EP 16 The Positive Effects of Imagery on Police Officer Shooting Performance with Dr Arne Nieuwenhuys

This is the second episode in our exciting three-part series on the use of performance enhancement imagery to improve officers skill aquisition, decision making and mental resilience. Dr. Arne Nieuwenhuys is Senior Lecturer in Sport, Exercise and Performance Psychology. He obtained his PhD from VU University Amsterdam. Dr Nieuwenhuys and colleagues published the study “Positive Effects of Police Officer Shooting Performance Under Threat in the Journal of Applied Cognitive Psychology.  In this interview, Dr. Nieuwenhuys explains strategies to consider in order to develop evidence-based interventions that help law enforcement officers improve their performance in those rapidly unfolding, ambiguous and extremely high-pressure situations where it counts the most. Topics reviewed in this podcast are the positive effects of performance enhancement imagery on police offer shooting capability under stress, and how the research supported PETTLEP imagery model effectively achieves functional equivalence. In addition, he discusses the importance of task representativeness in training and how it correlates with the Constraints Led Approach or CLA training method. This interview contains practical insights on the importance of law enforcement trainers using evidence-based interventions such as imagery, PETTLEP model, and task representativeness, to enhance police officers' performance and shooter capability under stress, ultimately improving their ability to handle high-pressure situations on the job.