle; positive priming: car race). The Frankfurter Aufmerksamkeitsinventar served as main task for obtaining speed and accuracy measures. The results show that pre-intervention goal setting can be used easily and effectively by supervisors to increase subordinates’ team performance during short interventions. Goal setting for short time spans is effective even without providing feedback. However, negative priming by a previous task may undermine the beneficial effects of goal setting.

This paper investigates whether the greater accuracy of emotion identification for dynamic versus static expressions, as noted in previous research, can be explained through heightened levels of either component or configural processing. Using a paradigm by Young, Hellawell, and Hay (1987 ), we tested recognition performance of aligned and misaligned composite faces with six basic emotions (happiness, fear, disgust, surprise, anger, sadness). Stimuli were created using 3D computer graphics and were shown as static peak expressions (static condition) and 7 s video sequences (dynamic condition). The results revealed that, overall, moving stimuli were better recognized than static faces, although no interaction between motion and other factors was found. For happiness, sadness, and surprise, misaligned composites were better recognized than aligned composites, suggesting that aligned composites fuse to form a single expression, while the two halves of misaligned composites are perceived as two separate emotions. For anger, disgust, and fear, this was not the case. These results indicate that emotions are perceived on the basis of both configural and component-based information, with specific activation patterns for separate emotions, and that motion has a quality of its own and does not increase configural or component-based recognition separately.

Ensuring smooth operation of an airport is a complex task with many stakeholders involved that have to work together closely in order to achieve optimal results. In particular, the field of security control harbors diverging interests of different entities that share responsibility for secure and timely flights. These entities usually comprise governmental organizations (e.g., legislative authorities, police) and private companies (e.g., airport operators, private security companies). Due to conflicting interests between these entities, managers might perceive each other as adversaries rather than as partners for collaboration. To our knowledge, the present report is the first one to relate procedure and results of a fruitful collaboration on management level between representatives of these different entities at an airport, including a governmental organization as the executive, i.e., carrying out the security control, and a private company (the airport operator). In the setting of the security control at a large European airport, the Productivity Measurement and Enhancement System (ProMES) methodology [1] was chosen to identify stakeholders in the security control process as a first step in order to be able to define their interests, demands, and needs in a second step. Subsequently, justified demands were grouped and categorized into six goal domains. For each goal domain, key performance indicators were developed. Last but not least, the indicators were prioritized by weighing their relevance against each other in order to resolve conflicting interests. This process can be rather quick and efficient provided it is well prepared and monitored. It is further suggested to have an independent facilitator supervise and moderate the process. This study highlights the importance of bringing together high level managers of different organizational entities with a systematical approach in order to pave the way for good cooperation in complex work domains. As a result, stakeholders and demands can be identified, conflicting demands can be discussed, and priorities set. Subsequently, those guidelines can be handed over to the next lower level in the organizational hierarchy. Supervisors on this next level can then define goals for their respective domains using the guidelines provided by the management.

In past years, a lot of research has been done in the field of airport security control. Mostly, researchers that focused on human factor issues looked very closely at the x-ray screening process or at covert testing. However, it has to be taken into account that security control is typically integrated in a competitive, market-oriented environment. Thus, facilitation aspects, such as the maximal capacity (also known as throughput) of a security control line, clearly reflect one important key performance index. In a series of studies, the impact of external factors, for instance seasonal variability of temperature or number of manual baggage inspections, as well as the impact of internal factors, such as the allocation of tasks within security control crew members, were measured. The scenarios with varied internal factors consisted of different manipulations in the work process without changing given security rules, protocols or changes in infrastructure. For example, the Security Officer helping passengers preparing their bags at the roller table has been taken away from this position and assigned as second person for baggage inspection. Implications of these scenarios on measures of efficiency, such as throughput, as well as on subjective measures, such as ratings of workload and stress, have been assessed. Results show that external factors correlate with throughput remarkably and that even slight changes in the process can have a significant impact on the mentioned domains. Experiences made are discussed in order to provide suggestions of useful and feasible optimizations of the security control process.

Large efforts are made in order to enhance human factors in airport security, but one very important area, namely covert or infiltration tests, are often neglected. Covert tests are most important not only for quality control and risk analysis, but also for training purposes, such as for example the training of appropriate reactions in dangerous situations. Therefore, conducting covert tests at airports is a very useful approach for assessing the effectiveness of the security control and offers a possibility to uncover weaknesses in the security process by simulating the case of emergency. Its main benefit is the high ecological validity almost unparalleled by other methods. The present scientific exploratory applied study is one of the first of its kind worldwide, which analyses the results of covert tests collected at a large European airport over a period of fourteen calendar months. Statistical analyses were performed using Mann-Whitney u-tests, chi-square tests and binary logistic regression analysis. Results will focus on differences in detection performance between different test objects and different places of concealment. Additional factors included in the analyses will be time taken for pat-down search, sex, age, work experience, as well as the security officerpsilas reaction to weapon detection. Methodological problems will be discussed and suggestions made for further research in this area.

