Sample records for action decision process
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Automated Interactive Simulation Model (AISIM) VAX Version 5.0 Training Manual.
1987-05-29
action, activity, decision , etc. that consumes time. The entity is automatically created by the system when an ACTION Primitive is placed. 1.3.2.4 The...MODELED SYSTEM 1.3.2.1 The Process Entity. A Process is used to represent the operations, decisions , actions or activities that can be decomposed and...is associated with the Action entity described below, is included in Process definitions to indicate the time a certain Action (or process, decision
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Embodied Choice: How Action Influences Perceptual Decision Making
Lepora, Nathan F.; Pezzulo, Giovanni
2015-01-01
Embodied Choice considers action performance as a proper part of the decision making process rather than merely as a means to report the decision. The central statement of embodied choice is the existence of bidirectional influences between action and decisions. This implies that for a decision expressed by an action, the action dynamics and its constraints (e.g. current trajectory and kinematics) influence the decision making process. Here we use a perceptual decision making task to compare three types of model: a serial decision-then-action model, a parallel decision-and-action model, and an embodied choice model where the action feeds back into the decision making. The embodied model incorporates two key mechanisms that together are lacking in the other models: action preparation and commitment. First, action preparation strategies alleviate delays in enacting a choice but also modify decision termination. Second, action dynamics change the prospects and create a commitment effect to the initially preferred choice. Our results show that these two mechanisms make embodied choice models better suited to combine decision and action appropriately to achieve suitably fast and accurate responses, as usually required in ecologically valid situations. Moreover, embodied choice models with these mechanisms give a better account of trajectory tracking experiments during decision making. In conclusion, the embodied choice framework offers a combined theory of decision and action that gives a clear case that embodied phenomena such as the dynamics of actions can have a causal influence on central cognition. PMID:25849349
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Embodied choice: how action influences perceptual decision making.
Lepora, Nathan F; Pezzulo, Giovanni
2015-04-01
Embodied Choice considers action performance as a proper part of the decision making process rather than merely as a means to report the decision. The central statement of embodied choice is the existence of bidirectional influences between action and decisions. This implies that for a decision expressed by an action, the action dynamics and its constraints (e.g. current trajectory and kinematics) influence the decision making process. Here we use a perceptual decision making task to compare three types of model: a serial decision-then-action model, a parallel decision-and-action model, and an embodied choice model where the action feeds back into the decision making. The embodied model incorporates two key mechanisms that together are lacking in the other models: action preparation and commitment. First, action preparation strategies alleviate delays in enacting a choice but also modify decision termination. Second, action dynamics change the prospects and create a commitment effect to the initially preferred choice. Our results show that these two mechanisms make embodied choice models better suited to combine decision and action appropriately to achieve suitably fast and accurate responses, as usually required in ecologically valid situations. Moreover, embodied choice models with these mechanisms give a better account of trajectory tracking experiments during decision making. In conclusion, the embodied choice framework offers a combined theory of decision and action that gives a clear case that embodied phenomena such as the dynamics of actions can have a causal influence on central cognition.
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44 CFR 10.12 - Pre-implementation actions.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-10-01
... Pre-implementation actions. (a) Decision-making. The Regional Administrator shall ensure that... integrated into the decision-making process. Because of the diversity of FEMA, it is not feasible to describe in this part the decision-making process for each of the various FEMA programs. Proposals and actions...
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ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Losak, John; Morris, Cathy
One promising avenue for increasing the utilization of institutional research data is the informal action research model. While formal action research stresses the involvement of researchers throughout the decision-making process, the informal model stresses participation in the later stages of decision making. Informal action research requires…
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ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Smaby, Marlowe H.; Tamminen, Armas W.
1978-01-01
This article presents a model for training counselors to help counselees in the process of making decisions. An effective decision-helping approach that includes processing decisions, relating values to process, and relating actions to beliefs is presented. (Author)
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24 CFR 55.20 - Decision making process.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-04-01
... 24 Housing and Urban Development 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Decision making process. 55.20... Decision making process. The decision making process for compliance with this part contains eight steps... decision making process are: (a) Step 1. Determine whether the proposed action is located in a 100-year...
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Griffiths, Kristi R.; Morris, Richard W.; Balleine, Bernard W.
2014-01-01
The ability to learn contingencies between actions and outcomes in a dynamic environment is critical for flexible, adaptive behavior. Goal-directed actions adapt to changes in action-outcome contingencies as well as to changes in the reward-value of the outcome. When networks involved in reward processing and contingency learning are maladaptive, this fundamental ability can be lost, with detrimental consequences for decision-making. Impaired decision-making is a core feature in a number of psychiatric disorders, ranging from depression to schizophrenia. The argument can be developed, therefore, that seemingly disparate symptoms across psychiatric disorders can be explained by dysfunction within common decision-making circuitry. From this perspective, gaining a better understanding of the neural processes involved in goal-directed action, will allow a comparison of deficits observed across traditional diagnostic boundaries within a unified theoretical framework. This review describes the key processes and neural circuits involved in goal-directed decision-making using evidence from animal studies and human neuroimaging. Select studies are discussed to outline what we currently know about causal judgments regarding actions and their consequences, action-related reward evaluation, and, most importantly, how these processes are integrated in goal-directed learning and performance. Finally, we look at how adaptive decision-making is impaired across a range of psychiatric disorders and how deepening our understanding of this circuitry may offer insights into phenotypes and more targeted interventions. PMID:24904322
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Nichols, J.D.; Runge, M.C.; Johnson, F.A.; Williams, B.K.; Schodde, Richard; Hannon, Susan; Scheiffarth, Gregor; Bairlein, Franz
2006-01-01
The history of North American waterfowl harvest management has been characterized by attempts to use population monitoring data to make informed harvest management decisions. Early attempts can be characterized as intuitive decision processes, and later efforts were guided increasingly by population models and associated predictions. In 1995, a formal adaptive management process was implemented, and annual decisions about duck harvest regulations in the United States are still based on this process. This formal decision process is designed to deal appropriately with the various forms of uncertainty that characterize management decisions, environmental uncertainty, structural uncertainty, partial controllability and partial observability. The key components of the process are (1) objectives, (2) potential management actions, (3) model(s) of population response to management actions, (4) credibility measures for these models, and (5) a monitoring program. The operation of this iterative process is described, and a brief history of a decade of its use is presented. Future challenges range from social and political issues such as appropriate objectives and management actions, to technical issues such as multispecies management, geographic allocation of harvest, and incorporation of actions that include habitat acquisition and management.
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78 FR 20498 - Potential Changes to Interlocutory Appeals Process for Adjudicatory Decisions
Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014
2013-04-05
... Interlocutory Appeals Process for Adjudicatory Decisions AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission. ACTION: Advance... to change the interlocutory appeals process for certain adjudicatory decisions. The NRC seeks public... Board's decision at the end of the hearing process. This alternative would effectively allow all...
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Planning Protective Action Decision-Making: Evacuate or Shelter-in-Place
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Sorensen, J.H.
Appropriate protective action recommendations or decisions (PARs/PADs) are needed to achieve maximum protection of a population at risk. The factors that affect protective action decisions are complex but fairly well documented. Protective action decisions take into account population distributions, projected or actual exposure to a chemical substance, availability of adequate shelters, evacuation time estimates, and other relevant factors. To choose in-place sheltering, there should be a reasonable assurance that the movement of people beyond their residence, workplace, or school will endanger the health and safety of the public more so than allowing them to remain in place. The decision tomore » evacuate the public should be based on the reasonable assurance that the movement of people to an area outside of an affected area is in the best interest of their health and safety, and is of minimal risk to them. In reality, an evacuation decision is also a resource-dependent decision. The availability of transportation and other resources, including shelters, may factor heavily in the protective action decision-making process. All strategies to protect the health and safety of the public from a release of hazardous chemicals are explicitly considered during emergency decision making. Each institutional facility (such as hospitals, schools, day care centers, correctional facilities, assisted living facilities or nursing homes) in the community should be considered separately to determine what special protective actions may be necessary. Deciding whether to evacuate or to shelter-in-place is one of the most important questions facing local emergency planners responding to a toxic chemical release. That such a complex decision with such important potential consequences must be made with such urgency places tremendous responsibility on the planners and officials involved. Researchers have devoted considerable attention to the evacuation/shelter-in-place protection decision. While several decision aids have been developed, no single approach has achieved widespread acceptance based on validity, utility, and effectiveness (Ujihara 1989, Mannan and Kilpatrick 2000). In the absence of an agreed-upon methodology for making this decision, the best strategy for local emergency planners and officials is a thorough understanding of all the components affecting the decision. This paper summarizes what is currently known about the evacuation/shelter-in-place protection decision and points to available literature that more thoroughly explores the individual components of the decision. The next section summarizes the major issues in protective action decision process. This is followed by a discussion of all the factors that may bear on the protective action decision process. The final section address how to make a protective action decision.« less
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Capturing a Commander's decision making style
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Santos, Eugene; Nguyen, Hien; Russell, Jacob; Kim, Keumjoo; Veenhuis, Luke; Boparai, Ramnjit; Stautland, Thomas Kristoffer
2017-05-01
A Commander's decision making style represents how he weighs his choices and evaluates possible solutions with regards to his goals. Specifically, in the naval warfare domain, it relates the way he processes a large amount of information in dynamic, uncertain environments, allocates resources, and chooses appropriate actions to pursue. In this paper, we describe an approach to capture a Commander's decision style by creating a cognitive model that captures his decisionmaking process and evaluate this model using a set of scenarios using an online naval warfare simulation game. In this model, we use the Commander's past behaviors and generalize Commander's actions across multiple problems and multiple decision making sequences in order to recommend actions to a Commander in a manner that he may have taken. Our approach builds upon the Double Transition Model to represent the Commander's focus and beliefs to estimate his cognitive state. Each cognitive state reflects a stage in a Commander's decision making process, each action reflects the tasks that he has taken to move himself closer to a final decision, and the reward reflects how close he is to achieving his goal. We then use inverse reinforcement learning to compute a reward for each of the Commander's actions. These rewards and cognitive states are used to compare between different styles of decision making. We construct a set of scenarios in the game where rational, intuitive and spontaneous decision making styles will be evaluated.
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Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-07-01
... before an appeals panel that— (i) May not include current members of the agency's decision-making body... decisions: to affirm, amend, or reverse adverse actions of the original decision-making body; and (iv... adverse action is implemented by the appeals panel or by the original decision-making body, at the agency...
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Laran, Juliano
2010-01-01
Two important forces in human behavior are action and inaction. Although action and inaction are commonly associated with the presence and the absence of behavioral activity, they can also be represented as information processing goals. Action (inaction) goals influence decision effort and increase satisfaction with environments that are structured to allow for more (less) processing (Studies 1 and 2). This increased satisfaction can transfer to the decision (Study 3) and can increase the intent to perform a decision-congruent behavior (Studies 4 and 6). Finally, the author shows escalation of action and inaction goals when they are not achieved (Study 5) and rebound of the alternative goal when the focal goal is achieved (Study 6).
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44 CFR 9.6 - Decision-making process.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-10-01
... 44 Emergency Management and Assistance 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Decision-making process. 9.6... HOMELAND SECURITY GENERAL FLOODPLAIN MANAGEMENT AND PROTECTION OF WETLANDS § 9.6 Decision-making process... protection decision-making process to be followed by the Agency in applying the Orders to its actions. While...
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24 CFR 55.11 - Applicability of subpart C decision making process.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-04-01
... Management § 55.11 Applicability of subpart C decision making process. (a) Before reaching the decision... table indicates the applicability, by location and type of action, of the decision making process for... 24 Housing and Urban Development 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Applicability of subpart C decision...
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Martin, J.; Runge, M.C.; Nichols, J.D.; Lubow, B.C.; Kendall, W.L.
2009-01-01
Thresholds and their relevance to conservation have become a major topic of discussion in the ecological literature. Unfortunately, in many cases the lack of a clear conceptual framework for thinking about thresholds may have led to confusion in attempts to apply the concept of thresholds to conservation decisions. Here, we advocate a framework for thinking about thresholds in terms of a structured decision making process. The purpose of this framework is to promote a logical and transparent process for making informed decisions for conservation. Specification of such a framework leads naturally to consideration of definitions and roles of different kinds of thresholds in the process. We distinguish among three categories of thresholds. Ecological thresholds are values of system state variables at which small changes bring about substantial changes in system dynamics. Utility thresholds are components of management objectives (determined by human values) and are values of state or performance variables at which small changes yield substantial changes in the value of the management outcome. Decision thresholds are values of system state variables at which small changes prompt changes in management actions in order to reach specified management objectives. The approach that we present focuses directly on the objectives of management, with an aim to providing decisions that are optimal with respect to those objectives. This approach clearly distinguishes the components of the decision process that are inherently subjective (management objectives, potential management actions) from those that are more objective (system models, estimates of system state). Optimization based on these components then leads to decision matrices specifying optimal actions to be taken at various values of system state variables. Values of state variables separating different actions in such matrices are viewed as decision thresholds. Utility thresholds are included in the objectives component, and ecological thresholds may be embedded in models projecting consequences of management actions. Decision thresholds are determined by the above-listed components of a structured decision process. These components may themselves vary over time, inducing variation in the decision thresholds inherited from them. These dynamic decision thresholds can then be determined using adaptive management. We provide numerical examples (that are based on patch occupancy models) of structured decision processes that include all three kinds of thresholds. ?? 2009 by the Ecological Society of America.
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[Factors behind action, emotion, and decision making].
Watanabe, Katsumi
2009-12-01
Human actions, emotions, and decision making are products of complex interactions between explicit and implicit processes at various levels of spatial and temporal scales. Although it may not be possible to obtain to experimental data for all the complexity of human behavioral and emotional processes in our everyday life, recent studies have investigated the effects of social contexts on actions, emotions, and decision making; these studies include those in the fields of experimental psychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience. In this paper, we review several empirical studies that exemplify how our actions, social emotions, and decision making are influenced by the presence of implicit external, rather than internal factors, particularly by presence of other individuals. The following are the main principles identified. (1) Unconscious behavioral contagion: Individuals tend to mimic others' actions. This tendency occurs unconsciously even when the observed and the to-be-executed movements are unrelated at various levels and aspects of behaviors (e. g., behavioral tempo and speed). (2) Neural substrates of social emotions: Various social emotions, including admiration, compassion, envy, and schadenfreude, are represented in neuronal networks that are similar to those of basic emotional processes. (3) Evasive nature of human decision making: Individuals tend to overrate their own subjective impression of and emotional reaction in forecasting affective reaction to events in the future, even though the predictive power of information from peer group is much larger in this regard. Individuals are seldom aware of the dissociation between their intended choice and excuted actions and are willing to give elaborate explanations for the choices they, in fact, did not make. Using these empirical examples, I will illustrate the considerable influences of implicit, unconscious processes on human actions, emotions, and decision making.
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Navigating the Decision Space: Shared Medical Decision Making as Distributed Cognition.
Lippa, Katherine D; Feufel, Markus A; Robinson, F Eric; Shalin, Valerie L
2017-06-01
Despite increasing prominence, little is known about the cognitive processes underlying shared decision making. To investigate these processes, we conceptualize shared decision making as a form of distributed cognition. We introduce a Decision Space Model to identify physical and social influences on decision making. Using field observations and interviews, we demonstrate that patients and physicians in both acute and chronic care consider these influences when identifying the need for a decision, searching for decision parameters, making actionable decisions Based on the distribution of access to information and actions, we then identify four related patterns: physician dominated; physician-defined, patient-made; patient-defined, physician-made; and patient-dominated decisions. Results suggests that (a) decision making is necessarily distributed between physicians and patients, (b) differential access to information and action over time requires participants to transform a distributed task into a shared decision, and (c) adverse outcomes may result from failures to integrate physician and patient reasoning. Our analysis unifies disparate findings in the medical decision-making literature and has implications for improving care and medical training.
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Ernst, K.; Preston, B. L.; Tenggren, S.; Klein, R.; Gerger-Swartling, Å.
2017-12-01
Many challenges to adaptation decision-making and action have been identified across peer-reviewed and gray literature. These challenges have primarily focused on the use of climate knowledge for adaptation decision-making, the process of adaptation decision-making, and the needs of the decision-maker. Studies on climate change knowledge systems often discuss the imperative role of climate knowledge producers in adaptation decision-making processes and stress the need for producers to engage in knowledge co-production activities and to more effectively meet decision-maker needs. While the influence of climate knowledge producers on the co-production of science for adaptation decision-making is well-recognized, hardly any research has taken a direct approach to analyzing the challenges that climate knowledge producers face when undertaking science co-production. Those challenges can influence the process of knowledge production and may hinder the creation, utilization, and dissemination of actionable knowledge for adaptation decision-making. This study involves semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and participant observations to analyze, identify, and contextualize the challenges that climate knowledge producers in Sweden face as they endeavor to create effective climate knowledge systems for multiple contexts, scales, and levels across the European Union. Preliminary findings identify complex challenges related to education, training, and support; motivation, willingness, and culture; varying levels of prioritization; professional roles and responsibilities; the type and amount of resources available; and professional incentive structures. These challenges exist at varying scales and levels across individuals, organizations, networks, institutions, and disciplines. This study suggests that the creation of actionable knowledge for adaptation decision-making is not supported across scales and levels in the climate knowledge production landscape. Additionally, enabling the production of actionable knowledge for adaptation decision-making requires multi-level effort beyond the individual level.
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Information processing in decision-making systems.
van der Meer, Matthijs; Kurth-Nelson, Zeb; Redish, A David
2012-08-01
Decisions result from an interaction between multiple functional systems acting in parallel to process information in very different ways, each with strengths and weaknesses. In this review, the authors address three action-selection components of decision-making: The Pavlovian system releases an action from a limited repertoire of potential actions, such as approaching learned stimuli. Like the Pavlovian system, the habit system is computationally fast but, unlike the Pavlovian system permits arbitrary stimulus-action pairings. These associations are a "forward'' mechanism; when a situation is recognized, the action is released. In contrast, the deliberative system is flexible but takes time to process. The deliberative system uses knowledge of the causal structure of the world to search into the future, planning actions to maximize expected rewards. Deliberation depends on the ability to imagine future possibilities, including novel situations, and it allows decisions to be taken without having previously experienced the options. Various anatomical structures have been identified that carry out the information processing of each of these systems: hippocampus constitutes a map of the world that can be used for searching/imagining the future; dorsal striatal neurons represent situation-action associations; and ventral striatum maintains value representations for all three systems. Each system presents vulnerabilities to pathologies that can manifest as psychiatric disorders. Understanding these systems and their relation to neuroanatomy opens up a deeper way to treat the structural problems underlying various disorders.
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Information Processing in Decision-Making Systems
van der Meer, Matthijs; Kurth-Nelson, Zeb; Redish, A. David
2015-01-01
Decisions result from an interaction between multiple functional systems acting in parallel to process information in very different ways, each with strengths and weaknesses. In this review, the authors address three action-selection components of decision-making: The Pavlovian system releases an action from a limited repertoire of potential actions, such as approaching learned stimuli. Like the Pavlovian system, the habit system is computationally fast but, unlike the Pavlovian system permits arbitrary stimulus-action pairings. These associations are a “forward” mechanism; when a situation is recognized, the action is released. In contrast, the deliberative system is flexible but takes time to process. The deliberative system uses knowledge of the causal structure of the world to search into the future, planning actions to maximize expected rewards. Deliberation depends on the ability to imagine future possibilities, including novel situations, and it allows decisions to be taken without having previously experienced the options. Various anatomical structures have been identified that carry out the information processing of each of these systems: hippocampus constitutes a map of the world that can be used for searching/imagining the future; dorsal striatal neurons represent situation-action associations; and ventral striatum maintains value representations for all three systems. Each system presents vulnerabilities to pathologies that can manifest as psychiatric disorders. Understanding these systems and their relation to neuroanatomy opens up a deeper way to treat the structural problems underlying various disorders. PMID:22492194
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Improving the Process of Career Decision Making: An Action Research Approach
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Greenbank, Paul
2011-01-01
Purpose: This study adopts an action research approach with the aim of improving the process of career decision making among undergraduates in a business school at a "new" university in the UK. Design/methodology/approach: The study utilised unfreezing techniques, multiple case studies in conjunction with the principle of analogical…
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Aircraft accident investigation: the decision-making in initial action scenario.
Barreto, Marcia M; Ribeiro, Selma L O
2012-01-01
In the complex aeronautical environment, the efforts in terms of operational safety involve the adoption of proactive and reactive measures. The process of investigation begins right after the occurrence of the aeronautical accident, through the initial action. Thus, it is in the crisis scenario, that the person responsible for the initial action makes decisions and gathers the necessary information for the subsequent phases of the investigation process. Within this scenario, which is a natural environment, researches have shown the fragility of rational models of decision making. The theoretical perspective of naturalistic decision making constitutes a breakthrough in the understanding of decision problems demanded by real world. The proposal of this study was to verify if the initial action, after the occurrence of an accident, and the decision-making strategies, used by the investigators responsible for this activity, are characteristic of the naturalistic decision making theoretical approach. To attend the proposed objective a descriptive research was undertaken with a sample of professionals that work in this activity. The data collected through individual interviews were analyzed and the results demonstrated that the initial action environment, which includes restricted time, dynamic conditions, the presence of multiple actors, stress and insufficient information is characteristic of the naturalistic decision making. They also demonstrated that, when the investigators make their decisions, they use their experience and the mental simulation, intuition, improvisation, metaphors and analogues cases, as strategies, all of them related to the naturalistic approach of decision making, in order to satisfy the needs of the situation and reach the objectives of the initial action in the accident scenario.
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Heath, Robert L; Lee, Jaesub; Palenchar, Michael J; Lemon, Laura L
2018-02-01
Studies are continuously performed to improve risk communication campaign designs to better prepare residents to act in the safest manner during an emergency. To that end, this article investigates the predictive ability of the protective action decision model (PADM), which links environmental and social cues, predecision processes (attention, exposure, and comprehension), and risk decision perceptions (threat, alternative protective actions, and stakeholder norms) with protective action decision making. This current quasi-longitudinal study of residents (N = 400 for each year) in a high-risk (chemical release) petrochemical manufacturing community investigated whether PADM core risk perceptions predict protective action decision making. Telephone survey data collected at four intervals (1995, 1998, 2002, 2012) reveal that perceptions of protective actions and stakeholder norms, but not of threat, currently predict protective action decision making (intention to shelter in place). Of significance, rather than threat perceptions, perception of Wally Wise Guy (a spokes-character who advocates shelter in place) correlates with perceptions of protective action, stakeholder norms, and protective action decision making. Wally's response-efficacy advice predicts residents' behavioral intentions to shelter in place, thereby offering contextually sensitive support and refinement for PADM. © 2017 Society for Risk Analysis.
