Perceptual and contextual influences on dynamic decision-making performance

Ongoing research investigating perceptual and contextual influences on skilled human performance in dynamic decision-making environments is described. Many studies suggest that the concrete context in which a task is presented has strong influence on the psychological processes used to perform the task and in subsequent performance. Studies of skilled behavior in a wide variety of task environments typically implicate the perceptual system as an important contributor to decision-making performance, either in its role as a mediator between the current decision context and stored knowledge, or as a mechanism capable of directly initiating activity through the development of a trained eye. Both contextual and perceptual influences place limits on the ability of traditional utility-theoretic accounts of decision-making to guide display design, as variance in behavior due to contextual factors or the development of perceptual skill is left unexplained. A framework for questions of perceptual and contextual influences on behavior is outlined, and an experimental task and analysis technique is described.