Why am I passionate about this?

I'm a professor of cognitive and forensic cognitive science. I have consulted on hundreds of criminal cases, most involving violent crime, and have published a body of research on the cognitive dynamics involved in eyewitness memory, officer-involved shootings, and training for IED detection in counterterrorism environments. The dynamics I've studied in the law-enforcement/forensic realm have proven to be important in the realm of firefighting and other first-response emergency services, as I also discuss in my book Thinking Under Pressure. This is an important field of study across the emergency and first response services, and will probably become more important in the future.


I wrote

Processing Under Pressure: Stress, Memory, and Decision-Making in Law Enforcement

By Matthew J. Sharps,

Book cover of Processing Under Pressure: Stress, Memory, and Decision-Making in Law Enforcement

What is my book about?

An understandable, practical look at the pressurized world of law enforcement and the impact of stress on mental and physical…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Eyewitness Testimony: With a New Preface

Matthew J. Sharps Why did I love this book?

Professor Elizabeth Loftus essentially launched the modern field of eyewitness studies with her experiments on the dynamics of human memory in the eyewitness context, and this book discusses her most important experiments, major studies which reinvigorated this important field.

She demonstrated that memory can be reconfigured in the presence of post-event information, to the degree that a given eyewitness memory may bear no resemblance to the actual events supposedly being remembered.

This is among the most important books in forensic cognitive science, the psychological basis of law enforcement, and the criminal justice system.

Loftus began the studies which culminated in my own book. Her work focused on eyewitness memory, but has implications far beyond that realm in more modern research.

The dynamics she identified operate in realms as disparate as officer-involved shootings, training for the detection of terrorist bombs, and even beliefs in paranormal phenomena and "sightings" of such things UFO's, ghosts, and Bigfoot.

This work is important across many seminal areas of psychology and human behavior.

By Elizabeth F. Loftus,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Eyewitness Testimony as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Every year hundreds of defendants are convicted on little more than the say-so of a fellow citizen. Although psychologists have suspected for decades that an eyewitness can be highly unreliable, new evidence leaves no doubt that juries vastly overestimate the credibility of eyewitness accounts. It is a problem that the courts have yet to solve or face squarely.

In Eyewitness Testimony, Elizabeth Loftus makes the psychological case against the eyewitness. Beginning with the basics of eyewitness fallibility, such as poor viewing conditions, brief exposure, and stress, Loftus moves to more subtle factors, such as expectations, biases, and personal stereotypes, all…


Book cover of Remembering: A Study in Experimental and Social Psychology

Matthew J. Sharps Why did I love this book?

This 1932 work by Bartlett demonstrates many of the dynamics that Loftus would later use to conceptualize eyewitness memory, and that many scholars in law enforcement psychology, including myself, use on an everyday basis.

Bartlett showed that memories are not static representations of reality, admittedly with occasional lapses into forgetting.

Rather, in both the visual and verbal realms, Bartlett demonstrated that memories become abbreviated, operate in the direction of core or gist, and may be completely reconfigured in the direction of personal belief.

This work demonstrates strongly the fragility of human perception, memory, and the thought which derives from these more basic processes, and shows us how difficult it may be to develop vertical accounts of actual crimes in investigative and courtroom settings.

By Frederic C. Bartlett,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Remembering as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In 1932, Cambridge University Press published Remembering, by psychologist, Frederic Bartlett. The landmark book described fascinating studies of memory and presented the theory of schema which informs much of cognitive science and psychology today. In Bartlett's most famous experiment, he had subjects read a Native American story about ghosts and had them retell the tale later. Because their background was so different from the cultural context of the story, the subjects changed details in the story that they could not understand. Based on observations like these, Bartlett developed his claim that memory is a process of reconstruction, and that this…


Book cover of The Psychology of Police Deadly Force Encounters: Science, Practice, and Policy

Matthew J. Sharps Why did I love this book?

This is an excellent work in which Dr. Miller smoothly blends the principles of modern psychology with the street realities of modern law enforcement situations. 

It is an excellent companion to my own work which focuses on cognitive factors in the criminal justice system, and also on my book, which deals with these factors in the realm of fire service and other first responder emergency operations. 