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Nash Equilibria in Theory of Reasoned Action
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Almeida, Leando; Cruz, José; Ferreira, Helena; Pinto, Alberto Adrego
2009-08-01
Game theory and Decision Theory have been applied to many different areas such as Physics, Economics, Biology, etc. In its application to Psychology, we introduce, in the literature, a Game Theoretical Model of Planned Behavior or Reasoned Action by establishing an analogy between two specific theories. In this study we take in account that individual decision-making is an outcome of a process where group decisions can determine individual probabilistic behavior. Using Game Theory concepts, we describe how intentions can be transformed in behavior and according to the Nash Equilibrium, this process will correspond to the best individual decision/response taking in account the collective response. This analysis can be extended to several examples based in the Game Theoretical Model of Planned Behavior or Reasoned Action.
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Thresholds for conservation and management: structured decision making as a conceptual framework
Nichols, James D.; Eaton, Mitchell J.; Martin, Julien; Edited by Guntenspergen, Glenn R.
2014-01-01
changes in system dynamics. They are frequently incorporated into ecological models used to project system responses to management actions. Utility thresholds are components of management objectives and are values of state or performance variables at which small changes yield substantial changes in the value of the management outcome. Decision thresholds are values of system state variables at which small changes prompt changes in management actions in order to reach specified management objectives. Decision thresholds are derived from the other components of the decision process.We advocate a structured decision making (SDM) approach within which the following components are identified: objectives (possibly including utility thresholds), potential actions, models (possibly including ecological thresholds), monitoring program, and a solution algorithm (which produces decision thresholds). Adaptive resource management (ARM) is described as a special case of SDM developed for recurrent decision problems that are characterized by uncertainty. We believe that SDM, in general, and ARM, in particular, provide good approaches to conservation and management. Use of SDM and ARM also clarifies the distinct roles of ecological thresholds, utility thresholds, and decision thresholds in informed decision processes.
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Public Participation Process for Registration Actions
Describes the process for registration actions which provides the opportunity for the public to comment on major registration decisions at a point in the registration process when comprehensive information and analysis are available.
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NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Mayo, L. H.
1971-01-01
A preliminary provisional assessment of the prospects for the establishment of an adequate technology assessment function and the implications of the assessment function for the public decision process are presented. Effects of the technology assessment function on each phase of the public decision process and briefly explored. Significant implications during the next decade are projected with respect to the following phases: invention and development of alternative means (technological configurations); evaluation, selection and promotion of preferred courses of action; and modification of statutory scheme or social action program as an outcome of continuing monitoring and appraisal.
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Assessing the structure of non-routine decision processes in Airline Operations Control.
Richters, Floor; Schraagen, Jan Maarten; Heerkens, Hans
2016-03-01
Unfamiliar severe disruptions challenge Airline Operations Control professionals most, as their expertise is stretched to its limits. This study has elicited the structure of Airline Operations Control professionals' decision process during unfamiliar disruptions by mapping three macrocognitive activities on the decision ladder: sensemaking, option evaluation and action planning. The relationship between this structure and decision quality was measured. A simulated task was staged, based on which think-aloud protocols were obtained. Results show that the general decision process structure resembles the structure of experts working under routine conditions, in terms of the general structure of the macrocognitive activities, and the rule-based approach used to identify options and actions. Surprisingly, high quality of decision outcomes was found to relate to the use of rule-based strategies. This implies that successful professionals are capable of dealing with unfamiliar problems by reframing them into familiar ones, rather than to engage in knowledge-based processing. Practitioner Summary: We examined the macrocognitive structure of Airline Operations Control professionals' decision process during a simulated unfamiliar disruption in relation to decision quality. Results suggest that successful professionals are capable of dealing with unfamiliar problems by reframing them into familiar ones, rather than to engage in knowledge-based processing.
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Robinson, N J; Brennan, M L; Cobb, M; Dean, R S
2017-04-01
In order for veterinary surgeons to undertake an evidence-based approach to making decisions about their patients, it is important that new evidence is generated to support the clinical decision-making process. Many of the decisions are likely to be around the actions taken to treat or manage health problems discussed during the consultation, and little is currently known about the factors which affect the type of action taken. The aim of this study was to determine the decisions made and actions taken for health problems discussed during first-opinion small-animal consultations, as well as identifying factors which may affect the decision-making process. Data were gathered during direct observation of small-animal consultations conducted by 62 veterinary surgeons in eight first-opinion practices in the United Kingdom. For each patient presented, data were gathered on all health problems discussed during the consultation. The decision made (whether an action was taken or not) and the action taken where applicable (e.g. therapeutic treatment with antibiotics) was also recorded. A three-level multivariable logistic-regression model was developed, with problem (Level 1) nested within patient (Level 2) nested within consulting veterinary surgeon (Level 3), and a binary outcome variable of action versus no action. At least one action was taken for 69% (n=2203/3192) of all problems discussed. Therapeutic treatment was the most common action taken (n=1286/3192 problems; 40.3%), followed by management advice (n=1040/3192; 32.6%) and diagnostic work-up (n=323/3192; 10.1%). The most common therapeutic treatment was antibiotics (n=386/1286; 30%), while the most common management advice given was dietary advice (n=509/1040; 48.9%). The three explanatory variables remaining in the final model were whether the problem was a presenting or non-presenting problem, the type of diagnosis made, and the body system affected. Explanatory variables which did not remain in the final model were patient signalment, problem history, consultation type, clinical examination type, and who raised the problem (veterinary surgeon or owner). For over two-thirds of problems discussed, an action was taken which suggests these problems may be seen as important by the veterinary surgeon and/or pet owner. No action was taken for almost a third of cases which could represent 'watchful waiting', which has been highlighted as important in human healthcare. Future research should focus on the common actions taken, further exploring the complex decision-making process, and examining the effect of the decisions made on long-term patient outcomes. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-07-01
...) Initiate the NEPA processes at the earliest possible time to be an effective decision making tool in the... ensure that environmental issues are fully considered and incorporated into the Federal decision making process. Consequently, actions for which the DON has no decision-making authority and no discretion in...
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Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-10-01
... under the terms of the contracts involved. (c) Decision-making process. Agency procedures governing the voiding and rescinding decision-making process shall be as informal as is practicable, consistent with the... an action is being considered under this subpart. (b) Decision. Following an assessment of the facts...
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ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Collins, Loel; Collins, Dave
2017-01-01
This article continues a theme of previous investigations by the authors and examines the focus of in-action reflection as a component of professional judgement and decision-making (PJDM) processes in high-level adventure sports coaching. We utilised a thematic analysis approach to investigate the decision-making practices of a sample of…
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Change Processes in Organization.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
1998
This document contains four papers from a symposium on change processes in organizations. "Mid-stream Corrections: Decisions Leaders Make during Organizational Change Processes" (David W. Frantz) analyzes three organizational leaders to determine whether and how they take corrective actions or adapt their decision-making processes when…
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40 CFR 1506.1 - Limitations on actions during NEPA process.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-07-01
... process. 1506.1 Section 1506.1 Protection of Environment COUNCIL ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY OTHER REQUIREMENTS OF NEPA § 1506.1 Limitations on actions during NEPA process. (a) Until an agency issues a record of decision as provided in § 1505.2 (except as provided in paragraph (c) of this section), no action...
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44 CFR 10.12 - Pre-implementation actions.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR
2011-10-01
... integrated into the decision-making process. Because of the diversity of FEMA, it is not feasible to describe..., for integration of environmental considerations into the decision-making process. The Regional... document for the purpose of justifying the decision. Rather it is a concise document that sets forth the...
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44 CFR 10.12 - Pre-implementation actions.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR
2014-10-01
... integrated into the decision-making process. Because of the diversity of FEMA, it is not feasible to describe..., for integration of environmental considerations into the decision-making process. The Regional... document for the purpose of justifying the decision. Rather it is a concise document that sets forth the...
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44 CFR 10.12 - Pre-implementation actions.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR
2013-10-01
... integrated into the decision-making process. Because of the diversity of FEMA, it is not feasible to describe..., for integration of environmental considerations into the decision-making process. The Regional... document for the purpose of justifying the decision. Rather it is a concise document that sets forth the...
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Method of predicting a change in an economy
Pryor, Richard J [Albuquerque, NM; Basu, Nipa [Albany, NY
2006-01-10
An economy whose activity is to be predicted comprises a plurality of decision makers. Decision makers include, for example, households, government, industry, and banks. The decision makers are represented by agents, where an agent can represent one or more decision makers. Each agent has decision rules that determine the agent's actions. Each agent can affect the economy by affecting variable conditions characteristic of the economy or the internal state of other agents. Agents can communicate actions through messages. On a multiprocessor computer, the agents can be assigned to processing elements.
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Inside the Black Box: Tracking Decision-Making in an Action Research Study
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Smith, Cathryn
2017-01-01
Action research has been described as "designing the plane while flying it" (Herr & Anderson, 2005, p. 69). A black box documented the researcher's decisions while facilitating leadership development sessions with teacher leaders. Ten process folio steps informed the study through six iterations. Planning steps included a design…
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38 CFR 26.7 - VA environmental decision making and documents.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-07-01
... environmental decision making and documents. (a) Relevant environmental documents shall accompany other decision documents as they proceed through the decision-making process. (b) The major decision points for VA actions... 38 Pensions, Bonuses, and Veterans' Relief 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false VA environmental decision...
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ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Gulcan, Murat Gurkan
2011-01-01
Any kind of practices at schools are made based on a planned and programmed process. There is a decision taken prior to every action and it is important at what level these decisions are taken. Development of participative management approach at schools positively affects the teaching process. Education staff participation in decisions causes…
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Precursor processes of human self-initiated action.
Khalighinejad, Nima; Schurger, Aaron; Desantis, Andrea; Zmigrod, Leor; Haggard, Patrick
2018-01-15
A gradual buildup of electrical potential over motor areas precedes self-initiated movements. Recently, such "readiness potentials" (RPs) were attributed to stochastic fluctuations in neural activity. We developed a new experimental paradigm that operationalized self-initiated actions as endogenous 'skip' responses while waiting for target stimuli in a perceptual decision task. We compared these to a block of trials where participants could not choose when to skip, but were instead instructed to skip. Frequency and timing of motor action were therefore balanced across blocks, so that conditions differed only in how the timing of skip decisions was generated. We reasoned that across-trial variability of EEG could carry as much information about the source of skip decisions as the mean RP. EEG variability decreased more markedly prior to self-initiated compared to externally-triggered skip actions. This convergence suggests a consistent preparatory process prior to self-initiated action. A leaky stochastic accumulator model could reproduce this convergence given the additional assumption of a systematic decrease in input noise prior to self-initiated actions. Our results may provide a novel neurophysiological perspective on the topical debate regarding whether self-initiated actions arise from a deterministic neurocognitive process, or from neural stochasticity. We suggest that the key precursor of self-initiated action may manifest as a reduction in neural noise. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Markov Decision Process Measurement Model.
LaMar, Michelle M
2018-03-01
Within-task actions can provide additional information on student competencies but are challenging to model. This paper explores the potential of using a cognitive model for decision making, the Markov decision process, to provide a mapping between within-task actions and latent traits of interest. Psychometric properties of the model are explored, and simulation studies report on parameter recovery within the context of a simple strategy game. The model is then applied to empirical data from an educational game. Estimates from the model are found to correlate more strongly with posttest results than a partial-credit IRT model based on outcome data alone.
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Faulkner, Stephen P.
2010-01-01
Landscape patterns and processes reflect both natural ecosystem attributes and the policy and management decisions of individual Federal, State, county, and private organizations. Land-use regulation, water management, and habitat conservation and restoration efforts increasingly rely on landscape-level approaches that incorporate scientific information into the decision-making process. Since management actions are implemented to affect future conditions, decision-support models are necessary to forecast potential future conditions resulting from these decisions. Spatially explicit modeling approaches enable testing of different scenarios and help evaluate potential outcomes of management actions in conjunction with natural processes such as climate change. The ability to forecast the effects of changing land use and climate is critically important to land and resource managers since their work is inherently site specific, yet conservation strategies and practices are expressed at higher spatial and temporal scales that must be considered in the decisionmaking process.
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Christopoulos, Vassilios; Bonaiuto, James; Andersen, Richard A.
2015-01-01
Decision making is a vital component of human and animal behavior that involves selecting between alternative options and generating actions to implement the choices. Although decisions can be as simple as choosing a goal and then pursuing it, humans and animals usually have to make decisions in dynamic environments where the value and the availability of an option change unpredictably with time and previous actions. A predator chasing multiple prey exemplifies how goals can dynamically change and compete during ongoing actions. Classical psychological theories posit that decision making takes place within frontal areas and is a separate process from perception and action. However, recent findings argue for additional mechanisms and suggest the decisions between actions often emerge through a continuous competition within the same brain regions that plan and guide action execution. According to these findings, the sensorimotor system generates concurrent action-plans for competing goals and uses online information to bias the competition until a single goal is pursued. This information is diverse, relating to both the dynamic value of the goal and the cost of acting, creating a challenging problem in integrating information across these diverse variables in real time. We introduce a computational framework for dynamically integrating value information from disparate sources in decision tasks with competing actions. We evaluated the framework in a series of oculomotor and reaching decision tasks and found that it captures many features of choice/motor behavior, as well as its neural underpinnings that previously have eluded a common explanation. PMID:25803729
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Proctor, Robert W; Chen, Jing
2015-08-01
The overarching goal is to convey the concept of science of security and the contributions that a scientifically based, human factors approach can make to this interdisciplinary field. Rather than a piecemeal approach to solving cybersecurity problems as they arise, the U.S. government is mounting a systematic effort to develop an approach grounded in science. Because humans play a central role in security measures, research on security-related decisions and actions grounded in principles of human information-processing and decision-making is crucial to this interdisciplinary effort. We describe the science of security and the role that human factors can play in it, and use two examples of research in cybersecurity--detection of phishing attacks and selection of mobile applications--to illustrate the contribution of a scientific, human factors approach. In these research areas, we show that systematic information-processing analyses of the decisions that users make and the actions they take provide a basis for integrating the human component of security science. Human factors specialists should utilize their foundation in the science of applied information processing and decision making to contribute to the science of cybersecurity. © 2015, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.
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The Evidential Basis of Decision Making in Plant Disease Management.
Hughes, Gareth
2017-08-04
The evidential basis for disease management decision making is provided by data relating to risk factors. The decision process involves an assessment of the evidence leading to taking (or refraining from) action on the basis of a prediction. The primary objective of the decision process is to identify-at the time the decision is made-the control action that provides the best predicted end-of-season outcome, calculated in terms of revenue or another appropriate metric. Data relating to disease risk factors may take a variety of forms (e.g., continuous, discrete, categorical) on measurement scales in a variety of units. Log 10 -likelihood ratios provide a principled basis for the accumulation of evidence based on such data and allow predictions to be made via Bayesian updating of prior probabilities.
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Discrepancies between Judgment and Choice of Action in Moral Dilemmas
Tassy, Sébastien; Oullier, Olivier; Mancini, Julien; Wicker, Bruno
2013-01-01
Everyone has experienced the potential discrepancy between what one judges as morally acceptable and what one actually does when a choice between alternative behaviors is to be made. The present study explores empirically whether judgment and choice of action differ when people make decisions on dilemmas involving moral issues. Two hundred and forty participants evaluated 24 moral and non-moral dilemmas either by judging (“Is it acceptable to…”) or reporting the choice of action they would make (“Would you do…”). We also investigated the influence of varying the number of people benefiting from the decision and the closeness of relationship of the decision maker with the potential victim on these two types of decision. Variations in the number of beneficiaries from the decision did not influence judgment nor choice of action. By contrast, closeness of relationship with the victim had a greater influence on the choice of action than on judgment. This differentiation between evaluative judgments and choices of action argues in favor of each of them being supported by (at least partially) different psychological processes. PMID:23720645
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Willed action, free will, and the stochastic neurodynamics of decision-making
Rolls, Edmund T.
2012-01-01
It is shown that the randomness of the firing times of neurons in decision-making attractor neuronal networks that is present before the decision cues are applied can cause statistical fluctuations that influence the decision that will be taken. In this rigorous sense, it is possible to partially predict decisions before they are made. This raises issues about free will and determinism. There are many decision-making networks in the brain. Some decision systems operate to choose between gene-specified rewards such as taste, touch, and beauty (in for example the peacock's tail). Other processes capable of planning ahead with multiple steps held in working memory may require correction by higher order thoughts that may involve explicit, conscious, processing. The explicit system can allow the gene-specified rewards not to be selected or deferred. The decisions between the selfish gene-specified rewards, and the explicitly calculated rewards that are in the interests of the individual, the phenotype, may themselves be influenced by noise in the brain. When the explicit planning system does take the decision, it can report on its decision-making, and can provide a causal account rather than a confabulation about the decision process. We might use the terms “willed action” and “free will” to refer to the operation of the planning system that can think ahead over several steps held in working memory with which it can take explicit decisions. Reduced connectivity in some of the default mode cortical regions including the precuneus that are active during self-initiated action appears to be related to the reduction in the sense of self and agency, of causing willed actions, that can be present in schizophrenia. PMID:22973205
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Structured decision making as a framework for large-scale wildlife harvest management decisions
Robinson, Kelly F.; Fuller, Angela K.; Hurst, Jeremy E.; Swift, Bryan L.; Kirsch, Arthur; Farquhar, James F.; Decker, Daniel J.; Siemer, William F.
2016-01-01
Fish and wildlife harvest management at large spatial scales often involves making complex decisions with multiple objectives and difficult tradeoffs, population demographics that vary spatially, competing stakeholder values, and uncertainties that might affect management decisions. Structured decision making (SDM) provides a formal decision analytic framework for evaluating difficult decisions by breaking decisions into component parts and separating the values of stakeholders from the scientific evaluation of management actions and uncertainty. The result is a rigorous, transparent, and values-driven process. This decision-aiding process provides the decision maker with a more complete understanding of the problem and the effects of potential management actions on stakeholder values, as well as how key uncertainties can affect the decision. We use a case study to illustrate how SDM can be used as a decision-aiding tool for management decision making at large scales. We evaluated alternative white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) buck-harvest regulations in New York designed to reduce harvest of yearling bucks, taking into consideration the values of the state wildlife agency responsible for managing deer, as well as deer hunters. We incorporated tradeoffs about social, ecological, and economic management concerns throughout the state. Based on the outcomes of predictive models, expert elicitation, and hunter surveys, the SDM process identified management alternatives that optimized competing objectives. The SDM process provided biologists and managers insight about aspects of the buck-harvest decision that helped them adopt a management strategy most compatible with diverse hunter values and management concerns.
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32 CFR 651.13 - Classified actions.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-07-01
... 32 National Defense 4 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 true Classified actions. 651.13 Section 651.13... ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS OF ARMY ACTIONS (AR 200-2) National Environmental Policy Act and the Decision Process § 651.13 Classified actions. (a) For proposed actions and NEPA analyses involving classified information...
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Chronic Motivational State Interacts with Task Reward Structure in Dynamic Decision-Making
Cooper, Jessica A.; Worthy, Darrell A.; Maddox, W. Todd
2015-01-01
Research distinguishes between a habitual, model-free system motivated toward immediately rewarding actions, and a goal-directed, model-based system motivated toward actions that improve future state. We examined the balance of processing in these two systems during state-based decision-making. We tested a regulatory fit hypothesis (Maddox & Markman, 2010) that predicts that global trait motivation affects the balance of habitual- vs. goal-directed processing but only through its interaction with the task framing as gain-maximization or loss-minimization. We found support for the hypothesis that a match between an individual’s chronic motivational state and the task framing enhances goal-directed processing, and thus state-based decision-making. Specifically, chronic promotion-focused individuals under gain-maximization and chronic prevention-focused individuals under loss-minimization both showed enhanced state-based decision-making. Computational modeling indicates that individuals in a match between global chronic motivational state and local task reward structure engaged more goal-directed processing, whereas those in a mismatch engaged more habitual processing. PMID:26520256
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DECISION ANALYSIS OF INCINERATION COSTS IN SUPERFUND SITE REMEDIATION
This study examines the decision-making process of the remedial design (RD) phase of on-site incineration projects conducted at Superfund sites. Decisions made during RD affect the cost and schedule of remedial action (RA). Decision analysis techniques are used to determine the...
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An Interactive Model of Career Decision Making.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Amundson, Norman E.
1995-01-01
The decision-making model described highlights the interaction between contextual factors, decision triggers, establishing a frame of the problem, reframing, and action planning. The interactive perspective is based on process and change. Career counseling with an interactive decision-making approach requires an acknowledgment of external…
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A Structured approach to incidental take decision making
McGowan, Conor P.
2013-01-01
Decision making related to incidental take of endangered species under U.S. law lends itself well to a structured decision making approach. Incidental take is the permitted killing, harming, or harassing of a protected species under the law as long as that harm is incidental to an otherwise lawful activity and does not “reduce appreciably the probability of survival and recovery in the wild.” There has been inconsistency in the process used for determining incidental take allowances across species and across time for the same species, and structured decision making has been proposed to improve decision making. I use an example decision analysis to demonstrate the process and its applicability to incidental take decisions, even under significant demographic uncertainty and multiple, competing objectives. I define the example problem, present an objectives statement and a value function, use a simulation model to assess the consequences of a set of management actions, and evaluate the tradeoffs among the different actions. The approach results in transparent and repeatable decisions.
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Trial-Type Dependent Frames of Reference for Value Comparison
Hunt, Laurence T.; Woolrich, Mark W.; Rushworth, Matthew F. S.; Behrens, Timothy E. J.
2013-01-01
A central question in cognitive neuroscience regards the means by which options are compared and decisions are resolved during value-guided choice. It is clear that several component processes are needed; these include identifying options, a value-based comparison, and implementation of actions to execute the decision. What is less clear is the temporal precedence and functional organisation of these component processes in the brain. Competing models of decision making have proposed that value comparison may occur in the space of alternative actions, or in the space of abstract goods. We hypothesized that the signals observed might in fact depend upon the framing of the decision. We recorded magnetoencephalographic data from humans performing value-guided choices in which two closely related trial types were interleaved. In the first trial type, each option was revealed separately, potentially causing subjects to estimate each action's value as it was revealed and perform comparison in action-space. In the second trial type, both options were presented simultaneously, potentially leading to comparison in abstract goods-space prior to commitment to a specific action. Distinct activity patterns (in distinct brain regions) on the two trial types demonstrated that the observed frame of reference used for decision making indeed differed, despite the information presented being formally identical, between the two trial types. This provides a potential reconciliation of conflicting accounts of value-guided choice. PMID:24068906
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Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-10-01
... the floodplain management and wetlands protection decision-making process, as set out below in § 9.6...) Decision-making involving certain categories of actions. The provisions set forth in this regulation are... apply steps 1, 2, 4, 5 and 8 of the decision-making process (§§ 9.7, 9.8, 9.10 and 9.11, see § 9.6...
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The conscious mind and its emergent properties; an analysis based on decision theory.
