What Makes Decision Tasks Difficult

摘要

Multi-method investigations of information gathering behavior for decision making in the submarine environment are reported. The two-pronged focus of these studies was classification of task difficulty and investigations of the effects of different difficulty classes on information gathering and decision making. Experimental methods included interviews, questionnaires, computer-assisted process tracing, verbal protocols, and interactive simulations. Results both help assess the strengths and weaknesses of each method and provide support for an information clustering hypothesis. These results suggest a new approach for the design of complex decision support interfaces.