Aiding the Decision Maker: Perceptual and Cognitive Issues at the Human-Machine Interface
Abstract
Advances in weapon and sensor technologies have given rise to very complex military systems. The soldier-machine interface, typical of such systems, is often characterized by elevated task loadings and speed stress. These conditions can combine to produce increased operator errors and degraded decision-making performance. This report acknowledges these operator performance problems and provides a general review of the human judgement and decision- making literature (specifically focusing on perceptual and attentional mechanisms). An abridged history of the psychological study of human decision making is provided to illuminate the domain, and four methods are discussed for improving the performance of systems that suffer because of poor human judgement and decision making. A special plea is made to consider aiding harassed decision makers by paying careful attention to principles of human perception and attention, because these mechanisms form the foundation of our ability to acquire relevant and timely problem data. Keywords: Decision aids, Perception, Cognition, Judgement, Decision making.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 1989
- Accession Number
- ADA217862
Entities
People
- James D. Walrath
Organizations
- Human Engineering Laboratory