Morris, James A
2011-08-01
The process of conscious and unconscious decision making is analyzed using decision theory. An essential part of an optimum decision strategy is the assessment of values and costs associated with correct and incorrect decisions. In the case of unconscious decisions this involves an automatic process akin to computation using numerical values. But for conscious decisions the conscious mind must experience the outcome of the decision as pleasure or pain. It is suggested that the rules of behavior are programmed in our genes but modified by experience of the society in which we are reared. Our unconscious then uses the rules to reward or punish our conscious mind for the decisions it makes. This is relevant to concepts of altruism and religion in society. It is consistent with the observation that we prefer beauty to utility. The decision theory equations also explain the paradox that a single index of happiness can be applied in society. The symptoms of mental illness can be due to appropriate or inappropriate action by the unconscious. The former indicates a psychological conflict between conscious and unconscious decision making. Inappropriate action indicates that a pathological process has switched on genetic networks that should be switched off. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Helping decision makers frame, analyze, and implement decisions
Runge, Michael C.; McDonald-Madden, Eve
2018-01-01
All decisions have the same recognizable elements. Context, objectives, alternatives, consequences, and deliberation. Decision makers and analysts familiar with these elements can quickly see the underlying structure of a decision.There are only a small number of classes of decisions. These classes differ in the cognitive and scientific challenge they present to the decision maker; the ability to recognize the class of decision leads a decision maker to tools to aid in the analysis.Sometimes we need more information, sometimes we don’t. The role of science in a decision-making process is to provide the predictions that link the alternative actions to the desired outcomes. Investing in more science is only valuable if it helps to choose a better action.Implementation. The successful integration of decision analysis into environmental decisions requires careful attention to the decision, the people, and the institutions involved.
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32 CFR 651.13 - Classified actions.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR
2011-07-01
... ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS OF ARMY ACTIONS (AR 200-2) National Environmental Policy Act and the Decision Process § 651.13 Classified actions. (a) For proposed actions and NEPA analyses involving classified information, AR 380-5 (Department of the Army Information Security Program) will be followed. (b) Classification...
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32 CFR 651.13 - Classified actions.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR
2012-07-01
... ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS OF ARMY ACTIONS (AR 200-2) National Environmental Policy Act and the Decision Process § 651.13 Classified actions. (a) For proposed actions and NEPA analyses involving classified information, AR 380-5 (Department of the Army Information Security Program) will be followed. (b) Classification...
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32 CFR 651.13 - Classified actions.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR
2014-07-01
... ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS OF ARMY ACTIONS (AR 200-2) National Environmental Policy Act and the Decision Process § 651.13 Classified actions. (a) For proposed actions and NEPA analyses involving classified information, AR 380-5 (Department of the Army Information Security Program) will be followed. (b) Classification...
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32 CFR 651.13 - Classified actions.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR
2013-07-01
... ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS OF ARMY ACTIONS (AR 200-2) National Environmental Policy Act and the Decision Process § 651.13 Classified actions. (a) For proposed actions and NEPA analyses involving classified information, AR 380-5 (Department of the Army Information Security Program) will be followed. (b) Classification...
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Ridderinkhof, K. Richard; van Wouwe, Nelleke C.; Band, Guido P. H.; Wylie, Scott A.; Van der Stigchel, Stefan; van Hees, Pieter; Buitenweg, Jessika; van de Vijver, Irene; van den Wildenberg, Wery P. M.
2012-01-01
Reward-based decision-learning refers to the process of learning to select those actions that lead to rewards while avoiding actions that lead to punishments. This process, known to rely on dopaminergic activity in striatal brain regions, is compromised in Parkinson’s disease (PD). We hypothesized that such decision-learning deficits are alleviated by induced positive affect, which is thought to incur transient boosts in midbrain and striatal dopaminergic activity. Computational measures of probabilistic reward-based decision-learning were determined for 51 patients diagnosed with PD. Previous work has shown these measures to rely on the nucleus caudatus (outcome evaluation during the early phases of learning) and the putamen (reward prediction during later phases of learning). We observed that induced positive affect facilitated learning, through its effects on reward prediction rather than outcome evaluation. Viewing a few minutes of comedy clips served to remedy dopamine-related problems associated with frontostriatal circuitry and, consequently, learning to predict which actions will yield reward. PMID:22707944
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Scalable approximate policies for Markov decision process models of hospital elective admissions.
Zhu, George; Lizotte, Dan; Hoey, Jesse
2014-05-01
To demonstrate the feasibility of using stochastic simulation methods for the solution of a large-scale Markov decision process model of on-line patient admissions scheduling. The problem of admissions scheduling is modeled as a Markov decision process in which the states represent numbers of patients using each of a number of resources. We investigate current state-of-the-art real time planning methods to compute solutions to this Markov decision process. Due to the complexity of the model, traditional model-based planners are limited in scalability since they require an explicit enumeration of the model dynamics. To overcome this challenge, we apply sample-based planners along with efficient simulation techniques that given an initial start state, generate an action on-demand while avoiding portions of the model that are irrelevant to the start state. We also propose a novel variant of a popular sample-based planner that is particularly well suited to the elective admissions problem. Results show that the stochastic simulation methods allow for the problem size to be scaled by a factor of almost 10 in the action space, and exponentially in the state space. We have demonstrated our approach on a problem with 81 actions, four specialities and four treatment patterns, and shown that we can generate solutions that are near-optimal in about 100s. Sample-based planners are a viable alternative to state-based planners for large Markov decision process models of elective admissions scheduling. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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Interfacing to the brain’s motor decisions
2017-01-01
It has been long known that neural activity, recorded with electrophysiological methods, contains rich information about a subject’s motor intentions, sensory experiences, allocation of attention, action planning, and even abstract thoughts. All these functions have been the subject of neurophysiological investigations, with the goal of understanding how neuronal activity represents behavioral parameters, sensory inputs, and cognitive functions. The field of brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) strives for a somewhat different goal: it endeavors to extract information from neural modulations to create a communication link between the brain and external devices. Although many remarkable successes have been already achieved in the BMI field, questions remain regarding the possibility of decoding high-order neural representations, such as decision making. Could BMIs be employed to decode the neural representations of decisions underlying goal-directed actions? In this review we lay out a framework that describes the computations underlying goal-directed actions as a multistep process performed by multiple cortical and subcortical areas. We then discuss how BMIs could connect to different decision-making steps and decode the neural processing ongoing before movements are initiated. Such decision-making BMIs could operate as a system with prediction that offers many advantages, such as shorter reaction time, better error processing, and improved unsupervised learning. To present the current state of the art, we review several recent BMIs incorporating decision-making components. PMID:28003406
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76 FR 77300 - Alaska Federal Lands Long Range Transportation Plan
Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014
2011-12-12
... of and actions for coordinated planning and decision making among federal land management agencies... consolidate efforts through long-term coordination in transportation planning and decision-making processes... implementing projects; facilitating objective decision making for the transportation system; and developing...
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Improved resource use decisions and actions through remote sensing
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Hill-Rowley, R.; Boylan, M.; Enslin, W.; Vlasin, R. D.
1975-01-01
Operational uses of remote sensing for improving management decisions and actions concerning resource uses are considered in terms of first generation, or direct-action; and second generation or indirect, delayed-action applications. From among applications completed during 1974-75, seven case studies are offered in illustration of the many contrasts which can be drawn between first and second generation application studies. These include: (1) multi-agency river basin planning; (2) corridor assessment and route location for highway location together with improvement of county-level planning decisions; (3) improving timber management practices; (4) enforcement of new state statutes; (5) county-wide open space preservation; (6) land value reappraisal relative to property tax equalization; and (7) optimizing agri-business processing plant locations.
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Logics of pre-merger decision-making processes: the case of Karolinska University Hospital.
Choi, Soki; Brommels, Mats
2009-01-01
The purpose of this paper is to examine how and why a decision to merge two university hospitals in a public context might occur by using an in-depth case study of the pre-merger process of Karolinska University Hospital. Based on extensive document analysis and 35 key informant interviews the paper reconstructed the pre-merger process, searched for empirical patterns, and interpreted those by applying neo-institutional theory. Spanning nearly a decade, the pre-merger process goes from idea generation through transition to decision, and took place on two arenas, political, and scientific. Both research excellence and economic efficiency are stated merger motives. By applying a neo-institutional perspective, the paper finds that the two initial phases are driven by decision rationality, which is typical for political organizations and that the final phase demonstrated action rationality, which is typical for private firms. Critical factors behind this radical change of decision logic are means convergence, uniting key stakeholder groups, and an economic and political crisis, triggering critical incidents, which ultimately legitimized the formal decision. It is evident from the paper that merger decisions in the public sector might not necessarily result from stated and/or economic drivers only. This paper suggests that a change of decision logic from decision to action rationality might promote effective decision making on large and complex issues in a public context. This is the first systematic in-depth study of a university hospital merger employing a decision-making perspective.
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Time Management and the Military Decision Making Process
1992-12-18
This monograph analyzes the military decision making process in terms of time management in order to determine if a timeline will expedite the...process. The monograph begins by establishing the importance of time and time management in planning. This section provides a general discussion of time, an...Perhaps using some of the techniques that other armies use will facilitate time management .... Time management , Decision making, Timeline, Mission analysis, Wargaming, Courses of action, OPORD, Brigade OPS.
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Interference effects of categorization on decision making.
Wang, Zheng; Busemeyer, Jerome R
2016-05-01
Many decision making tasks in life involve a categorization process, but the effects of categorization on subsequent decision making has rarely been studied. This issue was explored in three experiments (N=721), in which participants were shown a face stimulus on each trial and performed variations of categorization-decision tasks. On C-D trials, they categorized the stimulus and then made an action decision; on X-D trials, they were told the category and then made an action decision; on D-alone trials, they only made an action decision. An interference effect emerged in some of the conditions, such that the probability of an action on the D-alone trials (i.e., when there was no explicit categorization before the decision) differed from the total probability of the same action on the C-D or X-D trials (i.e., when there was explicit categorization before the decision). Interference effects are important because they indicate a violation of the classical law of total probability, which is assumed by many cognitive models. Across all three experiments, a complex pattern of interference effects systematically occurred for different types of stimuli and for different types of categorization-decision tasks. These interference effects present a challenge for traditional cognitive models, such as Markov and signal detection models, but a quantum cognition model, called the belief-action entanglement (BAE) model, predicted that these results could occur. The BAE model employs the quantum principles of superposition and entanglement to explain the psychological mechanisms underlying the puzzling interference effects. The model can be applied to many important and practical categorization-decision situations in life. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014
2010-06-18
...-making process for decisions contained in the updated ROD (2010). The conversion of an HBCT to an SBCT at... DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE Department of the Army Updated Record of Decision (ROD) for Revised Army Growth and Force; Structure Realignment Decisions AGENCY: Department of the Army, DoD. ACTION: Notice of...
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ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Wood, J. Luke; Hilton, Adriel A.
2012-01-01
This article encourages community college leaders to employ ethical paradigms when constructing and considering alternative courses of action in decision-making processes. The authors discuss four previously articulated paradigms (e.g., ethic of justice, ethic of critique, ethic of care, and ethic of the profession) and propose an additional…
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32 CFR 989.3 - Responsibilities.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-07-01
... ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ANALYSIS PROCESS (EIAP) § 989.3 Responsibilities. (a) Office of the Secretary of the Air... documentation in making decisions about proposed actions and programs within their commands or areas of... the process, and potential conflicts are precluded. (2) Notifying the EPF of a pending action and...
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The Decision Tree for Teaching Management of Uncertainty
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Knaggs, Sara J.; And Others
1974-01-01
A 'decision tree' consists of an outline of the patient's symptoms and a logic for decision and action. It is felt that this approach to the decisionmaking process better facilitates each learner's application of his own level of knowledge and skills. (Author)
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McDermott, T K J; Surminski, S
2018-06-13
Urban areas already suffer substantial losses in both economic and human terms from climate-related disasters. These losses are anticipated to grow substantially, in part as a result of the impacts of climate change. In this paper, we investigate the process of translating climate risk data into action for the city level. We apply a commonly used decision-framework as our backdrop and explore where in this process climate risk assessment and normative political judgements intersect. We use the case of flood risk management in Cork city in Ireland to investigate what is needed for translating risk assessment into action at the local city level. Evidence presented is based on focus group discussions at two stakeholder workshops, and a series of individual meetings and phone-discussions with stakeholders involved in local decision-making related to flood risk management and adaptation to climate change, in Ireland. Respondents were chosen on the basis of their expertise or involvement in the decision-making processes locally and nationally. Representatives of groups affected by flood risk and flood risk management and climate adaptation efforts were also included. The Cork example highlights that, despite ever more accurate data and an increasing range of theoretical approaches available to local decision-makers, it is the normative interpretation of this information that determines what action is taken. The use of risk assessments for decision-making is a process that requires normative decisions, such as setting 'acceptable risk levels' and identifying 'adequate' protection levels, which will not succeed without broader buy-in and stakeholder participation. Identifying and embracing those normative views up-front could strengthen the urban adaptation process-this may, in fact, turn out to be the biggest advantage of climate risk assessment: it offers an opportunity to create a shared understanding of the problem and enables an informed evaluation and discussion of remedial action.This article is part of the theme issue 'Advances in risk assessment for climate change adaptation policy'. © 2018 The Author(s).
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
McDermott, T. K. J.; Surminski, S.
2018-06-01
Urban areas already suffer substantial losses in both economic and human terms from climate-related disasters. These losses are anticipated to grow substantially, in part as a result of the impacts of climate change. In this paper, we investigate the process of translating climate risk data into action for the city level. We apply a commonly used decision-framework as our backdrop and explore where in this process climate risk assessment and normative political judgements intersect. We use the case of flood risk management in Cork city in Ireland to investigate what is needed for translating risk assessment into action at the local city level. Evidence presented is based on focus group discussions at two stakeholder workshops, and a series of individual meetings and phone-discussions with stakeholders involved in local decision-making related to flood risk management and adaptation to climate change, in Ireland. Respondents were chosen on the basis of their expertise or involvement in the decision-making processes locally and nationally. Representatives of groups affected by flood risk and flood risk management and climate adaptation efforts were also included. The Cork example highlights that, despite ever more accurate data and an increasing range of theoretical approaches available to local decision-makers, it is the normative interpretation of this information that determines what action is taken. The use of risk assessments for decision-making is a process that requires normative decisions, such as setting `acceptable risk levels' and identifying `adequate' protection levels, which will not succeed without broader buy-in and stakeholder participation. Identifying and embracing those normative views up-front could strengthen the urban adaptation process-this may, in fact, turn out to be the biggest advantage of climate risk assessment: it offers an opportunity to create a shared understanding of the problem and enables an informed evaluation and discussion of remedial action. This article is part of the theme issue `Advances in risk assessment for climate change adaptation policy'.
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Chronic motivational state interacts with task reward structure in dynamic decision-making.
Cooper, Jessica A; Worthy, Darrell A; Maddox, W Todd
2015-12-01
Research distinguishes between a habitual, model-free system motivated toward immediately rewarding actions, and a goal-directed, model-based system motivated toward actions that improve future state. We examined the balance of processing in these two systems during state-based decision-making. We tested a regulatory fit hypothesis (Maddox & Markman, 2010) that predicts that global trait motivation affects the balance of habitual- vs. goal-directed processing but only through its interaction with the task framing as gain-maximization or loss-minimization. We found support for the hypothesis that a match between an individual's chronic motivational state and the task framing enhances goal-directed processing, and thus state-based decision-making. Specifically, chronic promotion-focused individuals under gain-maximization and chronic prevention-focused individuals under loss-minimization both showed enhanced state-based decision-making. Computational modeling indicates that individuals in a match between global chronic motivational state and local task reward structure engaged more goal-directed processing, whereas those in a mismatch engaged more habitual processing. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-07-01
... decision-making reflect Army environmental values, such as compliance with environmental policy, laws, and... early as possible to avoid potential delays. (b) All Army decision-making that may impact the human... ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS OF ARMY ACTIONS (AR 200-2) National Environmental Policy Act and the Decision Process...
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Cost-benefit decision circuitry: proposed modulatory role for acetylcholine.
Fobbs, Wambura C; Mizumori, Sheri J Y
2014-01-01
In order to select which action should be taken, an animal must weigh the costs and benefits of possible outcomes associate with each action. Such decisions, called cost-benefit decisions, likely involve several cognitive processes (including memory) and a vast neural circuitry. Rodent models have allowed research to begin to probe the neural basis of three forms of cost-benefit decision making: effort-, delay-, and risk-based decision making. In this review, we detail the current understanding of the functional circuits that subserve each form of decision making. We highlight the extensive literature by detailing the ability of dopamine to influence decisions by modulating structures within these circuits. Since acetylcholine projects to all of the same important structures, we propose several ways in which the cholinergic system may play a local modulatory role that will allow it to shape these behaviors. A greater understanding of the contribution of the cholinergic system to cost-benefit decisions will permit us to better link the decision and memory processes, and this will help us to better understand and/or treat individuals with deficits in a number of higher cognitive functions including decision making, learning, memory, and language. © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Sudore, Rebecca L.; Stewart, Anita L.; Knight, Sara J.; McMahan, Ryan D.; Feuz, Mariko; Miao, Yinghui; Barnes, Deborah E.
2013-01-01
Introduction Advance directives have traditionally been considered the gold standard for advance care planning. However, recent evidence suggests that advance care planning involves a series of multiple discrete behaviors for which people are in varying stages of behavior change. The goal of our study was to develop and validate a survey to measure the full advance care planning process. Methods The Advance Care Planning Engagement Survey assesses “Process Measures” of factors known from Behavior Change Theory to affect behavior (knowledge, contemplation, self-efficacy, and readiness, using 5-point Likert scales) and “Action Measures” (yes/no) of multiple behaviors related to surrogate decision makers, values and quality of life, flexibility for surrogate decision making, and informed decision making. We administered surveys at baseline and 1 week later to 50 diverse, older adults from San Francisco hospitals. Internal consistency reliability of Process Measures was assessed using Cronbach's alpha (only continuous variables) and test-retest reliability of Process and Action Measures was examined using intraclass correlations. For discriminant validity, we compared Process and Action Measure scores between this cohort and 20 healthy college students (mean age 23.2 years, SD 2.7). Results Mean age was 69.3 (SD 10.5) and 42% were non-White. The survey took a mean of 21.4 minutes (±6.2) to administer. The survey had good internal consistency (Process Measures Cronbach's alpha, 0.94) and test-retest reliability (Process Measures intraclass correlation, 0.70; Action Measures, 0.87). Both Process and Action Measure scores were higher in the older than younger group, p<.001. Conclusion A new Advance Care Planning Engagement Survey that measures behavior change (knowledge, contemplation, self-efficacy, and readiness) and multiple advance care planning actions demonstrates good reliability and validity. Further research is needed to assess whether survey scores improve in response to advance care planning interventions and whether scores are associated with receipt of care consistent with one's wishes. PMID:24039772
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Clarinval, Caroline; Biller-Andorno, Nikola
2014-06-23
This paper aims to raise awareness regarding ethical issues in the context of humanitarian action, and to offer a framework for systematically and effectively addressing such issues. Several cases highlight ethical issues that humanitarian aid workers are confronted with at different levels over the course of their deployments. The first case discusses a situation at a macro-level concerning decisions being made at the headquarters of a humanitarian organization. The second case looks at meso-level issues that need to be solved at a country or regional level. The third case proposes an ethical dilemma at the micro-level of the individual patient-provider relationship. These real-life cases have been selected to illustrate the ethical dimension of conflicts within the context of humanitarian action that might remain unrecognized in everyday practice. In addition, we propose an ethical framework to assist humanitarian aid workers in their decision-making process. The framework draws on the principles and values that guide humanitarian action and public health ethics more generally. Beyond identifying substantive core values, the framework also includes a ten-step process modelled on tools used in the clinical setting that promotes a transparent and clear decision-making process and improves the monitoring and evaluation of aid interventions. Finally, we recommend organizational measures to implement the framework effectively. This paper uses a combination of public health/clinical ethics concepts and practices and applies them to the decision-making challenges encountered in relief operations in the humanitarian aid context.
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Emotion and Deliberative Reasoning in Moral Judgment
Cummins, Denise Dellarosa; Cummins, Robert C.
2012-01-01
According to an influential dual-process model, a moral judgment is the outcome of a rapid, affect-laden process and a slower, deliberative process. If these outputs conflict, decision time is increased in order to resolve the conflict. Violations of deontological principles proscribing the use of personal force to inflict intentional harm are presumed to elicit negative affect which biases judgments early in the decision-making process. This model was tested in three experiments. Moral dilemmas were classified using (a) decision time and consensus as measures of system conflict and (b) the aforementioned deontological criteria. In Experiment 1, decision time was either unlimited or reduced. The dilemmas asked whether it was appropriate to take a morally questionable action to produce a “greater good” outcome. Limiting decision time reduced the proportion of utilitarian (“yes”) decisions, but contrary to the model’s predictions, (a) vignettes that involved more deontological violations logged faster decision times, and (b) violation of deontological principles was not predictive of decisional conflict profiles. Experiment 2 ruled out the possibility that time pressure simply makes people more like to say “no.” Participants made a first decision under time constraints and a second decision under no time constraints. One group was asked whether it was appropriate to take the morally questionable action while a second group was asked whether it was appropriate to refuse to take the action. The results replicated that of Experiment 1 regardless of whether “yes” or “no” constituted a utilitarian decision. In Experiment 3, participants rated the pleasantness of positive visual stimuli prior to making a decision. Contrary to the model’s predictions, the number of deontological decisions increased in the positive affect rating group compared to a group that engaged in a cognitive task or a control group that engaged in neither task. These results are consistent with the view that early moral judgments are influenced by affect. But they are inconsistent with the view that (a) violation of deontological principles are predictive of differences in early, affect-based judgment or that (b) engaging in tasks that are inconsistent with the negative emotional responses elicited by such violations diminishes their impact. PMID:22973255
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Decision making processes in people with symptoms of acute myocardial infarction: qualitative study
Pattenden, Jill; Watt, Ian; Lewin, Robert J P; Stanford, Neil
2002-01-01
Objective To identify the themes that influence decision making processes used by patients with symptoms of acute myocardial infarction. Design Qualitative study using semistructured interviews. Setting Two district hospitals in North Yorkshire. Participants 22 patients admitted to hospital with confirmed second, third, or fourth acute myocardial infarction. Main outcome measure Patients' perceptions of their experience between the onset of symptoms and the decision to seek medical help. Results Six main themes that influence the decision making process were identified: appraisal of symptoms, perceived risk, previous experience, psychological and emotional factors, use of the NHS, and context of the event. Conclusions Knowledge of symptoms may not be enough to promote prompt action in the event of an acute myocardial infarction. Cognitive and emotional processes, individual beliefs and values, and the influence of the context of the event should also be considered in individual interventions designed to reduce delay in the event of symptoms of acute myocardial infarction. What is already known on this topicIndividual sociodemographic and clinical characteristics affect the time to seeking medical care in patients with symptoms of acute myocardial infarctionAppraisal of symptoms is difficult; people with classic and severe symptoms are more likely to take prompt actionWhat this study addsThe decision to seek medical help in patients who have had one or more previous myocardial infarctions is a complex processSimply providing patients with information on symptoms of acute myocardial infarction, and what to do in the event of these symptoms, may not be sufficient to promote prompt action PMID:11976241
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Lamas, Leonardo; Drezner, Rene; Otranto, Guilherme; Barrera, Junior
2018-01-01
The aim of this study was to define a method for evaluating a player's decisions during a game based on the success probability of his actions and for analyzing the player strategy inferred from game actions. There were developed formal definitions of i) the stochastic process of player decisions in game situations and ii) the inference process of player strategy based on his game decisions. The method was applied to the context of soccer goalkeepers. A model of goalkeeper positioning, with geometric parameters and solutions to optimize his position based on the ball position and trajectory, was developed. The model was tested with a sample of 65 professional goalkeepers (28.8 ± 4.1 years old) playing for their national teams in 2010 and 2014 World Cups. The goalkeeper's decisions were compared to decisions from a large dataset of other goalkeepers, defining the probability of success in each game circumstance. There were assessed i) performance in a defined set of classes of game plays; ii) entropy of goalkeepers' decisions; and iii) the effect of goalkeepers' positioning updates on the outcome (save or goal). Goalkeepers' decisions were similar to the ones with the lowest probability of goal on the dataset. Goalkeepers' entropy varied between 24% and 71% of the maximum possible entropy. Positioning dynamics in the instants that preceded the shot indicated that, in goals and saves, goalkeepers optimized their position before the shot in 21.87% and 83.33% of the situations, respectively. These results validate a method to discriminate successful performance. In conclusion, this method enables a more precise assessment of a player's decision-making ability by consulting a representative dataset of equivalent actions to define the probability of his success. Therefore, it supports the evaluation of the player's decision separately from his technical skill execution, which overcomes the scientific challenge of discriminating the evaluation of a player's decision performance from the action result.
