Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 6, 2026

Author Spotlight: A Novel Setup to Conduct Naturalistic Laboratory Experiments with Real Human Actors in Scenarios
Published on: August 4, 2023
Decision-related action orientation predicts police officers' shooting performance under pressure
Annemarie Landman1, Arne Nieuwenhuys2, Raôul R D Oudejans1
1a MOVE Research Institute Amsterdam, Department of Human Movement Sciences , VU University , Amsterdam , The Netherlands.
Background And Objectives:
We aimed to test whether police officers' trait self-control strength decreases negative effects of high pressure (HP) on state anxiety, shooting behavior, and shooting performance.
Design And Methods:
Forty-two officers performed a shooting test under both high and low-pressure (LP) conditions. Self-control strength was assessed with the decision-related action orientation (AOD) scale of the Action Control Scale (ACS-90). Effects of AOD on perceived anxiety, heart rate, shooting time, and shot accuracy were estimated and controlled for those of other individual difference measures (i.e. age, police working experience, trait anxiety, and threat-related action orientation).
Results:
After controlling for baseline values in the LP condition as well as the other individual difference measures, AOD significantly predicted shot accuracy in the HP condition.
Conclusions:
Results suggest that trait self-control strength in the form of AOD helps officers cope with anxiety and maintain perceptual-motor performance under HP.
Related Concept Videos
Obedience
Optimal Arousal Theory
Inverted U-Shaped Performance Curve
The...
Actor-Observer Effect
The Anchoring-and-Adjustment Heuristic
Coping Strategies: Problem Focused
For example, consider a student who struggles to understand their...
Decision Making
Automatic decision-making is fast, intuitive, and relies on gut feelings...

