Linking Psychophysiological Markers To Situational Performance: An EEG Study of Police Cadets during Critical Incident Simulations

Physiological measures, most commonly heart rate, are widely used in applied police research to assess the relationships between situational stress and officer performance under pressure. However, measurements of the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying these critical skills remain limited, especially throughout police academy training. This study investigates the potential of electroencephalography (EEG) and its relationship to situational performance outcomes in police cadets (n = 58) at Kuwait's National Police Academy. EEG and electrocardiogram (ECG) activity were recorded as cadets from three different cohorts participated in a video simulation of a stressful critical incident, featuring seven decision prompts that called for procedural action. Cadets' decision-making, reasoning, and memory recall were rated during a post-task debriefing interview. Preliminary pairwise analyses identified significant correlations between performance metrics and neural activation in both beta and theta bands, particularly in the frontal cortex. Comprehensive multivariate analysis revealed frontal cortex beta-band activity to be a significant correlate of performance, particularly during decision-making and memory recall, underscoring its role in executive functions crucial to situational performance in policing. Contrary to studies that find higher activation leads to better outcomes, lower beta-band activation correlated to better performance. Additionally, ECG showed minimal predictive value during multivariate testing. This marks the first time EEG and ECG measures have been integrated into a single model predicting performance in policing. These findings contribute novel insights into the psychophysiological study of police performance, highlighting important implications for enhancing training, evaluation, and research methodologies in applied law enforcement settings.