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Drezner, Rene; Otranto, Guilherme; Barrera, Junior
2018-01-01
The aim of this study was to define a method for evaluating a player’s decisions during a game based on the success probability of his actions and for analyzing the player strategy inferred from game actions. There were developed formal definitions of i) the stochastic process of player decisions in game situations and ii) the inference process of player strategy based on his game decisions. The method was applied to the context of soccer goalkeepers. A model of goalkeeper positioning, with geometric parameters and solutions to optimize his position based on the ball position and trajectory, was developed. The model was tested with a sample of 65 professional goalkeepers (28.8 ± 4.1 years old) playing for their national teams in 2010 and 2014 World Cups. The goalkeeper’s decisions were compared to decisions from a large dataset of other goalkeepers, defining the probability of success in each game circumstance. There were assessed i) performance in a defined set of classes of game plays; ii) entropy of goalkeepers’ decisions; and iii) the effect of goalkeepers’ positioning updates on the outcome (save or goal). Goalkeepers’ decisions were similar to the ones with the lowest probability of goal on the dataset. Goalkeepers’ entropy varied between 24% and 71% of the maximum possible entropy. Positioning dynamics in the instants that preceded the shot indicated that, in goals and saves, goalkeepers optimized their position before the shot in 21.87% and 83.33% of the situations, respectively. These results validate a method to discriminate successful performance. In conclusion, this method enables a more precise assessment of a player’s decision-making ability by consulting a representative dataset of equivalent actions to define the probability of his success. Therefore, it supports the evaluation of the player’s decision separately from his technical skill execution, which overcomes the scientific challenge of discriminating the evaluation of a player’s decision performance from the action result. PMID:29408923
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32 CFR 651.35 - Decision process.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-07-01
... initiation of the proposed action, unless it is a classified action (see § 651.13 for security exclusions... stakeholders have easy access to the material. Ensuring this availability may necessitate the distribution of...
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34 CFR 300.516 - Civil action.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR
2014-07-01
... 34 Education 2 2014-07-01 2013-07-01 true Civil action. 300.516 Section 300.516 Education... DISABILITIES Procedural Safeguards Due Process Procedures for Parents and Children § 300.516 Civil action. (a... aggrieved by the findings and decision under § 300.514(b), has the right to bring a civil action with...
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34 CFR 300.516 - Civil action.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR
2012-07-01
... 34 Education 2 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Civil action. 300.516 Section 300.516 Education... DISABILITIES Procedural Safeguards Due Process Procedures for Parents and Children § 300.516 Civil action. (a... aggrieved by the findings and decision under § 300.514(b), has the right to bring a civil action with...
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34 CFR 300.516 - Civil action.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR
2013-07-01
... 34 Education 2 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Civil action. 300.516 Section 300.516 Education... DISABILITIES Procedural Safeguards Due Process Procedures for Parents and Children § 300.516 Civil action. (a... aggrieved by the findings and decision under § 300.514(b), has the right to bring a civil action with...
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34 CFR 303.438 - Civil action.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR
2014-07-01
... 34 Education 2 2014-07-01 2013-07-01 true Civil action. 303.438 Section 303.438 Education... Section 639 of the Act § 303.438 Civil action. Any party aggrieved by the findings and decision issued pursuant to a due process complaint has the right to bring a civil action in State or Federal court under...
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34 CFR 303.438 - Civil action.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR
2013-07-01
... 34 Education 2 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Civil action. 303.438 Section 303.438 Education... Section 639 of the Act § 303.438 Civil action. Any party aggrieved by the findings and decision issued pursuant to a due process complaint has the right to bring a civil action in State or Federal court under...
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34 CFR 303.438 - Civil action.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR
2012-07-01
... 34 Education 2 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Civil action. 303.438 Section 303.438 Education... Section 639 of the Act § 303.438 Civil action. Any party aggrieved by the findings and decision issued pursuant to a due process complaint has the right to bring a civil action in State or Federal court under...
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34 CFR 300.516 - Civil action.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-07-01
... 34 Education 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Civil action. 300.516 Section 300.516 Education... DISABILITIES Procedural Safeguards Due Process Procedures for Parents and Children § 300.516 Civil action. (a... aggrieved by the findings and decision under § 300.514(b), has the right to bring a civil action with...
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34 CFR 300.516 - Civil action.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR
2011-07-01
... 34 Education 2 2011-07-01 2010-07-01 true Civil action. 300.516 Section 300.516 Education... DISABILITIES Procedural Safeguards Due Process Procedures for Parents and Children § 300.516 Civil action. (a... aggrieved by the findings and decision under § 300.514(b), has the right to bring a civil action with...
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44 CFR 10.12 - Pre-implementation actions.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR
2012-10-01
... decision-making process. Because of the diversity of FEMA, it is not feasible to describe in this part the... shall provide further guidance, commensurate with their programs and organization, for integration of... the decision. Rather it is a concise document that sets forth the decision and describes the...
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32 CFR Appendix F to Part 651 - Glossary
Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-07-01
... environmental documentation and its thorough consideration in the decision-making process. Major Federal Action... necessary to coordinate and staff analyses or present the results of the analyses to the public or decision.... Headquarters, Department of the Army proponent As the principal planner, implementer, and decision authority...
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Bruni, Stefania; Giorgetti, Valentina; Bonini, Luca; Fogassi, Leonardo
2015-08-26
The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is deemed to underlie the complexity, flexibility, and goal-directedness of primates' behavior. Most neurophysiological studies performed so far investigated PFC functions with arm-reaching or oculomotor tasks, thus leaving unclear whether, and to which extent, PFC neurons also play a role in goal-directed manipulative actions, such as those commonly used by primates during most of their daily activities. Here we trained two macaques to perform or withhold grasp-to-eat and grasp-to-place actions, depending on the combination of two subsequently presented cues: an auditory go/no-go cue (high/low tone) and a visually presented target (food/object). By varying the order of presentation of the two cues, we could segment and independently evaluate the processing and integration of contextual information allowing the monkey to make a decision on whether or not to act, and what action to perform. We recorded 403 task-related neurons from the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC): unimodal sensory-driven (37%), motor-related (21%), unimodal sensory-and-motor (23%), and multisensory (19%) neurons. Target and go/no-go selectivity characterized most of the recorded neurons, particularly those endowed with motor-related discharge. Interestingly, multisensory neurons appeared to encode a behavioral decision independently from the sensory modality of the stimulus allowing the monkey to make it: some of them reflected the decision to act or refraining from acting (56%), whereas others (44%) encoded the decision to perform (or withhold) a specific action (e.g., grasp-to-eat). Our findings indicate that VLPFC neurons play a role in the processing of contextual information underlying motor decision during goal-directed manipulative actions. We demonstrated that macaque ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) neurons show remarkable selectivity for different aspects of the contextual information allowing the monkey to select and execute goal-directed manipulative actions. Interestingly, a set of these neurons provide multimodal representations of the intended goal of a forthcoming action, encoding a behavioral decision (e.g., grasp-to-eat) independently from the sensory information allowing the monkey to make it. Our findings expand the available knowledge on prefrontal functions by showing that VLPFC neurons play a role in the selection and execution of goal-directed manipulative actions resembling those of common primates' foraging behaviors. On these bases, we propose that VLPFC may host an abstract "vocabulary" of the intended goals pursued by primates in their natural environment. Copyright © 2015 the authors 0270-6474/15/3511877-14$15.00/0.
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Analysis of the decision-making process of nurse managers: a collective reflection.
Eduardo, Elizabete Araujo; Peres, Aida Maris; de Almeida, Maria de Lourdes; Roglio, Karina de Dea; Bernardino, Elizabeth
2015-01-01
to analyze the decision-making model adopted by nurses from the perspective of some decision-making process theories. qualitative approach, based on action research. Semi-structured questionnaires and seminars were conducted from April to June 2012 in order to understand the nature of decisions and the decision-making process of nine nurses in position of managers at a public hospital in Southern Brazil. Data were subjected to content analysis. data were classified in two categories: the current situation of decision-making, which showed a lack of systematization; the construction and collective decision-making, which emphasizes the need to develop a decision-making model. the decision-making model used by nurses is limited because it does not consider two important factors: the limits of human rationality, and the external and internal organizational environments that influence and determine right decisions.
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Konovalov, Arkady; Krajbich, Ian
2016-01-01
Organisms appear to learn and make decisions using different strategies known as model-free and model-based learning; the former is mere reinforcement of previously rewarded actions and the latter is a forward-looking strategy that involves evaluation of action-state transition probabilities. Prior work has used neural data to argue that both model-based and model-free learners implement a value comparison process at trial onset, but model-based learners assign more weight to forward-looking computations. Here using eye-tracking, we report evidence for a different interpretation of prior results: model-based subjects make their choices prior to trial onset. In contrast, model-free subjects tend to ignore model-based aspects of the task and instead seem to treat the decision problem as a simple comparison process between two differentially valued items, consistent with previous work on sequential-sampling models of decision making. These findings illustrate a problem with assuming that experimental subjects make their decisions at the same prescribed time. PMID:27511383
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Decision making as a window on cognition.
Shadlen, Michael N; Kiani, Roozbeh
2013-10-30
A decision is a commitment to a proposition or plan of action based on information and values associated with the possible outcomes. The process operates in a flexible timeframe that is free from the immediacy of evidence acquisition and the real time demands of action itself. Thus, it involves deliberation, planning, and strategizing. This Perspective focuses on perceptual decision making in nonhuman primates and the discovery of neural mechanisms that support accuracy, speed, and confidence in a decision. We suggest that these mechanisms expose principles of cognitive function in general, and we speculate about the challenges and directions before the field. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Decision Rules Used in Academic Program Closure: Where the Rubber Meets the Road.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Eckel, Peter D.
2002-01-01
Adopted a decision/action rationality framework to explore the criteria used to close academic programs at four universities. Findings suggested that decisions are based upon criteria other than those usually stated (e.g., cost, quality, and centrality), and that process leads to criteria generation. (EV)
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Decision Making: New Paradigm for Education.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Wales, Charles E.; And Others
1986-01-01
Defines education's new paradigm as schooling based on decision making, the critical thinking skills serving it, and the knowledge base supporting it. Outlines a model decision-making process using a hypothetical breakfast problem; a late riser chooses goals, generates ideas, develops an action plan, and implements and evaluates it. (4 references)…
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Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014
2012-01-27
..., ``Integrating Ecological Assessment and Decision-Making at EPA, 2011 RAF Ecological Assessment Action Plan... the EPA Risk Assessment Forum (RAF) document, ``Integrating Ecological Assessment and Decision-Making... Ecological Risk Assessment in Environmental Decision-Making'' (EPA-SAB-08-002), the EPA Risk Assessment Forum...
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Chen, Xiaomo; Stuphorn, Veit
2015-01-01
Value-based decisions could rely either on the selection of desired economic goods or on the selection of the actions that will obtain the goods. We investigated this question by recording from the supplementary eye field (SEF) of monkeys during a gambling task that allowed us to distinguish chosen good from chosen action signals. Analysis of the individual neuron activity, as well as of the population state-space dynamic, showed that SEF encodes first the chosen gamble option (the desired economic good) and only ~100 ms later the saccade that will obtain it (the chosen action). The action selection is likely driven by inhibitory interactions between different SEF neurons. Our results suggest that during value-based decisions, the selection of economic goods precedes and guides the selection of actions. The two selection steps serve different functions and can therefore not compensate for each other, even when information guiding both processes is given simultaneously. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.09418.001 PMID:26613409
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Review of ecological-based risk management approaches used at five Army Superfund sites.
Poucher, Sherri L; Tracey, Gregory A; Johnson, Mark S; Haines, Laurie B
2012-04-01
Factors used in environmental remedial decision making concerning ecological risk are not well understood or necessarily consistent. Recent Records of Decision (RODs) for Army CERCLA sites were reviewed to select case studies where remedial management occurred in response to ecological risks. Thirty-four Army RODs were evaluated representing decisions promulgated between 1996 and 2004. Five were selected based on assessments that remedial actions were clearly linked to concern for ecological receptors. The Ecological Risk Assessment (ERA) approach and the subsequent risk management process were reviewed for each site. The case studies demonstrated that the ERA findings, as well as critical management decisions regarding interpretation of identified ecological risks, were determinants of remedial action objectives. Decisions regarding the selection of remedial alternatives were based on a set of criteria prescribed by Superfund requirements and guidance. Remedial alternative evaluations require protection of human health and the environment, but protective conditions were determined using different methods at each site. Examining the remedial management process for the 5 case study sites revealed that uncertainty in the risk assessment and decisions regarding appropriate spatial scales for both risk assessment and remediation were important factors influencing remedial action decisions. The case reviews also revealed that levels of documentation were variable from site to site. In the future, more detailed documentation of decision criteria and the development of criteria that consider the resilience of the site will result in more technically defensible ecological risk management. Copyright © 2011 SETAC.
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DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
NNSA /NSO
The Corrective Action Investigation Plan contains the U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Operations Office's approach to collect the data necessary to evaluate corrective action alternatives appropriate for the closure of Corrective Action Unit (CAU) 204 under the Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order. Corrective Action Unit 204 is located on the Nevada Test Site approximately 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada. This CAU is comprised of six Corrective Action Sites (CASs) which include: 01-34-01, Underground Instrument House Bunker; 02-34-01, Instrument Bunker; 03-34-01, Underground Bunker; 05-18-02, Chemical Explosives Storage; 05-33-01, Kay Blockhouse; 05-99-02, Explosive Storage Bunker.more » Based on site history, process knowledge, and previous field efforts, contaminants of potential concern for Corrective Action Unit 204 collectively include radionuclides, beryllium, high explosives, lead, polychlorinated biphenyls, total petroleum hydrocarbons, silver, warfarin, and zinc phosphide. The primary question for the investigation is: ''Are existing data sufficient to evaluate appropriate corrective actions?'' To address this question, resolution of two decision statements is required. Decision I is to ''Define the nature of contamination'' by identifying any contamination above preliminary action levels (PALs); Decision II is to ''Determine the extent of contamination identified above PALs. If PALs are not exceeded, the investigation is completed. If PALs are exceeded, then Decision II must be resolved. In addition, data will be obtained to support waste management decisions. Field activities will include radiological land area surveys, geophysical surveys to identify any subsurface metallic and nonmetallic debris, field screening for applicable contaminants of potential concern, collection and analysis of surface and subsurface soil samples from biased locations, and step-out sampling to define the extent of contamination, as necessary. The results of this field investigation will support a defensible evaluation of corrective action alternatives in the corrective action decision document.« less
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Enquist, C.; Jackson, S. T.; Garfin, G. M.
2017-12-01
Translational ecology is an approach by which ecologists, stakeholders, and decision-makers work collaboratively to develop and deliver ecological research that, ideally, results in actionable science that leads to improved environmental decision-making. We analyzed a diverse array of real-world case studies and distilled six principles that characterize the practice of translational ecology: communication, commitment, collaboration, engagement, process, and decision-framing. In this talk, we highlight a subset of the case studies that illustrate these principles. Notably, we found that translational ecology is distinct from both basic and applied ecological research. As a practice, the approach deliberately extends research beyond theory or opportunistic applications, motivated by a search for outcomes that directly serve the needs of natural resource managers and decision-makers. Translational ecology is also distinct from knowledge co-production in that it does not require deep engagement between collaborators, although incorporating differing modes of co-production relative to the decision context, associated time frame, and available financial resources can greatly enhance the translational approach. Although there is a need for incentives to pursue in this type of work, we found that the creativity and context-specific knowledge of resource managers, practitioners, and decision-makers informs and enriches the scientific process, helping shape actionable science. Moreover, the process of addressing research questions arising from on-the-ground management issues, rather than from the top-down or expert-oriented perspectives of traditional science, can foster the long-term trust and commitment that is critical for long-term, sustained engagement between partners. Now, perhaps more than ever, the climate and environmental issues facing society are complex, often politicized, and value-laden. We argue that ecological science should play a key role in informing these problems and ecologists can engage as important partners committed to finding solutions. More broadly, scientists that embrace translational approaches are poised to make science-informed decision-making a reality in the face of a rapidly changing global environment.
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A communication model of shared decision making: accounting for cancer treatment decisions.
Siminoff, Laura A; Step, Mary M
2005-07-01
The authors present a communication model of shared decision making (CMSDM) that explicitly identifies the communication process as the vehicle for decision making in cancer treatment. In this view, decision making is necessarily a sociocommunicative process whereby people enter into a relationship, exchange information, establish preferences, and choose a course of action. The model derives from contemporary notions of behavioral decision making and ethical conceptions of the doctor-patient relationship. This article briefly reviews the theoretical approaches to decision making, notes deficiencies, and embeds a more socially based process into the dynamics of the physician-patient relationship, focusing on cancer treatment decisions. In the CMSDM, decisions depend on (a) antecedent factors that have potential to influence communication, (b) jointly constructed communication climate, and (c) treatment preferences established by the physician and the patient.
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32 CFR 806.6 - Prompt action on requests.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-07-01
... source, records were part of the Air Force's decision-making process or are privileged. (d) Expedited... FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT PROGRAM § 806.6 Prompt action on requests. (a) Examples of letters to FOIA... processing. (1) Examples of letters to FOIA requesters (e.g., letters to individuals who have had their FOIA...
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Understanding Resource Allocation in High Schools.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hartman, William T.
Despite commonly held views concerning educators' rational decision-making behavior, there are competing interpretations of school personnels' objective, actions, and decision-making processes. Alternative explanations emphasize bureaucratic routine, administrative convenience, educator self-interest, and political motivations, rather than…
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Making better decisions in groups
Frith, Chris D.
2017-01-01
We review the literature to identify common problems of decision-making in individuals and groups. We are guided by a Bayesian framework to explain the interplay between past experience and new evidence, and the problem of exploring the space of hypotheses about all the possible states that the world could be in and all the possible actions that one could take. There are strong biases, hidden from awareness, that enter into these psychological processes. While biases increase the efficiency of information processing, they often do not lead to the most appropriate action. We highlight the advantages of group decision-making in overcoming biases and searching the hypothesis space for good models of the world and good solutions to problems. Diversity of group members can facilitate these achievements, but diverse groups also face their own problems. We discuss means of managing these pitfalls and make some recommendations on how to make better group decisions. PMID:28878973
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ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Lapides, Joseph
This presentation discusses a rationale and set of procedures that increase parent involvement in decisions concerning their children. Decision making is viewed here as a process by which parents choose, among conflicting considerations, courses of action which are in the best interests of their children. Decisions usually imply a power…
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On formally integrating science and policy: walking the walk
Nichols, James D.; Johnson, Fred A.; Williams, Byron K.; Boomer, G. Scott
2015-01-01
The contribution of science to the development and implementation of policy is typically neither direct nor transparent. In 1995, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) made a decision that was unprecedented in natural resource management, turning to an unused and unproven decision process to carry out trust responsibilities mandated by an international treaty. The decision process was adopted for the establishment of annual sport hunting regulations for the most economically important duck population in North America, the 6 to 11 million mallards Anas platyrhynchos breeding in the mid-continent region of north-central United States and central Canada. The key idea underlying the adopted decision process was to formally embed within it a scientific process designed to reduce uncertainty (learn) and thus make better decisions in the future. The scientific process entails use of models to develop predictions of competing hypotheses about system response to the selected action at each decision point. These prediction not only are used to select the optimal management action, but also are compared with the subsequent estimates of system state variables, providing evidence for modifying degrees of confidence in, and hence relative influence of, these models at the next decision point. Science and learning in one step are formally and directly incorporated into the next decision, contrasting with the usual ad hoc and indirect use of scientific results in policy development and decision-making. Application of this approach over the last 20 years has led to a substantial reduction in uncertainty, as well as to an increase in transparency and defensibility of annual decisions and a decrease in the contentiousness of the decision process. As resource managers are faced with increased uncertainty associated with various components of global change, this approach provides a roadmap for the future scientific management of natural resources.
