Experts play a critical role in forensic decision making, even when cognition is offloaded and distributed between human and machine. In this paper, we investigated the impact of using Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems (AFIS) on human decision makers. We provided 3680 AFIS lists (a total of 55,200 comparisons) to 23 latent fingerprint examiners as part of their normal casework. We manipulated the position of the matching print in the AFIS list. The data showed that latent fingerprint examiners were affected by the position of the matching print in terms of false exclusions and false inconclusives. Furthermore, the data showed that false identification errors were more likely at the top of the list and that such errors occurred even when the correct match was present further down the list. These effects need to be studied and considered carefully, so as to optimize human decision making when using technologies such as AFIS.KEYWORDS: forensic science, AFIS, contextual effects, distributed cognition, cognitive influences, technology, decision making, biasThe landscape in forensic science, as in other expert domains (e.g., medicine and policing), is changing drastically. A main force in shaping these (and future) changes is technology. Especially influential are cognitive technologies-that is, systems that can carry out cognitive operations that were once the sole domain of humans (1). The increased use and reliance on technology have reached a level whereby humans and technology are more and more intertwined and collaborating with one another, creating distributed cognition (2,3). With distributed cognition, humans ''offload'' some cognitive operations onto technology thereby increasing their performance abilities and capacity (4). As human-technology cooperation increases, as they become more intertwined and cognition is increasingly distributed, new opportunities and capabilities arise, as well as new challenges. These have transformed a technological evolution into a revolution. These new possibilities affect human cognition and alter how we go about our professional and personal lives (5).Distributed cognition may take different forms and generate a variety of modes of collaboration and interaction between the human and technology. Dror and Mnookin (6) specifically distinguished between three modes: At a low level, technology merely offers a quantitative gain in efficiency; it does not qualitatively transform what is possible. Technology at this level might include, for example, using a computer to store information rather than memorizing it, or using a calculator rather the doing the math. In these cases, the human expert is using technology to save time and cognitive resources. A higher level of distributed cognition and cooperation occurs when the human and technology work side by side as partners. In this case, the technology plays a role that the human expert is incapable of doing (and vice versa: the human expert plays a role that cannot be carried out by the technology). Such human-t...
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