Resource Utilisation and Situational Awareness in a Computer Simulated Decision Task: A Pilot Study
Abstract
Achieving control of dynamic and complex situations is always challenging involving as it does the management of cognitive resources. It has been proposed that one of the leading causes of error in such dynamic environments is a generalised tendency to attempt to use more task resources than one?s cognitive capacity can sustain, termed the overutilisation of resources bias "Omodei, Wearing, McLennan & Hansen, 2001". The aim of the present study was to explicitly take into account individual differences in cognitive capacity in an investigation of this human tendency to overuse resources, and its proposed effect on decision making efficiency. Sixteen participants "i.e., 10 female and 6 male" aged between 18 and 32 years completed ten trials of the computer simulated forest fire-fighting task Networked Fire Chief "Omodei, Taranto & Wearing, 1999". Adopting a repeated measures design, all participants were administered two conditions: one in which they were given the maximum number of fire fighting resources they were observed to have been able to cognitively manage during earlier training trials "i.e., MANAGEABLE condition"; and one in which they were given double the number of resources supplied in the MANAGEABLE condition "i.e., EXCESS condition". It was predicted that a tendency to overuse resources in the EXCESS condition would lead to cognitive overload with a higher experienced mental workload, poorer overall awareness of the situation, and subsequently poorer decision making performance compared to the MANAGEABLE condition. However, there was no significant difference found between conditions for any of these three variables. Further analyses revealed individual differences in the ability to appropriately adapt to the overabundance of resources in the EXCESS condition. It was concluded that individual flexibility in the quality of strategic thought alloc
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 08, 2007
- Accession Number
- ADA473106
Entities
People
- Alexander Wearing
- Mary Omodei
- Nick Valentine
Organizations
- La Trobe University