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Clarinval, Caroline; Biller-Andorno, Nikola
2014-01-01
Introduction: This paper aims to raise awareness regarding ethical issues in the context of humanitarian action, and to offer a framework for systematically and effectively addressing such issues. Methods: Several cases highlight ethical issues that humanitarian aid workers are confronted with at different levels over the course of their deployments. The first case discusses a situation at a macro-level concerning decisions being made at the headquarters of a humanitarian organization. The second case looks at meso-level issues that need to be solved at a country or regional level. The third case proposes an ethical dilemma at the micro-level of the individual patient-provider relationship. Discussion: These real-life cases have been selected to illustrate the ethical dimension of conflicts within the context of humanitarian action that might remain unrecognized in everyday practice. In addition, we propose an ethical framework to assist humanitarian aid workers in their decision-making process. The framework draws on the principles and values that guide humanitarian action and public health ethics more generally. Beyond identifying substantive core values, the framework also includes a ten-step process modelled on tools used in the clinical setting that promotes a transparent and clear decision-making process and improves the monitoring and evaluation of aid interventions. Finally, we recommend organizational measures to implement the framework effectively. Conclusion: This paper uses a combination of public health/clinical ethics concepts and practices and applies them to the decision-making challenges encountered in relief operations in the humanitarian aid context. PMID:24987575
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Sensorimotor Learning Biases Choice Behavior: A Learning Neural Field Model for Decision Making
Schöner, Gregor; Gail, Alexander
2012-01-01
According to a prominent view of sensorimotor processing in primates, selection and specification of possible actions are not sequential operations. Rather, a decision for an action emerges from competition between different movement plans, which are specified and selected in parallel. For action choices which are based on ambiguous sensory input, the frontoparietal sensorimotor areas are considered part of the common underlying neural substrate for selection and specification of action. These areas have been shown capable of encoding alternative spatial motor goals in parallel during movement planning, and show signatures of competitive value-based selection among these goals. Since the same network is also involved in learning sensorimotor associations, competitive action selection (decision making) should not only be driven by the sensory evidence and expected reward in favor of either action, but also by the subject's learning history of different sensorimotor associations. Previous computational models of competitive neural decision making used predefined associations between sensory input and corresponding motor output. Such hard-wiring does not allow modeling of how decisions are influenced by sensorimotor learning or by changing reward contingencies. We present a dynamic neural field model which learns arbitrary sensorimotor associations with a reward-driven Hebbian learning algorithm. We show that the model accurately simulates the dynamics of action selection with different reward contingencies, as observed in monkey cortical recordings, and that it correctly predicted the pattern of choice errors in a control experiment. With our adaptive model we demonstrate how network plasticity, which is required for association learning and adaptation to new reward contingencies, can influence choice behavior. The field model provides an integrated and dynamic account for the operations of sensorimotor integration, working memory and action selection required for decision making in ambiguous choice situations. PMID:23166483
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Garrote, Luis; Sordo, Alvaro; Iglesias, Ana
2016-04-01
Information is valuable when it improves decision-making (e.g., actions can be adjusted to better suit the situation at hand) and enables the mitigation of damage. However, quantifying the value of information is often difficult. Here we explore a general approach to understand the economic value of drought information for water managers framing our approach in the precautionary principle that reminds us that uncertainty is not a reason to postpone or avoid action. We explore how decision making can disregard uncertain effects, taking a short-term approach and focusing instead on the certain costs and benefits of taking action. Two main questions arise: How do we know that advanced drought information is actually helping decisions?; and What is the value of information in the decision process? The approach is applied to several regulated water resources systems in Spain. It first views drought information as a factor in the decision process which can be used by water managers to reduce uncertainty. Second, the value of drought information is the expected gain in a decision outcome (utility) from using additional information. Finally, the gains of improved information are compared with the information collection costs. Here we estimate the value by taking into account the accuracy of the drought information, the subjective probabilities about the value, analyzed as Bayesian probabilities, and the ability or skill of the stakeholders to apply the drought information to modify their actions. Since information may be considered a public good (non-rivalry and non-excludability), it may justify public policy in the provision of information, considering social costs and benefits. The application of the framework to the Spanish case studies shows that information benefits exceeds to costs when drought frequency is 20-40% above normal values; below these values uncertainty in the decisions dominate the results; above these values, the management decisions are limited even with perfect information.
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10 CFR 2.206 - Requests for action under this subpart.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR
2014-01-01
..., authenticate, distribute, and archive the submission, and process and retrieve it a single page at a time... Director's decision under this section that no proceeding will be instituted or other action taken in whole...
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Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-04-01
... decision-making process and the reasons for using its emergency action authority. Information on steps... have clear procedures and guidelines for decision-making regarding emergency intervention in the market, including procedures and guidelines to avoid conflicts of interest while carrying out such decision-making...
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Mass Conflagration: An Analysis and Adaptation of the Shipboard Damage Control Organization
1991-03-01
the span of control narrows, as each supervisor is able to better monitor the actions and environment of his subordinates. (6) Communciation and... computed decision is reached by the decision makers, often based on a prior formal doctrine or methodology. [Ref. 4:p. 364] While no decision process
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ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Jung, Jae Yup
2013-01-01
This study tested a newly developed model of the cognitive decision-making processes of senior high school students related to university entry. The model incorporated variables derived from motivation theory (i.e. expectancy-value theory and the theory of reasoned action), literature on cultural orientation and occupational considerations. A…
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Beyond Wiki to Judgewiki for Transparent Climate Change Decisions
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Capron, M. E.
2008-12-01
Climate Change is like the prisoner's dilemma, a zero-sum game, or cheating in sports. Everyone and every country is tempted to selfishly maintain or advance their standard of living. The tremendous difference between standards of living amplifies the desire to opt out of Climate Change solutions adverse to economic competitiveness. Climate Change is also exceedingly complex. No one person, one organization, one country, or partial collection of countries has the capacity and the global support needed to make decisions on Climate Change solutions. There are thousands of potential actions, tens of thousands of known and unknown environmental and economic impacts. Some actions are belatedly found to be unsustainable beyond token volumes, corn ethanol or soy-biodiesel for example. Mankind can address human nature and complexity with a globally transparent information and decision process available to all 7 billion of us. We need a process that builds trust and simplifies complexity. Fortunately, we have the Internet for trust building communication and computers to simplify complexity. Mankind can produce new software tailored to the challenge. We would combine group information collection software (a wiki) with a decision-matrix (a judge), market forecasting, and video games to produce the tool mankind needs for trust building transparent decisions on Climate Change actions. The resulting software would be a judgewiki.
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A cortical network model of cognitive and emotional influences in human decision making.
Nazir, Azadeh Hassannejad; Liljenström, Hans
2015-10-01
Decision making (DM)(2) is a complex process that appears to involve several brain structures. In particular, amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) seem to be essential in human decision making, where both emotional and cognitive aspects are taken into account. In this paper, we present a computational network model representing the neural information processing of DM, from perception to behavior. We model the population dynamics of the three neural structures (amygdala, OFC and LPFC), as well as their interaction. In our model, the neurodynamic activity of amygdala and OFC represents the neural correlates of secondary emotion, while the activity of certain neural populations in OFC alone represents the outcome expectancy of different options. The cognitive/rational aspect of DM is associated with LPFC. Our model is intended to give insights on the emotional and cognitive processes involved in DM under various internal and external contexts. Different options for actions are represented by the oscillatory activity of cell assemblies, which may change due to experience and learning. Knowledge and experience of the outcome of our decisions and actions can eventually result in changes in our neural structures, attitudes and behaviors. Simulation results may have implications for how we make decisions for our individual actions, as well as for societal choices, where we take examples from transport and its impact on CO2 emissions and climate change. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Testosterone, Cortisol and Financial Risk-Taking
Herbert, Joe
2018-01-01
Both testosterone and cortisol have major actions on financial decision-making closely related to their primary biological functions, reproductive success and response to stress, respectively. Financial risk-taking represents a particular example of strategic decisions made in the context of choice under conditions of uncertainty. Such decisions have multiple components, and this article considers how much we know of how either hormone affects risk-appetite, reward value, information processing and estimation of the costs and benefits of potential success or failure, both personal and social. It also considers how far we can map these actions on neural mechanisms underlying risk appetite and decision-making, with particular reference to areas of the brain concerned in either cognitive or emotional functions. PMID:29867399
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Neuroscientific Model of Motivational Process
Kim, Sung-il
2013-01-01
Considering the neuroscientific findings on reward, learning, value, decision-making, and cognitive control, motivation can be parsed into three sub processes, a process of generating motivation, a process of maintaining motivation, and a process of regulating motivation. I propose a tentative neuroscientific model of motivational processes which consists of three distinct but continuous sub processes, namely reward-driven approach, value-based decision-making, and goal-directed control. Reward-driven approach is the process in which motivation is generated by reward anticipation and selective approach behaviors toward reward. This process recruits the ventral striatum (reward area) in which basic stimulus-action association is formed, and is classified as an automatic motivation to which relatively less attention is assigned. By contrast, value-based decision-making is the process of evaluating various outcomes of actions, learning through positive prediction error, and calculating the value continuously. The striatum and the orbitofrontal cortex (valuation area) play crucial roles in sustaining motivation. Lastly, the goal-directed control is the process of regulating motivation through cognitive control to achieve goals. This consciously controlled motivation is associated with higher-level cognitive functions such as planning, retaining the goal, monitoring the performance, and regulating action. The anterior cingulate cortex (attention area) and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (cognitive control area) are the main neural circuits related to regulation of motivation. These three sub processes interact with each other by sending reward prediction error signals through dopaminergic pathway from the striatum and to the prefrontal cortex. The neuroscientific model of motivational process suggests several educational implications with regard to the generation, maintenance, and regulation of motivation to learn in the learning environment. PMID:23459598
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Neuroscientific model of motivational process.
Kim, Sung-Il
2013-01-01
Considering the neuroscientific findings on reward, learning, value, decision-making, and cognitive control, motivation can be parsed into three sub processes, a process of generating motivation, a process of maintaining motivation, and a process of regulating motivation. I propose a tentative neuroscientific model of motivational processes which consists of three distinct but continuous sub processes, namely reward-driven approach, value-based decision-making, and goal-directed control. Reward-driven approach is the process in which motivation is generated by reward anticipation and selective approach behaviors toward reward. This process recruits the ventral striatum (reward area) in which basic stimulus-action association is formed, and is classified as an automatic motivation to which relatively less attention is assigned. By contrast, value-based decision-making is the process of evaluating various outcomes of actions, learning through positive prediction error, and calculating the value continuously. The striatum and the orbitofrontal cortex (valuation area) play crucial roles in sustaining motivation. Lastly, the goal-directed control is the process of regulating motivation through cognitive control to achieve goals. This consciously controlled motivation is associated with higher-level cognitive functions such as planning, retaining the goal, monitoring the performance, and regulating action. The anterior cingulate cortex (attention area) and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (cognitive control area) are the main neural circuits related to regulation of motivation. These three sub processes interact with each other by sending reward prediction error signals through dopaminergic pathway from the striatum and to the prefrontal cortex. The neuroscientific model of motivational process suggests several educational implications with regard to the generation, maintenance, and regulation of motivation to learn in the learning environment.
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Modeling Perceptual Decision Processes
2014-09-17
Ratcliff, & Wagenmakers, in press). Previous research suggests that playing action video games improves performance on sensory, perceptual, and...estimate the contribution of several underlying psychological processes. Their analysis indicated that playing action video games leads to faster...third condition in which no video games were played at all. Behavioral data and diffusion model parameters showed similar practice effects for the
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Dietrich, Jörg; Funke, Markus
Integrated water resources management (IWRM) redefines conventional water management approaches through a closer cross-linkage between environment and society. The role of public participation and socio-economic considerations becomes more important within the planning and decision making process. In this paper we address aspects of the integration of catchment models into such a process taking the implementation of the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) as an example. Within a case study situated in the Werra river basin (Central Germany), a systems analytic decision process model was developed. This model uses the semantics of the Unified Modeling Language (UML) activity model. As an example application, the catchment model SWAT and the water quality model RWQM1 were applied to simulate the effect of phosphorus emissions from non-point and point sources on water quality. The decision process model was able to guide the participants of the case study through the interdisciplinary planning and negotiation of actions. Further improvements of the integration framework include tools for quantitative uncertainty analyses, which are crucial for real life application of models within an IWRM decision making toolbox. For the case study, the multi-criteria assessment of actions indicates that the polluter pays principle can be met at larger scales (sub-catchment or river basin) without significantly compromising cost efficiency for the local situation.
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The Impact of Information on Decisions: Command and Control System Evaluation
1981-02-01
systems do not (necessarily) change the world in which action occurs, but have their principle impact on the cognitive processes that lead to action...are constants and are (in principle ) knowable in advance of their selection for use in a decision context. The particular outcome of a previously...problem (e.g., signalling the presence of enemy platforms in an area) misses are quantifiable in principle and are quite relevant to system evaluation. But
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Influence of uncertainty on framed decision-making with moral dilemma
Mermillod, Martial; Le Pennec, Jean-Luc; Dutheil, Frédéric; Mondillon, Laurie
2018-01-01
In cases of impending natural disasters, most events are uncertain and emotionally relevant, both critical factors for decision-making. Moreover, for exposed individuals, the sensitivity to the framing of the consequences (gain or loss) and the moral judgments they have to perform (e.g., evacuate or help an injured person) constitute two central effects that have never been examined in the same context of decision-making. In a framed decision-making task with moral dilemma, we investigated whether uncertainty (i.e., unpredictably of events) and a threatening context would influence the framing effect (actions framed in loss are avoided in comparison to the ones framed in gain) and the personal intention effect (unintentional actions are more morally acceptable in comparison to intentional actions) on the perceived moral acceptability of taking action. Considering the impact of uncertainty and fear on the processes underlying these effects, we assumed that these emotions would lead to the negation of the two effects. Our results indicate that the exposure to uncertain events leads to the negation of the framing effect, but does not influence the moral acceptability and the effect of personal intention. We discuss our results in the light of dual-process models (i.e. systematic vs. heuristic), appraisal theories, and neurocognitive aspects. These elements highlight the importance of providing solutions to cope with uncertainty, both for scientists and local populations exposed to natural hazards. PMID:29847589
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Influence of uncertainty on framed decision-making with moral dilemma.
Merlhiot, Gaëtan; Mermillod, Martial; Le Pennec, Jean-Luc; Dutheil, Frédéric; Mondillon, Laurie
2018-01-01
In cases of impending natural disasters, most events are uncertain and emotionally relevant, both critical factors for decision-making. Moreover, for exposed individuals, the sensitivity to the framing of the consequences (gain or loss) and the moral judgments they have to perform (e.g., evacuate or help an injured person) constitute two central effects that have never been examined in the same context of decision-making. In a framed decision-making task with moral dilemma, we investigated whether uncertainty (i.e., unpredictably of events) and a threatening context would influence the framing effect (actions framed in loss are avoided in comparison to the ones framed in gain) and the personal intention effect (unintentional actions are more morally acceptable in comparison to intentional actions) on the perceived moral acceptability of taking action. Considering the impact of uncertainty and fear on the processes underlying these effects, we assumed that these emotions would lead to the negation of the two effects. Our results indicate that the exposure to uncertain events leads to the negation of the framing effect, but does not influence the moral acceptability and the effect of personal intention. We discuss our results in the light of dual-process models (i.e. systematic vs. heuristic), appraisal theories, and neurocognitive aspects. These elements highlight the importance of providing solutions to cope with uncertainty, both for scientists and local populations exposed to natural hazards.
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The Interplay between Information and Control Theory within Interactive Decision-Making Problems
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Gorantla, Siva Kumar
2012-01-01
The context for this work is two-agent team decision systems. An "agent" is an intelligent entity that can measure some aspect of its environment, process information and possibly influence the environment through its action. In a collaborative two-agent team decision system, the agents can be coupled by noisy or noiseless interactions…
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Rules for Rational Decision Making: An Experiment with 15- and 16-Year Old Students
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Guerra, Ana Teresa Antequera; Febles, Maria Candelaria Espinel
2012-01-01
Multicriteria analysis constitutes a way to model decision processes, which allow the decision maker to assess the possible implications each course of action may entail. A multicriteria problem is chosen from the Programme for International Student Assessment 2003 Report and then extended to include questions involving a choice of preferences and…
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An Examination of Factors Influencing Students Selection of Business Majors Using TRA Framework
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kumar, Anil; Kumar, Poonam
2013-01-01
Making decisions regarding the selection of a business major is both very important and challenging for students. An understanding of this decision-making process can be valuable for students, parents, and university programs. The current study applies the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) consumer decision-making model to examine factors that…
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Striatal BOLD Response Reflects the Impact of Herd Information on Financial Decisions
Burke, Christopher J.; Tobler, Philippe N.; Schultz, Wolfram; Baddeley, Michelle
2010-01-01
Like other species, humans are sensitive to the decisions and actions of conspecifics, which can lead to herd behavior and undesirable outcomes such as stock market bubbles and bank runs. However, how the brain processes this socially derived influence is only poorly understood. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we scanned participants as they made decisions on whether to buy stocks after observing others’ buying decisions. We demonstrate that activity in the ventral striatum, an area heavily implicated in reward processing, tracked the degree of influence on participants’ decisions arising from the observation of other peoples’ decisions. The signal did not track non-human, non-social control decisions. These findings lend weight to the notion that the ventral striatum is involved in the processing of complex social aspects of decision making and identify a possible neural basis for herd behavior. PMID:20589242
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Comparison as a Universal Learning Action
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Merkulova, T. V.
2016-01-01
This article explores "comparison" as a universal metasubject learning action, a key curricular element envisaged by the Russian Federal State Educational Standards. Representing the modern learner's fundamental pragmatic skill embedding such core capacities as information processing, critical thinking, robust decision-making, and…
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Upholding professionalism: the disciplinary process of the American Academy of Neurology.
Hutchins, John C; Sagsveen, Murray G; Larriviere, Dan
2010-12-14
To review the disciplinary process by which the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) enforces its formalized standards of professional conduct. We reviewed the AAN's Disciplinary Action Policy. We tracked the elapsed time from receipt to final decision of all allegations ("complaints") of improper conduct by AAN members submitted from 2004 to 2009. We placed each complaint into 1 of 4 categories: allegations of 1) improper expert witness testimony; 2) substandard care; 3) unprofessional conduct; 4) or both 2 and 3. We noted the type of complainant (AAN member or nonmember) and the final outcome for each complaint. The AAN's disciplinary process is a 5-step procedure with multiple reviewing bodies. From 2004 to 2009, the AAN received 3-16 complaints per year (total 58), with 16 filed each year in 2008 and 2009. Thirty-one complaints (53%) were submitted by nonmembers and 27 (47%) by members. Disciplinary action was recommended for 6 complaints (10.3%) with action taken in 3 (5.1%) and the member resigning in lieu of action in 3 (5.1%). The average number of days from receipt of complaint to final decision was 537, with an average of 890 days from 2004 to 2006, decreased to 184 days from 2007 to 2009. Recent revisions to the disciplinary process have increased efficiency and enhanced procedural safeguards. The AAN determined a mean of 12 months, from receipt of complaint to final decision rendered, is an appropriate benchmark when handling complaints. The AAN's disciplinary process upholds standards of professional conduct for AAN members and protects members from unsubstantiated complaints.
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Application of Domain Knowledge to Software Quality Assurance
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Wild, Christian W.
1997-01-01
This work focused on capturing, using, and evolving a qualitative decision support structure across the life cycle of a project. The particular application of this study was towards business process reengineering and the representation of the business process in a set of Business Rules (BR). In this work, we defined a decision model which captured the qualitative decision deliberation process. It represented arguments both for and against proposed alternatives to a problem. It was felt that the subjective nature of many critical business policy decisions required a qualitative modeling approach similar to that of Lee and Mylopoulos. While previous work was limited almost exclusively to the decision capture phase, which occurs early in the project life cycle, we investigated the use of such a model during the later stages as well. One of our significant developments was the use of the decision model during the operational phase of a project. By operational phase, we mean the phase in which the system or set of policies which were earlier decided are deployed and put into practice. By making the decision model available to operational decision makers, they would have access to the arguments pro and con for a variety of actions and can thus make a more informed decision which balances the often conflicting criteria by which the value of action is measured. We also developed the concept of a 'monitored decision' in which metrics of performance were identified during the decision making process and used to evaluate the quality of that decision. It is important to monitor those decision which seem at highest risk of not meeting their stated objectives. Operational decisions are also potentially high risk decisions. Finally, we investigated the use of performance metrics for monitored decisions and audit logs of operational decisions in order to feed an evolutionary phase of the the life cycle. During evolution, decisions are revisisted, assumptions verified or refuted, and possible reassessments resulting in new policy are made. In this regard we implemented a machine learning algorithm which automatically defined business rules based on expert assessment of the quality of operational decisions as recorded during deployment.
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The Computational Complexity of Valuation and Motivational Forces in Decision-Making Processes.
Redish, A David; Schultheiss, Nathan W; Carter, Evan C
2016-01-01
The concept of value is fundamental to most theories of motivation and decision making. However, value has to be measured experimentally. Different methods of measuring value produce incompatible valuation hierarchies. Taking the agent's perspective (rather than the experimenter's), we interpret the different valuation measurement methods as accessing different decision-making systems and show how these different systems depend on different information processing algorithms. This identifies the translation from these multiple decision-making systems into a single action taken by a given agent as one of the most important open questions in decision making today. We conclude by looking at how these different valuation measures accessing different decision-making systems can be used to understand and treat decision dysfunction such as in addiction.
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Future of electronic health records: implications for decision support.
Rothman, Brian; Leonard, Joan C; Vigoda, Michael M
2012-01-01
The potential benefits of the electronic health record over traditional paper are many, including cost containment, reductions in errors, and improved compliance by utilizing real-time data. The highest functional level of the electronic health record (EHR) is clinical decision support (CDS) and process automation, which are expected to enhance patient health and healthcare. The authors provide an overview of the progress in using patient data more efficiently and effectively through clinical decision support to improve health care delivery, how decision support impacts anesthesia practice, and how some are leading the way using these systems to solve need-specific issues. Clinical decision support uses passive or active decision support to modify clinician behavior through recommendations of specific actions. Recommendations may reduce medication errors, which would result in considerable savings by avoiding adverse drug events. In selected studies, clinical decision support has been shown to decrease the time to follow-up actions, and prediction has proved useful in forecasting patient outcomes, avoiding costs, and correctly prompting treatment plan modifications by clinicians before engaging in decision-making. Clinical documentation accuracy and completeness is improved by an electronic health record and greater relevance of care data is delivered. Clinical decision support may increase clinician adherence to clinical guidelines, but educational workshops may be equally effective. Unintentional consequences of clinical decision support, such as alert desensitization, can decrease the effectiveness of a system. Current anesthesia clinical decision support use includes antibiotic administration timing, improved documentation, more timely billing, and postoperative nausea and vomiting prophylaxis. Electronic health record implementation offers data-mining opportunities to improve operational, financial, and clinical processes. Using electronic health record data in real-time for decision support and process automation has the potential to both reduce costs and improve the quality of patient care. © 2012 Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
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Addy, Nii Antiaye; Shaban-Nejad, Arash; Buckeridge, David L; Dubé, Laurette
2015-01-23
Multi-stakeholder partnerships (MSPs) have become a widespread means for deploying policies in a whole of society strategy to address the complex problem of childhood obesity. However, decision-making in MSPs is fraught with challenges, as decision-makers are faced with complexity, and have to reconcile disparate conceptualizations of knowledge across multiple sectors with diverse sets of indicators and data. These challenges can be addressed by supporting MSPs with innovative tools for obtaining, organizing and using data to inform decision-making. The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze the development of a knowledge-based infrastructure to support MSP decision-making processes. The paper emerged from a study to define specifications for a knowledge-based infrastructure to provide decision support for community-level MSPs in the Canadian province of Quebec. As part of the study, a process assessment was conducted to understand the needs of communities as they collect, organize, and analyze data to make decisions about their priorities. The result of this process is a "portrait", which is an epidemiological profile of health and nutrition in their community. Portraits inform strategic planning and development of interventions, and are used to assess the impact of interventions. Our key findings indicate ambiguities and disagreement among MSP decision-makers regarding causal relationships between actions and outcomes, and the relevant data needed for making decisions. MSP decision-makers expressed a desire for easy-to-use tools that facilitate the collection, organization, synthesis, and analysis of data, to enable decision-making in a timely manner. Findings inform conceptual modeling and ontological analysis to capture the domain knowledge and specify relationships between actions and outcomes. This modeling and analysis provide the foundation for an ontology, encoded using OWL 2 Web Ontology Language. The ontology is developed to provide semantic support for the MSP process, defining objectives, strategies, actions, indicators, and data sources. In the future, software interacting with the ontology can facilitate interactive browsing by decision-makers in the MSP in the form of concepts, instances, relationships, and axioms. Our ontology also facilitates the integration and interpretation of community data, and can help in managing semantic interoperability between different knowledge sources. Future work will focus on defining specifications for the development of a database of indicators and an information system to help decision-makers to view, analyze and organize indicators for their community. This work should improve MSP decision-making in the development of interventions to address childhood obesity.
