title: A cognitive prosthesis for complex decision-making.
abstract: While simple heuristics can be ecologically rational and effective in naturalistic decision making contexts, complex situations require analytical decision making strategies, hypothesis-testing and learning. Sub-optimal decision strategies - using simplified as opposed to analytic decision rules - have been reported in domains such as healthcare, military operational planning, and government policy making. We investigate the potential of a computational toolkit called "IMAGE" to improve decision-making by developing structural knowledge and increasing understanding of complex situations. IMAGE is tested within the context of a complex military convoy management task through (a) interactive simulations, and (b) visualization and knowledge representation capabilities. We assess the usefulness of two versions of IMAGE (desktop and immersive) compared to a baseline. Results suggest that the prosthesis helped analysts in making better decisions, but failed to increase their structural knowledge about the situation once the cognitive prosthesis is removed.
authors.affiliation: École de psychologie, Université Laval, Québec, Canada. Electronic address: sebastien.tremblay@psy.ulaval.ca.
authors.forename: Sébastien
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tremblay
authors.affiliation: Thales Research & Technology Canada, Québec City, Québec, Canada.
authors.forename: Jean-François
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Gagnon
authors.affiliation: Thales Research & Technology Canada, Québec City, Québec, Canada.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lafond
authors.affiliation: École de psychologie, Université Laval, Québec, Canada; Department of Applied Psychology, Cardiff Metropolitan University, Cardiff, UK.
authors.forename: Helen M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Hodgetts
authors.affiliation: École de psychologie, Université Laval, Québec, Canada.
authors.forename: Maxime
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Doiron
authors.affiliation: École de psychologie, Université Laval, Québec, Canada.
authors.forename: Patrick P J M H
authors.initials: PPJMH
authors.lastname: Jeuniaux
mesh_terms: D001185:Artificial Intelligence; D003071:Cognition; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003626:Data Display; D003657:Decision Making; D003661:Decision Support Techniques; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D019359:Knowledge; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male
keywords: Complex decision making; Knowledge representation; Visual analytics