Decision Priming in an Air-to-Ground Attack Decision Scenario

Motivation – Validate a System Dynamics model of decision speed for a scenario relevant to an Air Force mission task. Research approach – Extend a decision priming basic research paradigm to a more applied case. Findings/Design – Decision priming was found to occur with more complex stimuli relevant to an air-to-ground target identification scenario. A system dynamics model was developed to predict those results. Research limitations/Implications – While decision delays of approximately 100 milliseconds were found here, it remains to be determined whether decision priming extends to decision processes extending over seconds or minutes. Originality/Value – A temporally-based method of modeling a decision process has been validated for an applied air-to-ground target identification scenario. Many other decision models lack this time component and are therefore of limited use in time-critical situations. Take away message – Tactical situations where information is processed rapidly and sequentially can result in decision priming.