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Addy, Nii Antiaye; Shaban-Nejad, Arash; Buckeridge, David L.; Dubé, Laurette
2015-01-01
Multi-stakeholder partnerships (MSPs) have become a widespread means for deploying policies in a whole of society strategy to address the complex problem of childhood obesity. However, decision-making in MSPs is fraught with challenges, as decision-makers are faced with complexity, and have to reconcile disparate conceptualizations of knowledge across multiple sectors with diverse sets of indicators and data. These challenges can be addressed by supporting MSPs with innovative tools for obtaining, organizing and using data to inform decision-making. The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze the development of a knowledge-based infrastructure to support MSP decision-making processes. The paper emerged from a study to define specifications for a knowledge-based infrastructure to provide decision support for community-level MSPs in the Canadian province of Quebec. As part of the study, a process assessment was conducted to understand the needs of communities as they collect, organize, and analyze data to make decisions about their priorities. The result of this process is a “portrait”, which is an epidemiological profile of health and nutrition in their community. Portraits inform strategic planning and development of interventions, and are used to assess the impact of interventions. Our key findings indicate ambiguities and disagreement among MSP decision-makers regarding causal relationships between actions and outcomes, and the relevant data needed for making decisions. MSP decision-makers expressed a desire for easy-to-use tools that facilitate the collection, organization, synthesis, and analysis of data, to enable decision-making in a timely manner. Findings inform conceptual modeling and ontological analysis to capture the domain knowledge and specify relationships between actions and outcomes. This modeling and analysis provide the foundation for an ontology, encoded using OWL 2 Web Ontology Language. The ontology is developed to provide semantic support for the MSP process, defining objectives, strategies, actions, indicators, and data sources. In the future, software interacting with the ontology can facilitate interactive browsing by decision-makers in the MSP in the form of concepts, instances, relationships, and axioms. Our ontology also facilitates the integration and interpretation of community data, and can help in managing semantic interoperability between different knowledge sources. Future work will focus on defining specifications for the development of a database of indicators and an information system to help decision-makers to view, analyze and organize indicators for their community. This work should improve MSP decision-making in the development of interventions to address childhood obesity. PMID:25625409
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Five Steps for Structuring Data-Informed Conversations and Action in Education. REL 2013-001
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kekahio, Wendy; Baker, Myriam
2013-01-01
Using data strategically to guide decisions and actions can have a positive effect on education practices and processes. This facilitation guide shows education data teams how to move beyond simply reporting data to applying data to direct strategic action. Using guiding questions, suggested activities, and activity forms, this guide provides…
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[Clinical decision making and critical thinking in the nursing diagnostic process].
Müller-Staub, Maria
2006-10-01
The daily routine requires complex thinking processes of nurses, but clinical decision making and critical thinking are underestimated in nursing. A great demand for educational measures in clinical judgement related with the diagnostic process was found in nurses. The German literature hardly describes nursing diagnoses as clinical judgements about human reactions on health problems / life processes. Critical thinking is described as an intellectual, disciplined process of active conceptualisation, application and synthesis of information. It is gained through observation, experience, reflection and communication and leads thinking and action. Critical thinking influences the aspects of clinical decision making a) diagnostic judgement, b) therapeutic reasoning and c) ethical decision making. Human reactions are complex processes and in their course, human behavior is interpreted in the focus of health. Therefore, more attention should be given to the nursing diagnostic process. This article presents the theoretical framework of the paper "Clinical decision making: Fostering critical thinking in the nursing diagnostic process through case studies".
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Balleine, Bernard W; O'Doherty, John P
2010-01-01
Recent behavioral studies in both humans and rodents have found evidence that performance in decision-making tasks depends on two different learning processes; one encoding the relationship between actions and their consequences and a second involving the formation of stimulus–response associations. These learning processes are thought to govern goal-directed and habitual actions, respectively, and have been found to depend on homologous corticostriatal networks in these species. Thus, recent research using comparable behavioral tasks in both humans and rats has implicated homologous regions of cortex (medial prefrontal cortex/medial orbital cortex in humans and prelimbic cortex in rats) and of dorsal striatum (anterior caudate in humans and dorsomedial striatum in rats) in goal-directed action and in the control of habitual actions (posterior lateral putamen in humans and dorsolateral striatum in rats). These learning processes have been argued to be antagonistic or competing because their control over performance appears to be all or none. Nevertheless, evidence has started to accumulate suggesting that they may at times compete and at others cooperate in the selection and subsequent evaluation of actions necessary for normal choice performance. It appears likely that cooperation or competition between these sources of action control depends not only on local interactions in dorsal striatum but also on the cortico-basal ganglia network within which the striatum is embedded and that mediates the integration of learning with basic motivational and emotional processes. The neural basis of the integration of learning and motivation in choice and decision-making is still controversial and we review some recent hypotheses relating to this issue. PMID:19776734
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Information processing. [in human performance
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Wickens, Christopher D.; Flach, John M.
1988-01-01
Theoretical models of sensory-information processing by the human brain are reviewed from a human-factors perspective, with a focus on their implications for aircraft and avionics design. The topics addressed include perception (signal detection and selection), linguistic factors in perception (context provision, logical reversals, absence of cues, and order reversals), mental models, and working and long-term memory. Particular attention is given to decision-making problems such as situation assessment, decision formulation, decision quality, selection of action, the speed-accuracy tradeoff, stimulus-response compatibility, stimulus sequencing, dual-task performance, task difficulty and structure, and factors affecting multiple task performance (processing modalities, codes, and stages).
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DOT National Transportation Integrated Search
2016-01-01
With aging infrastructure, it becomes crucial to make informed decisions about maintenance and : preservation actions, as well as renewal of civil structures. Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) can be : an important aid in this decision process, but ...
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EOS Terra: EOS DAM Automation Constellation MOWG
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Mantziaras, Dimitrios C.
2017-01-01
Brief summary of the decision factors considered and process improvement steps made, to evolve the ESMO debris avoidance maneuver process to a more automated process. Presentation is in response to an action item/question received at a prior MOWG meeting.
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Psychological model for judicial decision making in emergency or temporary child placement.
Ballou, M; Barry, J; Billingham, K; Boorstein, B W; Butler, C; Gershberg, R; Heim, J; Lirianio, D; McGovern, S; Nicastro, S; Romaniello, J; Vazquez-Nuttall, K; White, C
2001-10-01
In emergencies, family court judges must often make rapid decisions, without benefit of thorough information, that have significant impact on people's lives. Action-oriented research was used to develop a model that would bring psychosocial factors to the legal system for the purpose of enhancing the judicial decision-making process in emergency and temporary child placement cases.
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Application of decision science to resilience management in Jamaica Bay
Eaton, Mitchell; Fuller, Angela K.; Johnson, Fred A.; Hare, M. P.; Stedman, Richard C.; Sanderson, E.W.; Solecki, W. D.; Waldman, J.R.; Paris, A. S.
2016-01-01
This book highlights the growing interest in management interventions designed to enhance the resilience of the Jamaica Bay socio-ecological system. Effective management, whether the focus is on managing biological processes or human behavior or (most likely) both, requires decision makers to anticipate how the managed system will respond to interventions (i.e., via predictions or projections). In systems characterized by many interacting components and high uncertainty, making probabilistic predictions is often difficult and requires careful thinking not only about system dynamics, but also about how management objectives are specified and the analytic method used to select the preferred action(s). Developing a clear statement of the problem(s) and articulation of management objectives is often best achieved by including input from managers, scientists and other stakeholders affected by the decision through a process of joint problem framing (Marcot and others 2012; Keeney and others 1990). Using a deliberate, coherent and transparent framework for deciding among management alternatives to best meet these objectives then ensures a greater likelihood for successful intervention. Decision science provides the theoretical and practical basis for developing this framework and applying decision analysis methods for making complex decisions under uncertainty and risk.
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Nicotinic alteration of decision-making.
Naudé, Jérémie; Dongelmans, Malou; Faure, Philippe
2015-09-01
Addiction to nicotine is characterized by impulses, urges and lack of self-control towards cigarettes. A key element in the process of addiction is the development of habits oriented towards nicotine consumption that surpass flexible systems as a consequence of a gradual adaptation to chronic drug exposure. However, the long-term effects of nicotine on brain circuits also induce wide changes in decision-making processes, affecting behaviors unrelated to cigarettes. This review aims at providing an update on the implications of nicotine on general decision-making processes, with an emphasis on impulsivity and risk-taking. As impulsivity is a rather ambiguous behavioral trait, we build on economic and normative theories to better characterize these nicotine-induced alterations in decision-making. Nonetheless, experimental data are sparse and often contradictory. We will discuss how the latest findings on the neurobiological basis of choice behavior may help disentangling these issues. We focus on the role of nicotine acetylcholine receptors and their different subunits, and on the spatio-temporal dynamics (i.e. diversity of the neural circuits, short- and long-term effects) of both endogenous acetylcholine and nicotine action. Finally, we try to link these neurobiological results with neuro-computational models of attention, valuation and action, and of the role of acetylcholine in these decision processes. This article is part of the Special Issue entitled 'The Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor: From Molecular Biology to Cognition'. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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The role of moral utility in decision making: an interdisciplinary framework.
Tobler, Philippe N; Kalis, Annemarie; Kalenscher, Tobias
2008-12-01
What decisions should we make? Moral values, rules, and virtues provide standards for morally acceptable decisions, without prescribing how we should reach them. However, moral theories do assume that we are, at least in principle, capable of making the right decisions. Consequently, an empirical investigation of the methods and resources we use for making moral decisions becomes relevant. We consider theoretical parallels of economic decision theory and moral utilitarianism and suggest that moral decision making may tap into mechanisms and processes that have originally evolved for nonmoral decision making. For example, the computation of reward value occurs through the combination of probability and magnitude; similar computation might also be used for determining utilitarian moral value. Both nonmoral and moral decisions may resort to intuitions and heuristics. Learning mechanisms implicated in the assignment of reward value to stimuli, actions, and outcomes may also enable us to determine moral value and assign it to stimuli, actions, and outcomes. In conclusion, we suggest that moral capabilities can employ and benefit from a variety of nonmoral decision-making and learning mechanisms.
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Zendehrouh, Sareh
2015-11-01
Recent work on decision-making field offers an account of dual-system theory for decision-making process. This theory holds that this process is conducted by two main controllers: a goal-directed system and a habitual system. In the reinforcement learning (RL) domain, the habitual behaviors are connected with model-free methods, in which appropriate actions are learned through trial-and-error experiences. However, goal-directed behaviors are associated with model-based methods of RL, in which actions are selected using a model of the environment. Studies on cognitive control also suggest that during processes like decision-making, some cortical and subcortical structures work in concert to monitor the consequences of decisions and to adjust control according to current task demands. Here a computational model is presented based on dual system theory and cognitive control perspective of decision-making. The proposed model is used to simulate human performance on a variant of probabilistic learning task. The basic proposal is that the brain implements a dual controller, while an accompanying monitoring system detects some kinds of conflict including a hypothetical cost-conflict one. The simulation results address existing theories about two event-related potentials, namely error related negativity (ERN) and feedback related negativity (FRN), and explore the best account of them. Based on the results, some testable predictions are also presented. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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The Stochastic Early Reaction, Inhibition, and late Action (SERIA) model for antisaccades
2017-01-01
The antisaccade task is a classic paradigm used to study the voluntary control of eye movements. It requires participants to suppress a reactive eye movement to a visual target and to concurrently initiate a saccade in the opposite direction. Although several models have been proposed to explain error rates and reaction times in this task, no formal model comparison has yet been performed. Here, we describe a Bayesian modeling approach to the antisaccade task that allows us to formally compare different models on the basis of their evidence. First, we provide a formal likelihood function of actions (pro- and antisaccades) and reaction times based on previously published models. Second, we introduce the Stochastic Early Reaction, Inhibition, and late Action model (SERIA), a novel model postulating two different mechanisms that interact in the antisaccade task: an early GO/NO-GO race decision process and a late GO/GO decision process. Third, we apply these models to a data set from an experiment with three mixed blocks of pro- and antisaccade trials. Bayesian model comparison demonstrates that the SERIA model explains the data better than competing models that do not incorporate a late decision process. Moreover, we show that the early decision process postulated by the SERIA model is, to a large extent, insensitive to the cue presented in a single trial. Finally, we use parameter estimates to demonstrate that changes in reaction time and error rate due to the probability of a trial type (pro- or antisaccade) are best explained by faster or slower inhibition and the probability of generating late voluntary prosaccades. PMID:28767650
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The Computational Complexity of Valuation and Motivational Forces in Decision-Making Processes
Schultheiss, Nathan W.; Carter, Evan C.
2015-01-01
The concept of value is fundamental to most theories of motivation and decision making. However, value has to be measured experimentally. Different methods of measuring value produce incompatible valuation hierarchies. Taking the agent’s perspective (rather than the experimenter’s), we interpret the different valuation measurement methods as accessing different decision-making systems and show how these different systems depend on different information processing algorithms. This identifies the translation from these multiple decision-making systems into a single action taken by a given agent as one of the most important open questions in decision making today. We conclude by looking at how these different valuation measures accessing different decision-making systems can be used to understand and treat decision dysfunction such as in addiction. PMID:25981912
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Popp, Margot; Trumpp, Natalie M.; Kiefer, Markus
2016-01-01
Grounded cognition theories suggest that conceptual representations essentially depend on modality-specific sensory and motor systems. Feature-specific brain activation across different feature types such as action or audition has been intensively investigated in nouns, while feature-specific conceptual category differences in verbs mainly focused on body part specific effects. The present work aimed at assessing whether feature-specific event-related potential (ERP) differences between action and sound concepts, as previously observed in nouns, can also be found within the word class of verbs. In Experiment 1, participants were visually presented with carefully matched sound and action verbs within a lexical decision task, which provides implicit access to word meaning and minimizes strategic access to semantic word features. Experiment 2 tested whether pre-activating the verb concept in a context phase, in which the verb is presented with a related context noun, modulates subsequent feature-specific action vs. sound verb processing within the lexical decision task. In Experiment 1, ERP analyses revealed a differential ERP polarity pattern for action and sound verbs at parietal and central electrodes similar to previous results in nouns. Pre-activation of the meaning of verbs in the preceding context phase in Experiment 2 resulted in a polarity-reversal of feature-specific ERP effects in the lexical decision task compared with Experiment 1. This parallels analogous earlier findings for primed action and sound related nouns. In line with grounded cognitions theories, our ERP study provides evidence for a differential processing of action and sound verbs similar to earlier observation for concrete nouns. Although the localizational value of ERPs must be viewed with caution, our results indicate that the meaning of verbs is linked to different neural circuits depending on conceptual feature relevance. PMID:28018201
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Popp, Margot; Trumpp, Natalie M; Kiefer, Markus
2016-01-01
Grounded cognition theories suggest that conceptual representations essentially depend on modality-specific sensory and motor systems. Feature-specific brain activation across different feature types such as action or audition has been intensively investigated in nouns, while feature-specific conceptual category differences in verbs mainly focused on body part specific effects. The present work aimed at assessing whether feature-specific event-related potential (ERP) differences between action and sound concepts, as previously observed in nouns, can also be found within the word class of verbs. In Experiment 1, participants were visually presented with carefully matched sound and action verbs within a lexical decision task, which provides implicit access to word meaning and minimizes strategic access to semantic word features. Experiment 2 tested whether pre-activating the verb concept in a context phase, in which the verb is presented with a related context noun, modulates subsequent feature-specific action vs. sound verb processing within the lexical decision task. In Experiment 1, ERP analyses revealed a differential ERP polarity pattern for action and sound verbs at parietal and central electrodes similar to previous results in nouns. Pre-activation of the meaning of verbs in the preceding context phase in Experiment 2 resulted in a polarity-reversal of feature-specific ERP effects in the lexical decision task compared with Experiment 1. This parallels analogous earlier findings for primed action and sound related nouns. In line with grounded cognitions theories, our ERP study provides evidence for a differential processing of action and sound verbs similar to earlier observation for concrete nouns. Although the localizational value of ERPs must be viewed with caution, our results indicate that the meaning of verbs is linked to different neural circuits depending on conceptual feature relevance.
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30 CFR 550.232 - What actions will BOEM take after the EP is deemed submitted?
Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR
2013-07-01
... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false What actions will BOEM take after the EP is deemed submitted? 550.232 Section 550.232 Mineral Resources BUREAU OF OCEAN ENERGY MANAGEMENT, DEPARTMENT... Information Review and Decision Process for the Ep § 550.232 What actions will BOEM take after the EP is...
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30 CFR 250.232 - What actions will MMS take after the EP is deemed submitted?
Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-07-01
... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false What actions will MMS take after the EP is deemed submitted? 250.232 Section 250.232 Mineral Resources MINERALS MANAGEMENT SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF... Information Review and Decision Process for the Ep § 250.232 What actions will MMS take after the EP is deemed...
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30 CFR 550.232 - What actions will BOEM take after the EP is deemed submitted?
Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR
2014-07-01
... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false What actions will BOEM take after the EP is deemed submitted? 550.232 Section 550.232 Mineral Resources BUREAU OF OCEAN ENERGY MANAGEMENT, DEPARTMENT... Information Review and Decision Process for the Ep § 550.232 What actions will BOEM take after the EP is...
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30 CFR 250.232 - What actions will MMS take after the EP is deemed submitted?
Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR
2011-07-01
... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false What actions will MMS take after the EP is deemed submitted? 250.232 Section 250.232 Mineral Resources BUREAU OF OCEAN ENERGY MANAGEMENT, REGULATION... CONTINENTAL SHELF Plans and Information Review and Decision Process for the Ep § 250.232 What actions will MMS...
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30 CFR 550.232 - What actions will BOEM take after the EP is deemed submitted?
Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR
2012-07-01
... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false What actions will BOEM take after the EP is deemed submitted? 550.232 Section 550.232 Mineral Resources BUREAU OF OCEAN ENERGY MANAGEMENT, DEPARTMENT... Information Review and Decision Process for the Ep § 550.232 What actions will BOEM take after the EP is...
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30 CFR 250.267 - What actions will MMS take after the DPP or DOCD is deemed submitted?
Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-07-01
... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false What actions will MMS take after the DPP or DOCD is deemed submitted? 250.267 Section 250.267 Mineral Resources MINERALS MANAGEMENT SERVICE... and Information Review and Decision Process for the Dpp Or Docd § 250.267 What actions will MMS take...
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Fuzzy methods in decision making process - A particular approach in manufacturing systems
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Coroiu, A. M.
2015-11-01
We are living in a competitive environment, so we can see and understand that the most of manufacturing firms do the best in order to accomplish meeting demand, increasing quality, decreasing costs, and delivery rate. In present a stake point of interest is represented by the development of fuzzy technology. A particular approach for this is represented through the development of methodologies to enhance the ability to managed complicated optimization and decision making aspects involving non-probabilistic uncertainty with the reason to understand, development, and practice the fuzzy technologies to be used in fields such as economic, engineering, management, and societal problems. Fuzzy analysis represents a method for solving problems which are related to uncertainty and vagueness; it is used in multiple areas, such as engineering and has applications in decision making problems, planning and production. As a definition for decision making process we can use the next one: result of mental processes based upon cognitive process with a main role in the selection of a course of action among several alternatives. Every process of decision making can be represented as a result of a final choice and the output can be represented as an action or as an opinion of choice. Different types of uncertainty can be discovered in a wide variety of optimization and decision making problems related to planning and operation of power systems and subsystems. The mixture of the uncertainty factor in the construction of different models serves for increasing their adequacy and, as a result, the reliability and factual efficiency of decisions based on their analysis. Another definition of decision making process which came to illustrate and sustain the necessity of using fuzzy method: the decision making is an approach of choosing a strategy among many different projects in order to achieve some purposes and is formulated as three different models: high risk decision, usual risk decision and low risk decision - some specific formulas of fuzzy logic. The fuzzy set concepts has some certain parameterization features which are certain extensions of crisp and fuzzy relations respectively and have a rich potential for application to the decision making problems. The proposed approach from this paper presents advantages of fuzzy approach, in comparison with other paradigm and presents a particular way in which fuzzy logic can emerge in decision making process and planning process with implication, as a simulation, in manufacturing - involved in measuring performance of advanced manufacturing systems. Finally, an example is presented to illustrate our simulation.
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Posterior cingulate cortex mediates outcome-contingent allocation of behavior
Hayden, Benjamin Y.; Nair, Amrita C.; McCoy, Allison N.; Platt, Michael L.
2008-01-01
SUMMARY Adaptive decision making requires selecting an action and then monitoring its consequences to improve future decisions. The neuronal mechanisms supporting action evaluation and subsequent behavioral modification, however, remain poorly understood. To investigate the contribution of posterior cingulate cortex (CGp) to these processes, we recorded activity of single neurons in monkeys performing a gambling task in which the reward outcome of each choice strongly influenced subsequent choices. We found that CGp neurons signaled reward outcomes in a nonlinear fashion, and that outcome-contingent modulations in firing rate persisted into subsequent trials. Moreover, firing rate on any one trial predicted switching to the alternative option on the next trial. Finally, microstimulation in CGp following risky choices promoted a preference reversal for the safe option on the following trial. Collectively, these results demonstrate that CGp directly contributes to the evaluative processes that support dynamic changes in decision making in volatile environments. PMID:18940585
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Evidence integration in model-based tree search
Solway, Alec; Botvinick, Matthew M.
2015-01-01
Research on the dynamics of reward-based, goal-directed decision making has largely focused on simple choice, where participants decide among a set of unitary, mutually exclusive options. Recent work suggests that the deliberation process underlying simple choice can be understood in terms of evidence integration: Noisy evidence in favor of each option accrues over time, until the evidence in favor of one option is significantly greater than the rest. However, real-life decisions often involve not one, but several steps of action, requiring a consideration of cumulative rewards and a sensitivity to recursive decision structure. We present results from two experiments that leveraged techniques previously applied to simple choice to shed light on the deliberation process underlying multistep choice. We interpret the results from these experiments in terms of a new computational model, which extends the evidence accumulation perspective to multiple steps of action. PMID:26324932
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Dynamics of Entropy in Quantum-like Model of Decision Making
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Basieva, Irina; Khrennikov, Andrei; Asano, Masanari; Ohya, Masanori; Tanaka, Yoshiharu
2011-03-01
We present a quantum-like model of decision making in games of the Prisoner's Dilemma type. By this model the brain processes information by using representation of mental states in complex Hilbert space. Driven by the master equation the mental state of a player, say Alice, approaches an equilibrium point in the space of density matrices. By using this equilibrium point Alice determines her mixed (i.e., probabilistic) strategy with respect to Bob. Thus our model is a model of thinking through decoherence of initially pure mental state. Decoherence is induced by interaction with memory and external environment. In this paper we study (numerically) dynamics of quantum entropy of Alice's state in the process of decision making. Our analysis demonstrates that this dynamics depends nontrivially on the initial state of Alice's mind on her own actions and her prediction state (for possible actions of Bob.)
