"Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT) create unique cognitive demands for small unit leaders, particularly platoon leaders. Years of experience are typically needed to master these demands. However, most platoon leaders tend to have limited experience in Army operations generally, and MOUT operations specifically. A cognitive task analysis, based on in depth interviews with subject matter experts (n=7), was conducted to expose the cognitive aspects of expertise existing within one important MOUT task, building clearing operations. From the perspective of platoon leaders, the cognitive demands of this task were defined within the context of decision requirement tables. Decision requirements detail critical decisions and judgments, the reasons why they can be difficult to make, cues and factors that influence decision making, and rules and strategies employed in the decision making process. The findings of the cognitive task analysis guided the development of training recommendations, particularly the need for a scenario based MOUT training program aimed at improving platoon leader expertise through practice in decision making."--Stinet.

"Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT) create unique cognitive demands for small unit leaders, particularly platoon leaders. Years of experience are typically needed to master these demands. However, most platoon leaders tend to have limited experience in Army operations generally, and MOUT operations specifically. A cognitive task analysis, based on in depth interviews with subject matter experts (n=7), was conducted to expose the cognitive aspects of expertise existing within one important MOUT task, building clearing operations. From the perspective of platoon leaders, the cognitive demands of this task were defined within the context of decision requirement tables. Decision requirements detail critical decisions and judgments, the reasons why they can be difficult to make, cues and factors that influence decision making, and rules and strategies employed in the decision making process. The findings of the cognitive task analysis guided the development of training recommendations, particularly the need for a scenario based MOUT training program aimed at improving platoon leader expertise through practice in decision making."--Stinet.

"This research effort applied principles of Naturalistic Decision Making to identify the cognitive challenges involved in platoon leader decision making in Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT) building clearing missions. The findings informed the development of classroom, hardcopy, and multimedia training products to support Infantry Officer Basic Course students in MOUT decision making. A Cognitive Task Analysis of the building clearing task entailed a series of in-depth interviews with Army personnel experienced in MOUT. The analysis resulted in a detailed representation of eleven high-level decision requirements associated with the building-clearing task. Cognitive demands related to each requirement -- critical decisions and judgements, sensory cues, other factors, and expert strategies -- are included in the representation. Four products were developed based on the findings of the analysis: sixteen decision-centered training scenarios for MOUT environments; an interactive, multimedia tool (IMPACT) that supports instructors in training MOUT decision making skills; a classroom exercise that supports situation awareness appreciation and understanding; and a guide that provides supplemental information regarding the building clearing task from a platoon leader's perspective."--Stinet.

How to collect data about cognitive processes and events, how to analyze CTA findings, and how to communicate them effectively: a handbook for managers, trainers, systems analysts, market researchers, health professionals, and others. Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA) helps researchers understand how cognitive skills and strategies make it possible for people to act effectively and get things done. CTA can yield information people need—employers faced with personnel issues, market researchers who want to understand the thought processes of consumers, trainers and others who design instructional systems, health care professionals who want to apply lessons learned from errors and accidents, systems analysts developing user specifications, and many other professionals. CTA can show what makes the workplace work—and what keeps it from working as well as it might. Working Minds is a true handbook, offering a set of tools for doing CTA: methods for collecting data about cognitive processes and events, analyzing them, and communicating them effectively. It covers both the "why" and the "how" of CTA methods, providing examples, guidance, and stories from the authors' own experiences as CTA practitioners. Because effective use of CTA depends on some conceptual grounding in cognitive theory and research—on knowing what a cognitive perspective can offer—the book also offers an overview of current research on cognition. The book provides detailed guidance for planning and carrying out CTA, with chapters on capturing knowledge and capturing the way people reason. It discusses studying cognition in real-world settings and the challenges of rapidly changing technology. And it describes key issues in applying CTA findings in a variety of fields. Working Minds makes the methodology of CTA accessible and the skills involved attainable.

For the past decade, the U.S. Marine Corps and its sister services have been engaged in what has been termed "hybrid warfare," which ranges from active combat to civilian support. Hybrid warfare typically occurs in environments where all modes of war are employed, such as conventional weapons, irregular tactics, terrorism, disruptive technologies, and criminality to destabilize an existing order. In August 2010, the National Research Council established the Committee on Improving the Decision Making Abilities of Small Unit Leaders to produce Improving the Decision Making Abilities of Small Unit Leaders. This report examines the operational environment, existing abilities, and gap to include data, technology, skill sets, training, and measures of effectiveness for small unit leaders in conducting enhanced company operations (ECOs) in hybrid engagement, complex environments. Improving the Decision Making Abilities of Small Unit Leaders also determines how to understand the decision making calculus and indicators of adversaries. Improving the Decision Making Abilities of Small Unit Leaders recommends operational and technical approaches for improving the decision making abilities of small unit leaders, including any acquisition and experimentation efforts that can be undertaken by the Marine Corps and/or by other stakeholders aimed specifically at improving the decision making of small unit leaders. This report recommends ways to ease the burden on small unit leaders and to better prepare the small unit leader for success. Improving the Decision Making Abilities of Small Unit Leaders also indentifies a responsible organization to ensure that training and education programs are properly developed, staffed, operated, evaluated, and expanded.

Researchers have revealed that real expertise, while applied to well-defined tasks with highly circumscribed contexts, often stretches beyond its routine boundaries. For example, a medical doctor may be called upon to diagnose a rare disease or perform emergency surgery outside his or her area of specialization because other experts are not available. Moreover, in some cases, the context for expertise is in a constant state of flux, such that no one case is identical. Expertise Out of Context is a culmination of some of the most insightful studies conducted by researchers in the fields of cognitive systems engineering and naturalistic decision making in the effort to better understand expertise and its development. Born out of the Sixth International Conference on Naturalistic Decision Making, a conference that gathers researchers who study cognition, perception, and reasoning outside of the traditional laboratory, this book is organized in five parts, the first of which provides an overview of the topic and presents varied perspectives. Consequent sections cover how to make sense of things, tools for thinking out of context, how to cope with uncertainty in a changing workplace, and teams operating out of context. As researchers in naturalistic decision making have investigated such areas as the knowledge and decision-making skills of expert firefighters, critical care nurses, military commanders, and aircraft pilots, this volume is of importance to an expansive audience, including individuals in business, government, industry, and society at large.