Training Baggage Screeners
The research in G. Giguère and B.C. Love, “Limits in decision making arise from limits in memory retrieval,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences v. 19 (2013) has applications in training airport baggage screeners.
Abstract: Some decisions, such as predicting the winner of a baseball game, are challenging in part because outcomes are probabilistic. When making such decisions, one view is that humans stochastically and selectively retrieve a small set of relevant memories that provides evidence for competing options. We show that optimal performance at test is impossible when retrieving information in this fashion, no matter how extensive training is, because limited retrieval introduces noise into the decision process that cannot be overcome. One implication is that people should be more accurate in predicting future events when trained on idealized rather than on the actual distributions of items. In other words, we predict the best way to convey information to people is to present it in a distorted, idealized form. Idealization of training distributions is predicted to reduce the harmful noise induced by immutable bottlenecks in people’s memory retrieval processes. In contrast, machine learning systems that selectively weight (i.e., retrieve) all training examples at test should not benefit from idealization. These conjectures are strongly supported by several studies and supporting analyses. Unlike machine systems, people’s test performance on a target distribution is higher when they are trained on an idealized version of the distribution rather than on the actual target distribution. Optimal machine classifiers modified to selectively and stochastically sample from memory match the pattern of human performance. These results suggest firm limits on human rationality and have broad implications for how to train humans tasked with important classification decisions, such as radiologists, baggage screeners, intelligence analysts, and gamblers.
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Alex • May 24, 2013 1:00 PM
As long as the TSA keeps recruiting its employees by advertising on delivery pizza boxes, and hiring people who couldn’t hack it at McDonald’s, you’re going to get the lowest common denominator. At some point you get beyond a person’s skillset. For this lot, I think we might just be better off with algorithms doing the job. Or more realistically, bring back the old pre-TSA baggage screeners. They seemed quite effective as long as they were actually doing their jobs. I do want to point out that we went nearly 30 years without a domestic hijacking with the pre-TSA security.
Instead, it’d be nice if we had professional security agents (they’re agents, not sworn officers, despite the intentionally-intimidating blue smurf shirts & $145 tin stars). In my line of work, I often have to attend hearings in various federal courthouses and various federal buildings. Occasionally even a local county courthouse. In NONE of those have I ever encountered the ineptitude and rudeness and bullying of a typical TSA checkpoint, and I can’t remember the last time I’ve heard of there being an issue with people getting past the security guards (and often sworn LEOs) at these venues. I should point out that I’ve been stopped multiple times in these venues for some of what I’m carrying, but in each instance the security guards were polite, almost apologetic, and efficient. Sometimes I do forget that I’ve left a piece of banned electronics bouncing around in the bottom of my briefcase.
Oh, and yes, I’ve never ONCE had someone tell me at a federal building to remove my shoes or throw out a bottle of water.