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42 CFR 93.516 - Standard and burden of proof.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-10-01
... that are relevant to a decision to impose HHS administrative actions following a research misconduct... RESEARCH MISCONDUCT Opportunity To Contest ORI Findings of Research Misconduct and HHS Administrative Actions Hearing Process § 93.516 Standard and burden of proof. (a) Standard of proof. The standard of...
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42 CFR 93.516 - Standard and burden of proof.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR
2011-10-01
... that are relevant to a decision to impose HHS administrative actions following a research misconduct... RESEARCH MISCONDUCT Opportunity To Contest ORI Findings of Research Misconduct and HHS Administrative Actions Hearing Process § 93.516 Standard and burden of proof. (a) Standard of proof. The standard of...
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Theoretical aspects of cellular decision-making and information-processing.
Kobayashi, Tetsuya J; Kamimura, Atsushi
2012-01-01
Microscopic biological processes have extraordinary complexity and variety at the sub-cellular, intra-cellular, and multi-cellular levels. In dealing with such complex phenomena, conceptual and theoretical frameworks are crucial, which enable us to understand seemingly different intra- and inter-cellular phenomena from unified viewpoints. Decision-making is one such concept that has attracted much attention recently. Since a number of cellular behavior can be regarded as processes to make specific actions in response to external stimuli, decision-making can cover and has been used to explain a broad range of different cellular phenomena [Balázsi et al. (Cell 144(6):910, 2011), Zeng et al. (Cell 141(4):682, 2010)]. Decision-making is also closely related to cellular information-processing because appropriate decisions cannot be made without exploiting the information that the external stimuli contain. Efficiency of information transduction and processing by intra-cellular networks determines the amount of information obtained, which in turn limits the efficiency of subsequent decision-making. Furthermore, information-processing itself can serve as another concept that is crucial for understanding of other biological processes than decision-making. In this work, we review recent theoretical developments on cellular decision-making and information-processing by focusing on the relation between these two concepts.
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Determining climate change management priorities: A case study from Wisconsin
LeDee, Olivia E.; Ribic, Christine
2015-01-01
A burgeoning dialogue exists regarding how to allocate resources to maximize the likelihood of long-term biodiversity conservation within the context of climate change. To make effective decisions in natural resource management, an iterative, collaborative, and learning-based decision process may be more successful than a strictly consultative approach. One important, early step in a decision process is to identify priority species or systems. Although this promotes the conservation of select species or systems, it may inadvertently alter the future of non-target species and systems. We describe a process to screen terrestrial wildlife for potential sensitivity to climate change and then use the results to engage natural resource professionals in a process of identifying priorities for monitoring, research, and adaptation strategy implementation. We demonstrate this approach using a case study from Wisconsin. In Wisconsin, experts identified 23 out of 353 species with sufficient empirical research and management understanding to inform targeted action. Habitat management and management of hydrological conditions were the common strategies for targeted action. Although there may be an interest in adaptation strategy implementation for many species and systems, experts considered existing information inadequate to inform targeted action. According to experts, 40% of the vertebrate species in Wisconsin will require near-term intervention for climate adaptation. These results will inform state-wide conservation planning as well as regional efforts.
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How Decisions Evolve: The Temporal Dynamics of Action Selection
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Scherbaum, Stefan; Dshemuchadse, Maja; Fischer, Rico; Goschke, Thomas
2010-01-01
To study the process of decision-making under conflict, researchers typically analyze response latency and accuracy. However, these tools provide little evidence regarding how the resolution of conflict unfolds over time. Here, we analyzed the trajectories of mouse movements while participants performed a continuous version of a spatial conflict…
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Current Issues in Reductions-in-Force.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Caplan, Gerald A.
The practitioner advising a school board in connection with a reduction in force can appreciate that the board has great flexibility in implementing its decision. As long as the board's actions are not arbitrary, capricious, or pretextual, and they afford minimal due process protections to tenured teachers, the board's decisions will withstand…
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41 CFR 51-7.3 - Ensuring environmental documents are actually considered in agency determinations.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-07-01
... contains requirements to ensure adequate consideration of environmental documents in agency decision-making... environmental documents as a part of their decision-making: (1) Action: Request. (2) Start of NEPA process: Upon... Property Management Other Provisions Relating to Public Contracts COMMITTEE FOR PURCHASE FROM PEOPLE WHO...
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Risk Tradeoffs in Adaptive Ecosystem Management: The Case of the U.S. Forest Service
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Stern, Marc J.; Martin, Caysie A.; Predmore, S. Andrew; Morse, Wayde C.
2014-06-01
Natural resource planning processes on public lands in the United States are driven in large part by the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which dictates general processes for analyzing and disclosing the likely impacts of proposed actions. The outcomes of these processes are the result of multiple factors, many related to the manifold smaller incremental decisions made by agency personnel directing the processes. Through interviews with decision makers, team leaders, and team members on five NEPA processes within the U.S. Forest Service, this study examines those incremental decisions. Risk, in particular external relationship risk, emerged as a dominant lens through which agency personnel weigh and make process-related decisions. We discuss the tradeoffs associated with agency actors' emphasis on this form of risk and their potential implications for adaptive ecosystem management and organizational performance.
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Certainty, leaps of faith, and tradition: rethinking clinical interventions.
Dzurec, L C
1998-12-01
Clinical decision making requires that clinicians think quickly and in ways that will foster optimal, safe client care. Tradition influences clinical decision making, enhancing efficiency of resulting nursing action; however, since many decisions must be based on data that are either uncertain, incomplete, or indirect, clinicians are readily ensnared in processes involving potentially faulty logic associated with tradition. The author addresses the tenacity of tradition and then focuses on three processes--consensus formation, the grounding of certainty in inductive reasoning, and affirming the consequent--that have affected clinical decision making. For some recipients of care, tradition has had a substantial and invalid influence on their ability to access care.
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Stott, Jeffrey J; Redish, A David
2014-11-05
Both orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and ventral striatum (vStr) have been identified as key structures that represent information about value in decision-making tasks. However, the dynamics of how this information is processed are not yet understood. We recorded ensembles of cells from OFC and vStr in rats engaged in the spatial adjusting delay-discounting task, a decision-making task that involves a trade-off between delay to and magnitude of reward. Ventral striatal neural activity signalled information about reward before the rat's decision, whereas such reward-related signals were absent in OFC until after the animal had committed to its decision. These data support models in which vStr is directly involved in action selection, but OFC processes decision-related information afterwards that can be used to compare the predicted and actual consequences of behaviour. © 2014 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.
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Adversarial Collaboration Decision-Making: An Overview of Social Quantum Information Processing
2002-01-01
collaborative decision - making (CDM) to solve problems is an aspect of human behavior least yielding to rational predictions. To reduce the complexity of CDM...increases. Implications for C2 decision - making are discussed. Overview of research Game theory was one of the first rational approaches to the study of...Psychologist, 36, 343-356. Lawless, W.F. (2001), The quantum of social action and the function of emotion in decision - making , Proceedings, Emotional and
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NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Breininger, David; Duncan, Brean; Eaton, Mitchell; Johnson, Fred; Nichols, James
2014-01-01
Land cover modeling is used to inform land management, but most often via a two-step process where science informs how management alternatives can influence resources and then decision makers can use this to make decisions. A more efficient process is to directly integrate science and decision making, where science allows us to learn to better accomplish management objectives and is developed to address specific decisions. Co-development of management and science is especially productive when decisions are complicated by multiple objectives and impeded by uncertainty. Multiple objectives can be met by specification of tradeoffs, and relevant uncertainty can be addressed through targeted science (i.e., models and monitoring). We describe how to integrate habitat and fuels monitoring with decision making focused on dual objectives of managing for endangered species and minimizing catastrophic fire risk. Under certain conditions, both objectives might be achieved by a similar management policy, but habitat trajectories suggest tradeoffs. Knowledge about system responses to actions can be informed by applying competing management actions to different land units in the same system state and by ideas about fire behavior. Monitoring and management integration is important to optimize state-specific management decisions and increase knowledge about system responses. We believe this approach has broad utility for and cover modeling programs intended to inform decision making.
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Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014
2010-03-23
... impact of its actions on the environment, look at potential alternatives to that action, inform both decision-makers and the public of those impacts through a transparent process, and pursue mitigation if... and existing laws and regulations related to environment and historic preservation. Compliance under...
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42 CFR 93.523 - The Administrative Law Judge's ruling.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-10-01
... POLICIES ON RESEARCH MISCONDUCT Opportunity To Contest ORI Findings of Research Misconduct and HHS Administrative Actions Hearing Process § 93.523 The Administrative Law Judge's ruling. (a) The ALJ shall issue a... decision in whole or in part is the final HHS action, unless debarment or suspension is an administrative...
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42 CFR 93.523 - The Administrative Law Judge's ruling.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR
2011-10-01
... POLICIES ON RESEARCH MISCONDUCT Opportunity To Contest ORI Findings of Research Misconduct and HHS Administrative Actions Hearing Process § 93.523 The Administrative Law Judge's ruling. (a) The ALJ shall issue a... decision in whole or in part is the final HHS action, unless debarment or suspension is an administrative...
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DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
NONE
1998-10-01
This Record of Decision (ROD) presents the selected remedial action plan for the Ohio River Park Superfund Site (the Site) in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. The remedial action plan in this document is presented as the permanent remedy for controlling the groundwater at the Site. This remedy is comprised of: monitoring of natural attenuation processes to measure changes in contaminant concentrations in groundwater plume at the Site until the cleanup levels are achieved; deed restriction preventing residential use of groundwater at the Site.
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Zachary, Wayne; Eggleston, Robert; Donmoyer, Jason; Schremmer, Serge
2003-09-01
Decision-making is strongly shaped and influenced by the work context in which decisions are embedded. This suggests that decision support needs to be anchored by a model (implicit or explicit) of the work process, in contrast to traditional approaches that anchor decision support to either context free decision models (e.g., utility theory) or to detailed models of the external (e.g., battlespace) environment. An architecture for cognitively-based, work centered decision support called the Work-centered Informediary Layer (WIL) is presented. WIL separates decision support into three overall processes that build and dynamically maintain an explicit context model, use the context model to identify opportunities for decision support and tailor generic decision-support strategies to the current context and offer them to the system-user/decision-maker. The generic decision support strategies include such things as activity/attention aiding, decision process structuring, work performance support (selective, contextual automation), explanation/ elaboration, infosphere data retrieval, and what if/action-projection and visualization. A WIL-based application is a work-centered decision support layer that provides active support without intent inferencing, and that is cognitively based without requiring classical cognitive task analyses. Example WIL applications are detailed and discussed.
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Hoppe, Annekatrin; Fujishiro, Kaori
2015-01-01
This study aims to identify person-level factors, rather than economic situations, that influence migration decision-making and actual migration. Building on the theory of planned behavior, this study investigated potential migrants’ expectations and attitudes toward migration and career (i.e., anticipated job benefits of migration, career aspiration) as well as beliefs (i.e., generalized self-efficacy) as predictors of migration decision-making conceptualized in three phases: the pre-decisional, pre-actional, and actional phases. This was examined with cross-sectional pre-migration questionnaire data from 1163 potential migrants from Spain to Germany. We also examined whether the migration decision-making phases predicted actual migration with a subsample (n=249) which provided follow-up data within twelve months. For the cross-sectional sample, multinomial logistic regressions revealed that anticipated job benefits and career aspiration are predictive for all migration phases. Self-efficacy predicts the preactional (e.g., gathering information) and actional phases (e.g., making practical arrangements). Finally, for those with low self-efficacy, anticipated job benefits play a stronger role for taking action. For the longitudinal subsample, a logistic regression revealed that being in the preactional and actional phases at baseline is predictive of actual migration within twelve months. This study expands previous research on migration intentions and behaviors by focusing on expectations, values, and beliefs as person-level predictors for migration decision-making. With a longitudinal sample, it shows that international migration is a process that involves multiple phases. PMID:26379343
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Achieving full connectivity of sites in the multiperiod reserve network design problem
Jafari, Nahid; Nuse, Bryan L.; Moore, Clinton; Dilkina, Bistra; Hepinstall-Cymerman, Jeffrey
2017-01-01
The conservation reserve design problem is a challenge to solve because of the spatial and temporal nature of the problem, uncertainties in the decision process, and the possibility of alternative conservation actions for any given land parcel. Conservation agencies tasked with reserve design may benefit from a dynamic decision system that provides tactical guidance for short-term decision opportunities while maintaining focus on a long-term objective of assembling the best set of protected areas possible. To plan cost-effective conservation over time under time-varying action costs and budget, we propose a multi-period mixed integer programming model for the budget-constrained selection of fully connected sites. The objective is to maximize a summed conservation value over all network parcels at the end of the planning horizon. The originality of this work is in achieving full spatial connectivity of the selected sites during the schedule of conservation actions.
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Fontaine, Reid Griffith; Dodge, Kenneth A.
2009-01-01
Considerable scientific and intervention attention has been paid to judgment and decision-making systems associated with aggressive behavior in youth. However, most empirical studies have investigated social-cognitive correlates of stable child and adolescent aggressiveness, and less is known about real-time decision making to engage in aggressive behavior. A model of real-time decision making must incorporate both impulsive actions and rational thought. The present paper advances a process model (response evaluation and decision; RED) of real-time behavioral judgments and decision making in aggressive youths with mathematic representations that may be used to quantify response strength. These components are a heuristic to describe decision making, though it is doubtful that individuals always mentally complete these steps. RED represents an organization of social–cognitive operations believed to be active during the response decision step of social information processing. The model posits that RED processes can be circumvented through impulsive responding. This article provides a description and integration of thoughtful, rational decision making and nonrational impulsivity in aggressive behavioral interactions. PMID:20802851
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Fontaine, Reid Griffith; Dodge, Kenneth A
2006-11-01
Considerable scientific and intervention attention has been paid to judgment and decision-making systems associated with aggressive behavior in youth. However, most empirical studies have investigated social-cognitive correlates of stable child and adolescent aggressiveness, and less is known about real-time decision making to engage in aggressive behavior. A model of real-time decision making must incorporate both impulsive actions and rational thought. The present paper advances a process model (response evaluation and decision; RED) of real-time behavioral judgments and decision making in aggressive youths with mathematic representations that may be used to quantify response strength. These components are a heuristic to describe decision making, though it is doubtful that individuals always mentally complete these steps. RED represents an organization of social-cognitive operations believed to be active during the response decision step of social information processing. The model posits that RED processes can be circumvented through impulsive responding. This article provides a description and integration of thoughtful, rational decision making and nonrational impulsivity in aggressive behavioral interactions.
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Making DATA Work: A Process for Conducting Action Research
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Young, Anita; Kaffenberger, Carol
2013-01-01
This conceptual model introduces a process to help school counselors use data to drive decision making and offers examples to implement the process. A step-by-step process is offered to help school counselors and school counselor supervisors address educational issues, close achievement gaps, and demonstrate program effectiveness. To illustrate…
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30 CFR 550.267 - What actions will BOEM take after the DPP or DOCD is deemed submitted?
Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR
2013-07-01
... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false What actions will BOEM take after the DPP or DOCD is deemed submitted? 550.267 Section 550.267 Mineral Resources BUREAU OF OCEAN ENERGY MANAGEMENT... and Information Review and Decision Process for the Dpp Or Docd § 550.267 What actions will BOEM take...
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30 CFR 550.267 - What actions will BOEM take after the DPP or DOCD is deemed submitted?
Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR
2012-07-01
... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false What actions will BOEM take after the DPP or DOCD is deemed submitted? 550.267 Section 550.267 Mineral Resources BUREAU OF OCEAN ENERGY MANAGEMENT... and Information Review and Decision Process for the Dpp Or Docd § 550.267 What actions will BOEM take...
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Enhancing clinical decision making: development of a contiguous definition and conceptual framework.
Tiffen, Jennifer; Corbridge, Susan J; Slimmer, Lynda
2014-01-01
Clinical decision making is a term frequently used to describe the fundamental role of the nurse practitioner; however, other terms have been used interchangeably. The purpose of this article is to begin the process of developing a definition and framework of clinical decision making. The developed definition was "Clinical decision making is a contextual, continuous, and evolving process, where data are gathered, interpreted, and evaluated in order to select an evidence-based choice of action." A contiguous framework for clinical decision making specific for nurse practitioners is also proposed. Having a clear and unique understanding of clinical decision making will allow for consistent use of the term, which is relevant given the changing educational requirements for nurse practitioners and broadening scope of practice. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Neuro-cognitive mechanisms of decision making in joint action: a human-robot interaction study.
Bicho, Estela; Erlhagen, Wolfram; Louro, Luis; e Silva, Eliana Costa
2011-10-01
In this paper we present a model for action preparation and decision making in cooperative tasks that is inspired by recent experimental findings about the neuro-cognitive mechanisms supporting joint action in humans. It implements the coordination of actions and goals among the partners as a dynamic process that integrates contextual cues, shared task knowledge and predicted outcome of others' motor behavior. The control architecture is formalized by a system of coupled dynamic neural fields representing a distributed network of local but connected neural populations. Different pools of neurons encode task-relevant information about action means, task goals and context in the form of self-sustained activation patterns. These patterns are triggered by input from connected populations and evolve continuously in time under the influence of recurrent interactions. The dynamic model of joint action is evaluated in a task in which a robot and a human jointly construct a toy object. We show that the highly context sensitive mapping from action observation onto appropriate complementary actions allows coping with dynamically changing joint action situations. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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The values underlying team decision-making in work rehabilitation for musculoskeletal disorders.
Loisel, Patrick; Falardeau, Marlène; Baril, Raymond; José-Durand, Marie; Langley, Ann; Sauvé, Sandrine; Gervais, Julie
2005-05-20
This paper presents the results of a qualitative study on the values underlying the decision-making process of an interdisciplinary team working in a work rehabilitation facility of a Québec teaching hospital. In order to document the values underlying the decision-making process, a single case observational study was conducted. Interdisciplinary team weekly discussions on ongoing cases of 22 workers absent from work due to musculoskeletal disorders were videotaped. All discourses were transcribed and analyzed following an inductive and iterative approach. The values identified were validated by feedback from team members. Ten common decision values emerged from the data: (1) team unity and credibility, (2) collaboration with stakeholders, (3) worker's internal motivation, (4) worker's adherence to the program, (5) worker's reactivation, (6) single message, (7) reassurance, (8) graded intervention, (9) pain management and (10) return to work as a therapy. The analysis of these values led to the design of a model describing interrelations between them. This study throws light on some mechanisms underlying the decisions made by the team and determining its action. This improves understanding of the actions taken by an interdisciplinary team in work rehabilitation and may facilitate knowledge transfer in the training of other teams.
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Garfin, G. M.; Petersen, A.; Shafer, M.; MacClune, K.; Hayhoe, K.; Riley, R.; Nasser, E.; Kos, L.; Allan, C.; Stults, M.; LeRoy, S. R.
2016-12-01
Many communities in the United States are already vulnerable to extreme events; many of these vulnerabilities are likely to increase with climate change. In order to promote the development of effective community responses to climate change, we tested a participatory process for developing usable climate science, in which our project team worked with decision-makers to identify extreme event parameters and critical thresholds associated with policy development and adaptation actions. Our hypothesis is that conveying climate science and data through user-defined parameters and thresholds will help develop capacity to streamline the use of climate projections in developing strategies and actions, and motivate participation by a variety of preparedness planners. Our team collaborated with urban decision-makers, in departments that included resilience, planning, public works, public health, emergency management, and others, in four cities in the semi-arid south-central plains and intermountain areas of Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. Through an iterative process, we homed in on both simple and hybrid indicators for which we could develop credible city-specific projections, to stimulate discussion about adaptation actions; throughout the process, we communicated information about confidence and uncertainty, in order to develop a blend of historic and projected climate data, as appropriate, depending on levels of uncertainty. Our collaborations have resulted in (a) the identification of more than 50 unique indicators and thresholds across the four communities, (b) the development of adaptation action strategies in each community, and (c) the implementation of actions, ranging from a climate leadership training program for city staff members, to a rainwater capture project to improve responses to expected increases in both stormwater runoff and water capture for drought episodes.
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ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Fletcher, Wallace J.; And Others
The goals of the Information System for Vocational Decisions (ISVD), a computerized vocational development program which emphasized goal setting and purposeful action, are related to a tentative curriculum context called a Career Development Program. This Program is learner centered with process and subject matter a function of individual…
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ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Algozzine, Bob; Newton, J. Stephen; Horner, Robert H.; Todd, Anne W.; Algozzine, Kate
2012-01-01
Problem solving is fundamental to psychoeducational assessment practices and generally grounded in activities related to identifying problems, developing and refining hypotheses, generating solutions, developing and implementing actions, and evaluating outcomes. While the process is central to response-to-intervention practices as well, little…
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Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014
2010-04-19
... decisional deadline for written decisions by the SARC. Also, both the SARC Guidelines and the AAC Guidelines have been amended to make additional, limited technical clarifying and conforming amendments. Both sets... action or decision, and to make limited technical amendments. (73 FR 54822 (Sept. 23, 2008)). Although...
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An Investigation of Data Overload in Team-Based Distributed Cognition Systems
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hellar, David Benjamin
2009-01-01
The modern military command center is a hybrid system of computer automated surveillance and human oriented decision making. In these distributed cognition systems, data overload refers simultaneously to the glut of raw data processed by information technology systems and the dearth of actionable knowledge useful to human decision makers.…
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Student's Local Top-Up Higher Education Choices
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Agbola, Frank W.; Cheng, Calvin
2017-01-01
Making decisions about education choices is challenging and difficult for students. Utilising the theory of reasoned action, we specify and estimate a conceptual framework that captures the cognitive process of decision making of students in choosing top-up higher degrees in Hong Kong. Top-up higher or bachelor's degrees are top-up undergraduate…
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5 CFR 2634.904 - Confidential filer defined.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-01-01
....402(b)(4) and 2640.103(a)(2) of this chapter) through decision or the exercise of significant judgment... activities in which the final decision or action will have a direct and substantial economic effect on the... requests for proposals for data processing equipment of significant value which is to be purchased by his...
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ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Seiler, Roland
1989-01-01
Investigates kinds of map information selected and supplementary information desired by experienced orienteers. Reports that, based on lab and field studies, that contour lines were the most important map information, followed by information reducing physical or technical requirements. Concludes action theory is applicable to decision-making…
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Beauregard, Eric; Leclerc, Benoît
2007-06-01
Although the study of both offense processes and implicit theories provides in-depth knowledge about the decision-making of sex offenders, these studies focus solely on the internal psychological processes of the offender leading to the commission of a sexual assault. These studies neglect to look specifically at the offender's decision-making during the offense in interaction with the immediate situations encountered at the offense scene, such as the choices of behavior while interacting with the victim in a specific context. Based on a rational choice approach, this study investigates the decision-making involved in the offending process of 69 serial sexual offenders who have committed their crimes against stranger victims. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with offenders in order to identify the rationale behind their actions during the pre-crime phase (premeditation of the crime, estimation of risk of apprehension by the offender, and forensic awareness of the offender), crime phase (use of a weapon, use of restraints, use of a vehicle, and level of force used), and the post-crime phase (event leading to the end of crime and victim release site location choice). Results show that sex offenders, even if traditionally described as "irrational" and impulsive individuals, are capable, up to a certain point, of an analysis of the costs/benefits related to their actions. Moreover, results emphasize the important role of situational factors, such as victim resistance, on the decision-making process of sex offenders. Implications of the results are briefly discussed in regard of clinical practice and crime prevention.
