Pro-Active Decision Support (PADS)

Warfighters face overwhelmingly complex and uncertain situations in which they must make life-and- death decisions. Today"s information systems often overwhelm decision makers still further. Attention to results of cognitive science can contribute to the design of a new generation of systems that are far more helpful: based on knowledge of user roles, tasks, and context, systems can help proactively flag decision points; select relevant information and project trends; present information emphasizing relationships to thresholds and deviations from expectations; suggest courses of action based on past experience; and expedite coordination with other parties. We propose to identify decision-making needs in the context of Maritime Operations Centers (MOCs) and align those needs with cognitive science findings on Situation Awareness (SA) and Dynamic Decision Making (DDM). From this combination, we will develop a set of design guidelines. Using those guidelines, we will design and prototype a general and extensible framework for Pro-Active Decision Support (PADS). During Phase I, we will generate use cases associated with MOC staff, identify relevant cognitive science findings, systematize those findings into a set of guidelines, design the general PADS framework, develop a limited proof-of-concept prototype, and elaborate a plan for Phase II technology development and transition.