At border control, it is the personnel's job to identify possible passport fraud, in particular to verify whether the photograph in a travel document matches its bearer. However, as various earlier studies suggest, identity verification from photographs or CCTV is far from accurate. The aim of this study was thus to investigate identity verification at border control. Particularly, we examined the influence of display duration in document verification. Results showed that performance significantly suffered from time restrictions, which stresses the importance of working environments at border control free of time pressure. A second aim was to assess a possible benefit of inversion of the document on identity verification performance, as was suggested by anecdotal evidence from security personnel but clearly contradicts the well known inversion effect in face recognition. Indeed, no such beneficial influence of inversion was found in this study. The results are discussed in terms of application-oriented implications.

Due to severe terrorist attacks in recent years, aviation security issues have moved into the focus of politicians as well as the general public. Effective screening of passenger bags using state-of-the-art X-ray screening systems is essential to prevent terrorist attacks. The performance of the screening process depends critically on the security personnel, because they decide whether bags are OK or whether they might contain a prohibited item. Screening X-ray images of passenger bags for dangerous and prohibited items effectively and efficiently is a demanding object recognition task. Effectiveness of computer-based training (CBT) on X-ray detection performance was assessed using computer-based tests and on the job performance measures using threat image projection (TIP). It was found that adaptive CBT is a powerful tool to increase detection performance and efficiency of screeners in X-ray image interpretation. Moreover, the results of training could be generalized to the real life situation as shown in the increased detection performance in TIP not only for trained items, but also for new (untrained) items. These results illustrate that CBT is a very useful tool to increase airport security from a human factors perspective.

Threat image projection (TIP) is a technology of current x-ray machines that allows exposing screeners to artificial but realistic x-ray images during the routine baggage x-ray screening operation. If a screener does not detect a TIP within a specified amount of time, a feedback message appears indicating that a projected image was missed. Feedback messages are also shown when a TIP image is detected or in the case of a non-TIP alarm, i.e. when the screener indicated that there was threat but in fact no TIP was shown. TIP data is an interesting source for quality control, risk analysis and assessment of individual screener performance. In two studies we examined the conditions for using TIP data for the latter purpose. Our results strongly suggest using aggregated data in order to have a large enough data sample as the basis for statistical analysis. Second, an appropriate TIP library containing a large number of threat items, which are representative for the prohibited items to be detected is recommended. Fu rthermore, consideration should be given to image-based factors such as general threat item difficulty, viewpoint difficulty, superposition and bag complexity. Different methods to cope with these issues are discussed in order to achieve reliable, valid and standardized measurements of individual screener performance using TIP.

A central aspect of airport security is reliable detection of forbidden objects in passenger bags using X-ray screening equipment. Human recognition involves visual processing of the X-ray image and matching items with object representations stored in visual memory. Thus, without knowing which objects are forbidden and what they look like, prohibited items are difficult to recognize (aspect of visual knowledge). In order to measure whether a screener has acquired the necessary visual knowledge, we have applied the prohibited items test (PIT). This test contains different forbidden items according to international prohibited items lists. The items are placed in X-ray images of passenger bags so that the object shapes can be seen relatively well. Since all images can be inspected for 10 seconds, failing to recognize a threat item can be mainly attributed to a lack of visual knowledge. The object recognition test (ORT) is more related to visual processing and encoding. Three image-based factors can be distinguished that challenge different visual processing abilities. First, depending on the rotation within a bag, an object can be more or less difficult to recognize (effect of viewpoint). Second, prohibited items can be more or less superimposed by other objects, which can impair detection performance (effect of superposition). Third, the number and type of other objects in a bag can challenge visual search and processing capacity (effect of bag complexity). The ORT has been developed to measure how well screeners can cope with these image-based factors. This test contains only guns and knives, placed into bags in different views with different superposition and complexity levels. Detection performance is determined by the ability of a screener to detect threat items despite rotation, superposition and bag complexity. Since the shapes of guns and knives are usually known well even by novices, the aspect of visual threat object knowledge is of minor importance in this test.

Several previous studies have stressed the importance of processing configural information in face recognition. In this study the perception of configural information was investigated. Large overestimations were found when the eye–mouth distance and the inter-eye distance had to be estimated. Whereas configural processing is disrupted when inverted faces have to be recognized the perceptual overestimations persisted when faces were inverted. These results suggest that processing configural information is different in perceptual as opposed to recognition tasks.

Aviation security screening has become very important in recent years. It was shown by Schwaninger et al. (2004) that certain image-based factors influence detection when visually inspecting X-ray images of passenger bags. Threat items are more difficult to recognize when placed in close-packed bags (effect of bag complexity), when superimposed by other objects (effect of superposition), and when rotated (effect of viewpoint). The X-ray object recognition rest (X-ray ORT) was developed to measure the abilities needed to cope with these factors. In this study, we examined the reliability and validity of the X-ray ORT based on a sample of 453 aviation security screeners and 453 novices. Cronbach Alpha and split-half analysis revealed high reliability. Validity was examined using internal, convergent, discriminant and criterion-related validity estimates. The results show that the X-ray ORT is a reliable and valid instrument for measuring visual abilities needed in X-ray screening. This makes the X-ray ORT an interesting tool for competency and pre-employment assessment purposes.