Cognitive Science and Structured Analysis

Organization
Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI)
Reference Code
IC-16-39
How to Apply

Create and release your Profile on Zintellect – Postdoctoral applicants must create an account and complete a profile in the on-line application system.  Please note: your resume/CV may not exceed 2 pages.

Complete your application – Enter the rest of the information required for the IC Postdoc Program Research Opportunity. The application itself contains detailed instructions for each one of these components: availability, citizenship, transcripts, dissertation abstract, publication and presentation plan, and information about your Research Advisor co-applicant.

Application Deadline
4/15/2016 6:00:00 PM Eastern Time Zone
Description

The intelligence profession has increasingly used structured analytic techniques (SAT) to help guide its thinking about challenging issues.  Richards Heuer’s 1999 work, Psychology of Intelligence Analysis, highlighted biases and heuristics and their implications for analysis; and Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman has added his insight to analysis that gave birth to the use of SATs.  Very little research, however, has assessed the efficacy of SATs and thus assumptions about their utility remain unchallenged.  New insights into cognitive bias and heuristics have emerged.  How might recent advances in cognition inform our understanding of structured approaches, the application of new techniques, and ways of mitigating heuristics and biases in our thinking?

Example Approaches:

Research proposals could address one or more of the following approaches:

  • Have cognitive science, psychology and other related fields since the publication of Heuer’s book Psychology of Intelligence Analysis identified new heuristics or cognitive biases in decision making or reasoning that are relevant to intelligence analysis? 
  • What advances in cognitive science, psychology, or neuroscience hold promise in mitigating heuristics and cognitive biases as they apply to intelligence analysis?  And which new methods in critical thinking apply these advances?
  • Using existing data, is it possible to test the proposition that structured analytic techniques mitigate cognitive bias and limitations? If so, under what conditions and to what extent are they effective against which biases and limits?
  • Using existing data, under what conditions is unstructured judgment more reliable than structured analysis?
  • Do new discoveries in cognitive science or psychology enlighten us to alternative approaches in structured analysis that might outperform existing methods?
Eligibility Requirements
  • Citizenship: U.S. Citizen Only
  • Degree: Doctoral Degree.
  • Discipline(s):
    • Business (11 )
    • Chemistry and Materials Sciences (12 )
    • Communications and Graphics Design (6 )
    • Computer, Information, and Data Sciences (16 )
    • Earth and Geosciences (21 )
    • Engineering (27 )
    • Environmental and Marine Sciences (14 )
    • Life Health and Medical Sciences (45 )
    • Mathematics and Statistics (10 )
    • Other Non-Science & Engineering (13 )
    • Physics (16 )
    • Science & Engineering-related (1 )
    • Social and Behavioral Sciences (28 )
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