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Cognitive Human Factors and Forensic Document Examiner Methods and Procedures: Writing Characteristics, Visual Context, and Handwriting Examination Decision Accuracy

NCJ Number
311429
Journal
Journal of the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners Volume: 23 Issue: 2 Dated: 2020 Pages: 3-20
Date Published
December 2020
Length
17 pages
Abstract

Ongoing research is needed to achieve transparency in the methods and procedures of forensic document examination, and to empirically support the creation of standardized education and training that will help forensic document examiners achieve the creation of best practices in all areas of the field. In February 2020, NIST published an extensive report prepared by the Expert Working Group for Human Factors in Handwriting Examination, titled Forensic Handwriting Examination and Human Factors: Improving the Practice Through a Systems Approach [1]. The report encourages interdisciplinary research efforts that embrace multiple research methods to study neurological, physiological, cognitive, social, and environmental factors that form the context in which handwriting examination takes place. The findings reported here, which are part of a larger study, are the results of an eye-tracking experiment in which the characteristics of signatures, characteristics of the visual context, and the gaze behavior of the participants are combined to investigate how these factors relate to examiner decision accuracy. 

(Publisher abstract provided.)

Date Published: December 1, 2020