Meet Dr. Matthew Sharps

Matthew Joseph Sharps

Matthew Joseph Sharps is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the California State University, Fresno. His research, formerly on aging and cognition, now focuses on forensic cognitive science and first responder psychology, on cognitive and perceptual aspects of scientific observation and interpretation, and on questions of “paranormal” observations and reports.

Education

Dr. Sharps received his BA (psychology and anthropology, 1981), MA (developmental psychology, 1984) and PhD (experimental psychology, 1986) from the University of Colorado, and an MA (clinical psychology, 1982) from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Career

Dr. Sharps teaches cognitive and forensic cognitive science at California State University, Fresno. He also teaches the history of psychology and has taught many additional courses in developmental and biological psychology. He served as a National Institutes of Health Research Associate at the University of Colorado, and has taught at the University of Wyoming, Alliant International University, and Fresno Pacific University. He has given invited addresses at Stanford University, Stockholm University, Walden University, NASA-Ames, the Guardia Finanza of the federal Italian State Police, the South African Police Service, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the United States Air Force Academy. He is an Associate Member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, and a diplomate and fellow of the American College of Forensic Examiners Institute. He has published extensively on eyewitness cognition, tactical cognition, and IED detection. He is the author of over three hundred publications, proceedings abstracts, and professional presentations, as well as four books, including Processing Under Pressure: Stress, Memory, and Decision-Making in Law Enforcement, Thinking Under Pressure: A Guide for Firefighters and the Fire Service, and Aging, Representation, and Thought: Gestalt and Feature-Intensive Processing. His most recent book is The Forensic View: Investigative Psychology, Law Enforcement, Space Aliens, Exploration, and the Nature of Madness. Dr. Sharps has consulted in nearly two hundred criminal cases, mainly on eyewitness processes, and has served as a law enforcement research consultant. He has provided training to many law enforcement and fire service agencies. His research interests include the extension of forensic psychological principles to representation theory and to the cognitive bases of observation and interpretation in the sciences.

Forensic Experience

Dr. Sharps is the author of the monthly blog The Forensic View from Psychology Today, in which he chronicles important cognitive and related psychological research and issues in law enforcement, the criminal justice system, and the fire and other emergency first response services. Sharps has served as an invited training provider, IED Detection Protocols, United States Air Force Academy; invited training provider, IED Detection, Explosives Service, South African Police Service; invited training provider, Cognitive Science in Criminal Investigation, South African Police Service; invited training provider, Forensic Cognitive Science, California Reserve Peace Officers, Federal Defenders (Eastern California District), the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, and numerous California police agencies and District Attorney offices. He was elected Diplomate and Fellow of the American College of Forensic Examiners. He is an Associate Member, International Association of Chiefs of Police, and Faculty, Law Enforcement Administrative Development (LEAD) Program, Alliant International University, for POST Command College Graduates (senior law enforcement personnel. Sharps has been accepted in U.S. District Courts as an expert witness in adult development and aging, and as an expert witness in eyewitness identification, memory, and cognition. He has served as a consultant in investigative psychology, often including courtroom testimony, for numerous public defender, private, and assistant district attorneys in California on eyewitness identification and related factors in nearly two hundred cases to date, including violent crime and psychological aspects of officer-involved shootings. He has participated in brief simunitions & force simulations training, Fresno Police Department; invited observations of Explosive Ordinance Disposal training, Fresno Police Department; invited observation of Explosives Recognition course, Central Valley Arson Investigators (California); and in hostage negotiation and joint hostage negotiation/SWAT exercises. He completed advanced training in Psychological and Physiological Aspects of Police Stress, Sierra Education and Research Institute/Fresno Police Department, and graduated from the Incident Response to Terrorist Bombing School and Prevention Course, and Response to Suicide Bombing Incidents Course, Energetic Materials Testing and Research Center, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. Dr. Sharps was invited to participate in the California Commission on Peace Officers Standards and Training video Stress Management, and served as Research Consultant, Fresno Police Department, in cognitive aspects of police training and operations. He collaborates in providing training for numerous law enforcement and fire service agencies.

Research and Theory

Dr. Sharps’ research has appeared in his four books and over 300 papers published or presented, and has won awards from the California State University and from the Society for Police and Criminal Psychology. His research on perception, memory, interpretation and decision-making emphasizes continuity in the nervous system among the relevant mental processes in both basic and applied areas. His research has resulted in the Cognitive Asynchrony theory of aging and cognition, and in the Gestalt/Feature-Intensive Processing theory of general cognition, described below.

Cognitive Asynchrony Theory

This theoretical perspective provides a framework for understanding the effects on memory and higher cognition of the speed loss inherent in eugeric (normal) aging. The theory posits that eugeric neurological loss is asymmetric among the brain circuits supporting memory and decision-making, resulting in the greater difficulties observed in more complex imaging tasks and mentally effortful activities. The theory suggests that at least in regard to eugeric aging, some compensation for these losses is possible through relatively simple environmental manipulations, rooted in the biocognitive evolutionary nature of the aging process itself; this has been demonstrated in the development of several extremely effective aids to memory in the aged.

Gestalt/Feature-Intensive Processing (Cognitive Continuum) Theory

As a result of Dr. Sharps’ research on memory, he began to be recruited in consulting investigative psychology and as an expert witness in the legal and law enforcement realm in the 1990s. He found that the basic principles involved in eyewitness memory extend readily to tactical contexts, including officer-involved shootings and even to the detection of improvised explosive devices in counterterrorism contexts. These principles operate on a continuum, ranging from feature- intensive (FI) processing, in which the specific details of a concept are given significant consideration, to Gestalt (G) processing, in which a concept is considered without detailed analysis, and with relatively uncritical acceptance of the given concept as a whole. FI processing is better suited to complex tasks in which analysis is necessary; G processing is better suited to tasks requiring speed but which may operate with less detail-oriented analysis, such as those frequently found in the tactical realm and in some other areas of modern emergency service. The G/FI Continuum perspective has proven to be of significant value in conceptualizing the cognitive demands inherent in law enforcement and the other first responder services. Under the stress and pressure of emergency service, operational outcomes may often depend on the degree to which Gestalt and Feature-Intensive processing are intermingled in the given cognitive context. The theory has proven very useful in the development of training in many aspects of law enforcement and in the fire service. These considerations have been shown to apply outside the realm of first response service as well, especially to situations in which extraordinary levels of novelty are encountered. Such novelty is observed in pioneering science, exploration, and the interpretation of “paranormal” beliefs and sightings. Dr. Sharps’ G/FI research therefore also focuses on important discoveries in the history of science and on the psychology of paranormal sightings, beliefs and accounts.