Dr. Miller gives a realistic view of psychology in the dangerous realm of law enforcement.

By Laurence Miller,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Psychology of Police Deadly Force Encounters as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Recent events have highlighted both professional and public interest in the use of force by police, especially those involving officerinvolved shootings. The Psychology of Police Deadly Force Encounters: Science, Practice, Policy is the first book to comprehensively review the scientific literature in neuropsychology, cognition, personality, and criminology as they relate to the mindset of an officer before, during, and after a deadly force incident. Chapter topics also illustrate practical applications of deadly force psychology to agency policy, training curricula, internal and legal investigation of cases, administrative and disciplinary measures, criminal prosecution, civil litigation, legal strategy, clinical services for officers and…


Book cover of On Combat: The Psychology and Physiology of Deadly Conflict in War and in Peace

Matthew J. Sharps Why did I love this book?

Colonel Grossman's work, with Loren Christensen, discusses, in practical if sometimes harsh terms, the realities of psychology in combat, hard realities encountered by military personnel and by law enforcement officers. 

This is a critical work for anyone interested in the realities of the human mind in battle, and especially for those mental health personnel who may have to deal with the harsh realities of violence in mental health settings without personal experience or personal understanding of the field realities of combat and violence.

This book should be required reading for anyone dealing with military or law enforcement personnel in the mental health realm.

By Dave Grossman, Loren W Christensen,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked On Combat as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

On Combat looks at what happens to the human body under the stresses of deadly battle the impact on the nervous system, heart, breathing, visual and auditory perception, memory - then discusses new research findings as to what measures warriors can take to prevent such debilitations so they can stay in the fight, survive, and win. A brief, but insightful look at history shows the evolution of combat, the development of the physical and psychological leverage that enables humans to kill other humans, followed by an objective examination of domestic violence in America. The authors reveal the nature of the…


Book cover of The Science of False Memory

Matthew J. Sharps Why did I love this book?

We know from the work of Bartlett and Loftus that memory is malleable, changing in the directions of gist, brevity, and personal belief. 

This book provides a more modern academic view of these phenomena, demonstrating why eyewitness memory, and other aspects of memory such as those involved in combat situations and officer-involved shootings, may be entirely inaccurate without any ill will or prevarication on the part of the given witness.

Not an easy read, but an important one for those who wish to have a full understanding of memory in the criminal justice system.

By C. J. Brainerd (editor), V. F. Reyna (editor),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Science of False Memory as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A decade or so of intensive research on false memory has revealed much that is not well understood outside the circles of scientists who specialize in such research. However, this research has produced findings that have major implications for a number of fields that are central to human welfare, such as medicine and the law. This book has been written to make those findings accessible to a much wider audience than research specialists including child protective
services workers, clinical psychologists, defense attorneys, elementary and secondary teachers, general medical practitioners, journalists, judges, nurses, police investigators, prosecutors, and psychiatrists. For that reason,…


Explore my book 😀

Processing Under Pressure: Stress, Memory, and Decision-Making in Law Enforcement

By Matthew J. Sharps,

Book cover of Processing Under Pressure: Stress, Memory, and Decision-Making in Law Enforcement

What is my book about?

An understandable, practical look at the pressurized world of law enforcement and the impact of stress on mental and physical performance. This new edition will help you understand high-pressure decision making, and how to improve your own deciding power; nervous system functioning under high stress; the impact of stress on human memory, and insights into effective interview techniques; new concepts in officer-involved shootings and memory for weapons, including long guns; cognitive aspects of the crucially important area of PTSD; and cognitive factors and special units, including bomb squads undercover operations and special patrol operations. 

This book will help law enforcement officers, students and researchers, and interested citizens to understand the high-pressure cognition of law enforcement in the modern world.

Book cover of Eyewitness Testimony: With a New Preface
Book cover of Remembering: A Study in Experimental and Social Psychology
Book cover of The Psychology of Police Deadly Force Encounters: Science, Practice, and Policy

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Book cover of Diary of a Citizen Scientist: Chasing Tiger Beetles and Other New Ways of Engaging the World

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Interested in cognitive science, criminal justice, and PTSD?

Criminal Justice 48 books
PTSD 106 books