Can subjects be guided to optimal decisions? The use of a real-time training intervention model

Abstract

Effective decision-making is a hallmark of military leadership, and development of decision makers is critical to military strategy. The Cognitive Alignment with Performance-Targeted Training Intervention Model (CAPTTIM) was developed to aid training of optimal decision-making. Cognitive state suggests a subject is exploring the decision environment as opposed to exploiting it, and decision performance classifies whether a subject is making optimal decisions. Using a color-coded structure combining cognitive state and decision performance, CAPTTIM indicates whether those factors are aligned for optimal decision-making--exploiting the environment and making optimal decisions--or not. The focus of this thesis was to identify each subject's CAPTTIM status in real time and, when decision performance was misaligned, provide feedback to influence the subject's future decisions. Through a human-subject experiment (n = 34), we classified decision-makers' CAPTTIM status in real time. We randomly assigned 17 subjects to receive tailored feedback during execution of a decision task (feedback group), and trend analysis reveals the feedback group to be more likely to reach optimal decisions than a control group. These results imply that training systems could be tailored to the individual and that methods used to instruct effective decision-making may expand to include real-time understanding and intervention.