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Itiel Dror

Honorary Senior Research Associate

Biography

Background: Interested in how the brain and cognitive system perceives and interprets information, Itiel Dror obtained a PhD from Harvard University in cognitive neuroscience. His work focuses on the cognitive architecture that underpins expertise. 

Current research: Dr Dror researches expert performance in the real world, examining medical surgeons, military fighter pilots, front line police, and forensic analysts. His research provides insights into the inherent trade-offs of being an expert. In the forensic domain he has demonstrated how contextual information can influence the judgments and decision making of experts; he has shown that even fingerprint and DNA experts can reach different conclusions when the same evidence is presented within different extraneous contexts. 

Publications and projects: Dr Itiel Dror has published over 85 research articles, and has been extensively cited in the Scottish Fingerprint Public Inquiry Report and in the American National Academy of Science Report on Forensic Science. He is currently working on a number of major research projects aimed at providing a better understanding of forensic experts and finding ways to make their judgments more reliable. Dr Dror has been working with numerous police forces and agencies to implement cognitive best practices in evaluating forensic evidence.

 
Relevant publications
Dror, I. E. & Cole, S. (2010). The vision in 'blind' justice: Expert perception, judgment and visual cognition in forensic pattern recognition. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 17(2), 161-167.
Dror, I.E. and Rosenthal, R. (2008). Meta-analytically quantifying the reliability and biasability of forensic experts. Journal of Forensic Sciences, 53(4), 900-903.

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