Brain Training Targets Split-Second Decisions in Policing

BrainHQ brain training is being used by SWAT teams, police departments, sheriff’s offices and other first responders to help public safety personnel make split-second decisions. The National Tactical Officers Association (NTOA), which began offering the training four years ago, has presented BrainHQ with its annual Spirit of NTOA Award.

“We are honored and humbled by this recognition,” said Dr. Henry Mahncke, CEO of Posit Science, which makes BrainHQ. “We were first approached by the NTOA five years ago about how brain training might contribute to peak performance and better split-second decision-making.”

In a “Shoot/Don’t Shoot” study published in The American Journal of Psychology, independent researchers randomized experienced officers into BrainHQ training designed to improve inhibition and split-second decisions, or into a control group that trained on other exercises. In a live-fire range test, officers were to shoot targets holding guns and withhold fire from targets holding a cell phone. After less than six hours of training, researchers reported a 29 percent improvement in overall accuracy, and a 60 percent improvement in the error of failing to withhold fire from a non-threat.

Steve Mescan, who served on the NTOA Board and now leads its training programs, first learned about BrainHQ from special operations personnel using the app.

“So, I tried it,” Mescan said. “There are some similarities in disciplines when it comes to decision-making.”

“Having the mind as trained and ready as everything else provides for true resiliency,” Mescan added, noting that the pressures of SWAT work over a career have a very real impact on mental and physical health.