Attention Distribution and Decision Making in Tactical Air Combat

Abstract

Tactical decision making in the air combat environment requires the rapid processing of large amounts of data in a complex and unpredictable environment. To investigate decision making in this domain, we conducted a study in which 10 experienced fighter pilots provided tactical decisions and performed a target replacement task on a tactical situation display showing a wide variety of tactical situations based on the de Groot memory paradigm. Results were analyzed to determine features related to pilot attention distribution in processing tactical situation displays and their correspondence to tactical decision making. Evidence is provided for the effect of target quantity, target location, and overall target density distribution on decision making and attention. In addition, substantial variation in decision making was found between participants. Systematic biases in attention were also discovered which have implications for decision making in combat situations. Evidence of chunking in processing the displays was also explored. Results indicate that although pilots appeared to chunk targets in a manner similar to experts studied in other fields, the criterion used for determining chunking in these studies may not be valid.