ISBN:  Unavailable

Category: Unavailable

Page count: 61

This monograph reviews 3 years of research that explores how experienced personnel make decisions in operational settings characterized by real-time information processing, shifting goals, and high-risk consequences. The study combined field studies with experiments designed to test specific hypotheses. Study domains were selected so that findings would have high potential for generalizing to military command-and-control decision making. Researchers carried out critical decision interviews with experienced personnel, including urban fire ground commanders, wildland fire incident commanders, and U.S. Army tank platoon leaders. Interviews were designed to elicit information about the cues, goals, and option evaluation strategies used by these personnel. Based on these interviews, the relationships among such factors as time pressure, experience level, and group interactions were explored. The results of these studies have been used to develop a Recognition-Primed Decision (RPD) model of decision making. This model contrasts with current normative and prescriptive models of decision making, and the implications of this alternative framework are explored.