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One study of factors leading to incorrect answers in shoot/don't shoot questions posed to officers who were tested hypothetically during watching videos showed that two factors in particular contributed to poor results.
"Results indicated that lower working memory capacity was associated with a greater likelihood of shooting unarmed targets and a failure to shoot armed targets. Moreover, an interaction effect indicated that these associations were only significant for officers who experienced heightened negative emotionality in response to the video" (Kleider, Parrott & King, 2010, p. 707).
Thus, while such studies pose possible answers to some questions, they raise intriguing questions of their own. Does prior military service relate to "heightened negative emotionality" in response to watching a video they know may include threats from an armed assailant? Does tested IQ relate to "lower working memory"? Are smarter people generally more able to avoid the amygdala hijack that impairs deëscalation? Are there testable cutoff points in police training and assessment that might preclude a person from becoming a sworn (armed) officer? Might some aggregate of such studies contribute to a new corpus of realignment factors and associated tests in police recruit placement or even rejection?
Kleider, H. M., Parrott, D. J., & King, T. Z. (2010). Shooting behaviour: How working memory and negative emotionality influence police officer shoot decisions. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 24(5), 707–717. https://doi-org.proxy.lib.pdx.edu/10.1002/acp.1580
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