In dynamic environments such as air-traffic control, emergency response and security surveillance, there are severe constraints to information processing and decision-making. Human operators must constantly monitor, assess, and integrate incoming information in order to make optimal decisions in such complex environments. In order to maximize operators’ performance, there is a need for effective technological support for dynamic decision-making. Eye tracking is one promising avenue that can provide online, nonobtrusive indices of cognitive functioning. Using a simulated maritime decision-making environment, we evaluated whether oculometry may be exploited to foretell the decision made by the operator beforehand. Our results showed that pupil dilation and fixation transitions can reveal the upcoming judgment of the human operator by about half a second before the decision. This finding can be useful to design adaptive support tools for dynamic decision-making by integrating the operator’s cognitive state.
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