intelligence analysis – Valcri

White Paper WP-2017-008: Improving Professional Training in Criminal Intelligence Analysis

Ms Haider — Fri, 13 Jan 2017 09:49:13 +0000

The training and development of criminal intelligence professionals has long suffered from a range of challenges including the absence of rigorous training standards and a failure to embrace new disciplines or branches of knowledge. This has undermined analysts’ abilities to keep pace with the evolution of crime. The VALCRI syllabus was developed to address this problem by providing instruction in a holistic set of organisational, operational, informational, technological and cognitive skills. We outline the evolution of this syllabus and what we hope to achieve through its delivery.

Keywords

Criminal intelligence, law enforcement intelligence, intelligence training, professional development, analytic training, intelligence analysis, VALCRI Project

VALCRI WHITE PAPER SERIES

VALCRI-WP-2017-008 Training

Sensemaking and Cognitive Bias Mitigation in Visual Analytics

valcriTeam — Fri, 26 Sep 2014 15:08:13 +0000

Pohl, M.; Winter, L.-C.; Pallaris, C.; Attfield, S.; Wong, B.L.W., “Sensemaking and Cognitive Bias Mitigation in Visual Analytics,” in Intelligence and Security Informatics Conference (JISIC), 2014 IEEE Joint , vol., no., pp.323-323, 24-26 Sept. 2014

Abstract:

The purpose of the VALCRI project is to develop a new system prototype for information exploitation by intelligence analysts working in law enforcement agencies. Information visualisation will be a core element of the prototype. Such systems have to be designed to support the sensemaking and reasoning processes of the analysts. One of the goals of the project is, therefore, to get a more thorough understanding of sensemaking processes and to develop a set of recommendations for the design of intelligence analysis systems to help analysts in their work.

keywords: cognition;data analysis;data visualisation;inference mechanisms;VALCRI project;cognitive bias mitigation;information exploitation;information visualisation;intelligence analysis systems;intelligence analysts;law enforcement agencies;reasoning process;sensemaking process;visual analytics;Artificial intelligence;Cognition;Context;Data visualization;Educational institutions;Law enforcement;Prototypes;human cognitive processes;intelligence analysis;sensemaking,

URL

How Analysts Think (?): Early Observations

valcriTeam — Fri, 19 Sep 2014 10:25:42 +0000

B. L. Wong, “How Analysts Think (?): Early Observations,” in IEEE Joint Intelligence and Security Informatics Conf. (JISIC), 24-26 Sept 2014 The Hague, The Netherlands, pp. 296–299.

Abstract—In this paper we describe work-in-progress to develop a description of the ways by which intelligence analysts engage in the thinking and reasoning processes when engaged in the intelligence analysis task. Such a model will be used to design the interactive visual interfaces for a next generation intelligence analysis system. Our concepts for the Thinking Terrain evolved over a number of studies with different groups of both intelligence analysts and non-analysts performing similar tasks. The descriptive model proposes that analysts engage in a creative and tentative process as they make abductive inferences when they need to make sense of a collection of data. They use stories to explain the conceptual linkages between the data and create further stories where data might not be available or uncertain, sometimes they make informed “guesses” to construct plausible explanations. The emphasis of their initial efforts is to gain traction in order to refine and mature their initial explanations. As their understanding of the data and situation deepens, they engage in deductive and inductive inference making in order to test their initial explanations. Analysts cycle between periods of thinking and reasoning resulting in highly creative, playful, uncertain and tentative explanations; and periods of highly critical, deliberate, and formal analysis to test the explanations and eventually committing to a solution.

Keywords – thinking and reasoning; intelligence analysis; analytic reasoning; abductive inference