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Neural Signature of Value-Based Sensorimotor Prioritization in Humans
Blangero, Annabelle
2017-01-01
In situations in which impending sensory events demand fast action choices, we must be ready to prioritize higher-value courses of action to avoid missed opportunities. When such a situation first presents itself, stimulus–action contingencies and their relative value must be encoded to establish a value-biased state of preparation for an impending sensorimotor decision. Here, we sought to identify neurophysiological signatures of such processes in the human brain (both female and male). We devised a task requiring fast action choices based on the discrimination of a simple visual cue in which the differently valued sensory alternatives were presented 750–800 ms before as peripheral “targets” that specified the stimulus–action mapping for the upcoming decision. In response to the targets, we identified a discrete, transient, spatially selective signal in the event-related potential (ERP), which scaled with relative value and strongly predicted the degree of behavioral bias in the upcoming decision both across and within subjects. This signal is not compatible with any hitherto known ERP signature of spatial selection and also bears novel distinctions with respect to characterizations of value-sensitive, spatially selective activity found in sensorimotor areas of nonhuman primates. Specifically, a series of follow-up experiments revealed that the signal was reliably invoked regardless of response laterality, response modality, sensory feature, and reward valence. It was absent, however, when the response deadline was relaxed and the strategic need for biasing removed. Therefore, more than passively representing value or salience, the signal appears to play a versatile and active role in adaptive sensorimotor prioritization. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT In many situations such as fast-moving sports, we must be ready to act fast in response to sensory events and, in our preparation, prioritize courses of action that lead to greater rewards. Although behavioral effects of value biases in sensorimotor decision making have been widely studied, little is known about the neural processes that set these biases in place beforehand. Here, we report the discovery of a transient, spatially selective neural signal in humans that encodes the relative value of competing decision alternatives and strongly predicts behavioral value biases in decisions made ∼500 ms later. Follow-up manipulations of value differential, reward valence, response modality, sensory features, and time constraints establish that the signal reflects an active, feature- and effector-general preparatory mechanism for value-based prioritization. PMID:28982706
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Impact of Process Protocol Design on Virtual Team Effectiveness
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Cordes, Christofer Sean
2013-01-01
This dissertation examined the influence of action process dimensions on team decision performance, and attitudes toward team work environment and procedures given different degrees of collaborative technology affordance. Process models were used to provide context for understanding team behavior in the experimental task, and clarify understanding…
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75 FR 57233 - 340B Drug Pricing Program Administrative Dispute Resolution Process
Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014
2010-09-20
... Dispute Resolution Process AGENCY: Health Resources and Services Administration, HHS. ACTION: Advance...) to promulgate regulations to establish and implement an administrative dispute resolution process for... does not currently refer to HRSA's plan on how it will resolve any decision made through the new...
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Proactive action preparation: seeing action preparation as a continuous and proactive process.
Pezzulo, Giovanni; Ognibene, Dimitri
2012-07-01
In this paper, we aim to elucidate the processes that occur during action preparation from both a conceptual and a computational point of view. We first introduce the traditional, serial model of goal-directed action and discuss from a computational viewpoint its subprocesses occurring during the two phases of covert action preparation and overt motor control. Then, we discuss recent evidence indicating that these subprocesses are highly intertwined at representational and neural levels, which undermines the validity of the serial model and points instead to a parallel model of action specification and selection. Within the parallel view, we analyze the case of delayed choice, arguing that action preparation can be proactive, and preparatory processes can take place even before decisions are made. Specifically, we discuss how prior knowledge and prospective abilities can be used to maximize utility even before deciding what to do. To support our view, we present a computational implementation of (an approximated version of) proactive action preparation, showing its advantages in a simulated tennis-like scenario.
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Skjerdal, Taran; Gefferth, Andras; Spajic, Miroslav; Estanga, Edurne Gaston; de Cecare, Alessandra; Vitali, Silvia; Pasquali, Frederique; Bovo, Federica; Manfreda, Gerardo; Mancusi, Rocco; Trevisiani, Marcello; Tessema, Girum Tadesse; Fagereng, Tone; Moen, Lena Haugland; Lyshaug, Lars; Koidis, Anastasios; Delgado-Pando, Gonzalo; Stratakos, Alexandros Ch; Boeri, Marco; From, Cecilie; Syed, Hyat; Muccioli, Mirko; Mulazzani, Roberto; Halbert, Catherine
2017-01-01
A prototype decision support IT-tool for the food industry was developed in the STARTEC project. Typical processes and decision steps were mapped using real life production scenarios of participating food companies manufacturing complex ready-to-eat foods. Companies looked for a more integrated approach when making food safety decisions that would align with existing HACCP systems. The tool was designed with shelf life assessments and data on safety, quality, and costs, using a pasta salad meal as a case product. The process flow chart was used as starting point, with simulation options at each process step. Key parameters like pH, water activity, costs of ingredients and salaries, and default models for calculations of Listeria monocytogenes , quality scores, and vitamin C, were placed in an interactive database. Customization of the models and settings was possible on the user-interface. The simulation module outputs were provided as detailed curves or categorized as "good"; "sufficient"; or "corrective action needed" based on threshold limit values set by the user. Possible corrective actions were suggested by the system. The tool was tested and approved by end-users based on selected ready-to-eat food products. Compared to other decision support tools, the STARTEC-tool is product-specific and multidisciplinary and includes interpretation and targeted recommendations for end-users.
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Gefferth, Andras; Spajic, Miroslav; Estanga, Edurne Gaston; Vitali, Silvia; Pasquali, Frederique; Bovo, Federica; Manfreda, Gerardo; Mancusi, Rocco; Tessema, Girum Tadesse; Fagereng, Tone; Moen, Lena Haugland; Lyshaug, Lars; Koidis, Anastasios; Delgado-Pando, Gonzalo; Stratakos, Alexandros Ch.; Boeri, Marco; From, Cecilie; Syed, Hyat; Muccioli, Mirko; Mulazzani, Roberto; Halbert, Catherine
2017-01-01
A prototype decision support IT-tool for the food industry was developed in the STARTEC project. Typical processes and decision steps were mapped using real life production scenarios of participating food companies manufacturing complex ready-to-eat foods. Companies looked for a more integrated approach when making food safety decisions that would align with existing HACCP systems. The tool was designed with shelf life assessments and data on safety, quality, and costs, using a pasta salad meal as a case product. The process flow chart was used as starting point, with simulation options at each process step. Key parameters like pH, water activity, costs of ingredients and salaries, and default models for calculations of Listeria monocytogenes, quality scores, and vitamin C, were placed in an interactive database. Customization of the models and settings was possible on the user-interface. The simulation module outputs were provided as detailed curves or categorized as “good”; “sufficient”; or “corrective action needed” based on threshold limit values set by the user. Possible corrective actions were suggested by the system. The tool was tested and approved by end-users based on selected ready-to-eat food products. Compared to other decision support tools, the STARTEC-tool is product-specific and multidisciplinary and includes interpretation and targeted recommendations for end-users. PMID:29457031
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Using an ecological ethics framework to make decisions about the relocation of wildlife.
McCoy, Earl D; Berry, Kristin
2008-12-01
Relocation is an increasingly prominent conservation tool for a variety of wildlife, but the technique also is controversial, even among conservation practitioners. An organized framework for addressing the moral dilemmas often accompanying conservation actions such as relocation has been lacking. Ecological ethics may provide such a framework and appears to be an important step forward in aiding ecological researchers and biodiversity managers to make difficult moral choices. A specific application of this framework can make the reasoning process more transparent and give more emphasis to the strong sentiments about non-human organisms held by many potential users. Providing an example of the application of the framework may also increase the appeal of the reasoning process to ecological researchers and biodiversity managers. Relocation as a conservation action can be accompanied by a variety of moral dilemmas that reflect the interconnection of values, ethical positions, and conservation decisions. A model that is designed to address moral dilemmas arising from relocation of humans provides/demonstrates/illustrates a possible way to apply the ecological ethics framework and to involve practicing conservationists in the overall decision-making process.
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Group Action Planning: An Innovative Manual for Building a Self-Determined Future.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Anderson, Emma Longan; And Others
This manual is designed to provide adolescents and young adults who have disabilities with a blueprint for setting and achieving goals, making decisions, acquiring needed supports, and achieving a self-determined and sustainable lifestyle. A planning process called Group Action Planning is used as a foundation for self-determination, with…
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10 CFR 600.31 - Research misconduct.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-01-01
... the appropriation of another person's ideas, processes, results, or words without giving appropriate... adjudicating official, and the adjudicating official's decision and notification of any corrective action taken... of research misconduct; and that it will comply with its own administrative process and the...
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A strategy for monitoring and managing declines in an amphibian community.
Grant, Evan H Campbell; Zipkin, Elise F; Nichols, James D; Campbell, J Patrick
2013-12-01
Although many taxa have declined globally, conservation actions are inherently local. Ecosystems degrade even in protected areas, and maintaining natural systems in a desired condition may require active management. Implementing management decisions under uncertainty requires a logical and transparent process to identify objectives, develop management actions, formulate system models to link actions with objectives, monitor to reduce uncertainty and identify system state (i.e., resource condition), and determine an optimal management strategy. We applied one such structured decision-making approach that incorporates these critical elements to inform management of amphibian populations in a protected area managed by the U.S. National Park Service. Climate change is expected to affect amphibian occupancy of wetlands and to increase uncertainty in management decision making. We used the tools of structured decision making to identify short-term management solutions that incorporate our current understanding of the effect of climate change on amphibians, emphasizing how management can be undertaken even with incomplete information. Estrategia para Monitorear y Manejar Disminuciones en una Comunidad de Anfibios. © 2013 Society for Conservation Biology.
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State-dependent resource harvesting with lagged information about system states
Johnson, Fred A.; Fackler, Paul L.; Boomer, G Scott; Zimmerman, Guthrie S.; Williams, Byron K.; Nichols, James D.; Dorazio, Robert
2016-01-01
Markov decision processes (MDPs), which involve a temporal sequence of actions conditioned on the state of the managed system, are increasingly being applied in natural resource management. This study focuses on the modification of a traditional MDP to account for those cases in which an action must be chosen after a significant time lag in observing system state, but just prior to a new observation. In order to calculate an optimal decision policy under these conditions, possible actions must be conditioned on the previous observed system state and action taken. We show how to solve these problems when the state transition structure is known and when it is uncertain. Our focus is on the latter case, and we show how actions must be conditioned not only on the previous system state and action, but on the probabilities associated with alternative models of system dynamics. To demonstrate this framework, we calculated and simulated optimal, adaptive policies for MDPs with lagged states for the problem of deciding annual harvest regulations for mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) in the United States. In this particular example, changes in harvest policy induced by the use of lagged information about system state were sufficient to maintain expected management performance (e.g. population size, harvest) even in the face of an uncertain system state at the time of a decision.
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2007-05-10
planners will also benefit from experiencing the regimented military decision - making process and working with experienced operational planners. This...picture of the disaster area for the senior decision -makers, duplication of efforts, gaps in addressing requests for assistance, and the inefficient...Guard Atlantic Area. Interview by author, 25 March 2007. Mr. Doane stated that the JTF operated “in a vacuum” and “outside the inter-agency decision
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Distributed decision making in action: diagnostic imaging investigations within the bigger picture.
Makanjee, Chandra R; Bergh, Anne-Marie; Hoffmann, Willem A
2018-03-01
Decision making in the health care system - specifically with regard to diagnostic imaging investigations - occurs at multiple levels. Professional role players from various backgrounds are involved in making these decisions, from the point of referral to the outcomes of the imaging investigation. The aim of this study was to map the decision-making processes and pathways involved when patients are referred for diagnostic imaging investigations and to explore distributed decision-making events at the points of contact with patients within a health care system. A two-phased qualitative study was conducted in an academic public health complex with the district hospital as entry point. The first phase included case studies of 24 conveniently selected patients, and the second phase involved 12 focus group interviews with health care providers. Data analysis was based on Rapley's interpretation of decision making as being distributed across time, situations and actions, and including different role players and technologies. Clinical decisions incorporating imaging investigations are distributed across the three vital points of contact or decision-making events, namely the initial patient consultation, the diagnostic imaging investigation and the post-investigation consultation. Each of these decision-making events is made up of a sequence of discrete decision-making moments based on the transfer of retrospective, current and prospective information and its transformation into knowledge. This paper contributes to the understanding of the microstructural processes (the 'when' and 'where') involved in the distribution of decisions related to imaging investigations. It also highlights the interdependency in decision-making events of medical and non-medical providers within a single medical encounter. © 2017 The Authors. Journal of Medical Radiation Sciences published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Australian Society of Medical Imaging and Radiation Therapy and New Zealand Institute of Medical Radiation Technology.
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Breininger, David; Duncan, Brean; Eaton, Mitchell J.; Johnson, Fred; Nichols, James
2014-01-01
Land cover modeling is used to inform land management, but most often via a two-step process, where science informs how management alternatives can influence resources, and then, decision makers can use this information to make decisions. A more efficient process is to directly integrate science and decision-making, where science allows us to learn in order to better accomplish management objectives and is developed to address specific decisions. Co-development of management and science is especially productive when decisions are complicated by multiple objectives and impeded by uncertainty. Multiple objectives can be met by the specification of tradeoffs, and relevant uncertainty can be addressed through targeted science (i.e., models and monitoring). We describe how to integrate habitat and fuel monitoring with decision-making focused on the dual objectives of managing for endangered species and minimizing catastrophic fire risk. Under certain conditions, both objectives might be achieved by a similar management policy; other conditions require tradeoffs between objectives. Knowledge about system responses to actions can be informed by developing hypotheses based on ideas about fire behavior and then applying competing management actions to different land units in the same system state. Monitoring and management integration is important to optimize state-specific management decisions and to increase knowledge about system responses. We believe this approach has broad utility and identifies a clear role for land cover modeling programs intended to inform decision-making.
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Neckles, Hilary A.; Guntenspergen, Glenn R.; Shriver, W. George; Danz, Nicholas P.; Wiest, Whitney A.; Nagel, Jessica L.; Olker, Jennifer H.
2013-01-01
Implementation of these metrics for quantitative assessment of NWRS salt marsh integrity in FWS Region 5 requires developing sampling designs for each refuge. Additionally, it is important to determine how the monitoring information will be used within a management context. SDM should be used to complete the analysis of salt marsh management decisions. The next steps would involve 1) prioritizing and weighting the management objectives; 2) predicting responses to individual management actions in terms of objectives and metrics; 3) using multiattribute utility theory to convert all measurable attributes to a common utility scale; 4) determining the total management benefit of each action by summing utilities across objectives; and 5) maximizing the total management benefits within cost constraints for each refuge. This process would allow the optimum management decisions for NWRS salt marshes to be selected and implemented based directly on monitoring data and current understanding of marsh responses to management actions. Monitoring the outcome of management actions would then allow new monitoring data to be incorporated into subsequent decisions.
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Mental disorder and legal responsibility: the relevance of stages of decision making.
Kalis, Annemarie; Meynen, Gerben
2014-01-01
The paper discusses the relevance of decision-making models for evaluating the impact of mental disorder on legal responsibility. A three-stage model is presented that analyzes decision making in terms of behavioral control. We argue that understanding dysfunctions in each of the three stages of decision making could provide important insights in the relation between mental disorder and legal responsibility. In particular, it is argued that generating options for action constitutes an important but largely ignored stage of the decision-making process, and that dysfunctions in this early stage might undermine the whole process of making decisions (and thus behavioral control) more strongly than dysfunctions in later stages. Lastly, we show how the presented framework could be relevant to the actual psychiatric assessment of a defendant's decision making within the context of an insanity defense. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Grubert, E.
2015-12-01
Decision makers' responses to local risks and expected changes to a community from circumstances like natural hazards, human developments, and demographic changes can greatly affect social and environmental outcomes in a community. Translating physical data based in disciplines like engineering and geosciences into positive outcomes for communities can be challenging and often results in conflict that appears to pit "science" against "the public." Scientists can be reluctant to offer recommendations for action based on their work, often (and often correctly) noting that their role is not to make value judgments for a community - particularly for a community that is not their own. Conversely, decision makers can be frustrated by the lack of guidance they receive to help translate data into effective and acceptable action. The solution posed by this submission, given the goal of co-production of knowledge by scientists and decision makers to foster better community outcomes, is to involve the community directly by integrating social scientific methods that address decision making and community engagement to the scientist-decision maker interaction. Specifically, the missing dataset in many scientist-decision maker interactions is the nature of community priorities. Using scientifically valid methods to rigorously collect and characterize community priorities to help recommend tradeoffs between different outcomes indicated by the work of physical and natural scientists can bridge the gap between science and action by involving the community in the process. This submission presents early work on US preferences for different types of social and environmental outcomes designed to integrate directly with engineering and physical science frameworks like Life Cycle Assessment and Environmental Impact Statements. Cardinal preference data are based on surveys of US adults using tools like the Analytical Hierarchy Process, budget allocation, and ranking.
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DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Stern, Marc J., E-mail: mjstern@vt.ed; Predmore, S. Andrew, E-mail: sapredmo@vt.ed
2011-04-15
The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) dictates a process of analyzing and disclosing the likely impacts of proposed agency actions on the human environment. This study addresses two key questions related to NEPA implementation in the U.S. Forest Service: 1) how do Interdisciplinary (ID) team leaders and decision makers conceptualize the outcomes of NEPA processes? And 2), how does NEPA relate to agency decision making? We address these questions through two separate online surveys that posed questions about recently completed NEPA processes - the first with the ID team leaders tasked with carrying out the processes, and the second withmore » the line officers responsible for making the processes' final decisions. Outcomes of NEPA processes include impacts on public relations, on employee morale and team functioning, on the achievement of agency goals, and on the achievement of NEPA's procedural requirements (disclosure) and substantive intent (minimizing negative environmental impacts). Although both tended to view public relations outcomes as important, decision makers' perceptions of favorable outcomes were more closely linked to the achievement of agency goals and process efficiency than was the case for ID team leaders. While ID team leaders' responses suggest that they see decision making closely integrated with the NEPA process, decision makers more commonly decoupled decision making from the NEPA process. These findings suggest a philosophical difference between ID team leaders and decision makers that may pose challenges for both the implementation and the evaluation of agency NEPA. We discuss the pros and cons of integrating NEPA with decision making or separating the two. We conclude that detaching NEPA from decision making poses greater risks than integrating them.« less
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Anger in brain and body: the neural and physiological perturbation of decision-making by emotion
Zorab, Emma; Navaratnam, Nakulan; Engels, Miriam; Mallorquí-Bagué, Núria; Minati, Ludovico; Dowell, Nicholas G.; Brosschot, Jos F.; Thayer, Julian F.; Critchley, Hugo D.
2016-01-01
Emotion and cognition are dynamically coupled to bodily arousal: the induction of anger, even unconsciously, can reprioritise neural and physiological resources toward action states that bias cognitive processes. Here we examine behavioural, neural and bodily effects of covert anger processing and its influence on cognition, indexed by lexical decision-making. While recording beat-to-beat blood pressure, the words ANGER or RELAX were presented subliminally just prior to rapid word/non-word reaction-time judgements of letter-strings. Subliminal ANGER primes delayed the time taken to reach rapid lexical decisions, relative to RELAX primes. However, individuals with high trait anger were speeded up by subliminal anger primes. ANGER primes increased systolic blood pressure and the magnitude of this increase predicted reaction time prolongation. Within the brain, ANGER trials evoked an enhancement of activity within dorsal pons and an attenuation of activity within visual occipitotemporal and attentional parietal cortices. Activity within periaqueductal grey matter, occipital and parietal regions increased linearly with evoked blood pressure changes, indicating neural substrates through which covert anger impairs semantic decisions, putatively through its expression as visceral arousal. The behavioural and physiological impact of anger states compromises the efficiency of cognitive processing through action-ready changes in autonomic response that skew regional neural activity. PMID:26253525
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Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014
2013-03-15
....C. 1131-36) and other laws and policies, will frame the decision-making for the CRMP/EIS. The CRMP...-action and a preferred alternative. The potential environmental effects of each alternative will be... decisions related to this project are invited to participate in the scoping process and, if eligible, may...
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DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Farnham, Irene
This corrective action decision document (CADD)/corrective action plan (CAP) has been prepared for Corrective Action Unit (CAU) 97, Yucca Flat/Climax Mine, Nevada National Security Site (NNSS), Nevada. The Yucca Flat/Climax Mine CAU is located in the northeastern portion of the NNSS and comprises 720 corrective action sites. A total of 747 underground nuclear detonations took place within this CAU between 1957 and 1992 and resulted in the release of radionuclides (RNs) in the subsurface in the vicinity of the test cavities. The CADD portion describes the Yucca Flat/Climax Mine CAU data-collection and modeling activities completed during the corrective action investigationmore » (CAI) stage, presents the corrective action objectives, and describes the actions recommended to meet the objectives. The CAP portion describes the corrective action implementation plan. The CAP presents CAU regulatory boundary objectives and initial use-restriction boundaries identified and negotiated by DOE and the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection (NDEP). The CAP also presents the model evaluation process designed to build confidence that the groundwater flow and contaminant transport modeling results can be used for the regulatory decisions required for CAU closure. The UGTA strategy assumes that active remediation of subsurface RN contamination is not feasible with current technology. As a result, the corrective action is based on a combination of characterization and modeling studies, monitoring, and institutional controls. The strategy is implemented through a four-stage approach that comprises the following: (1) corrective action investigation plan (CAIP), (2) CAI, (3) CADD/CAP, and (4) closure report (CR) stages.« less
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Alterations in choice behavior by manipulations of world model.
Green, C S; Benson, C; Kersten, D; Schrater, P
2010-09-14
How to compute initially unknown reward values makes up one of the key problems in reinforcement learning theory, with two basic approaches being used. Model-free algorithms rely on the accumulation of substantial amounts of experience to compute the value of actions, whereas in model-based learning, the agent seeks to learn the generative process for outcomes from which the value of actions can be predicted. Here we show that (i) "probability matching"-a consistent example of suboptimal choice behavior seen in humans-occurs in an optimal Bayesian model-based learner using a max decision rule that is initialized with ecologically plausible, but incorrect beliefs about the generative process for outcomes and (ii) human behavior can be strongly and predictably altered by the presence of cues suggestive of various generative processes, despite statistically identical outcome generation. These results suggest human decision making is rational and model based and not consistent with model-free learning.
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Alterations in choice behavior by manipulations of world model
Green, C. S.; Benson, C.; Kersten, D.; Schrater, P.
2010-01-01
How to compute initially unknown reward values makes up one of the key problems in reinforcement learning theory, with two basic approaches being used. Model-free algorithms rely on the accumulation of substantial amounts of experience to compute the value of actions, whereas in model-based learning, the agent seeks to learn the generative process for outcomes from which the value of actions can be predicted. Here we show that (i) “probability matching”—a consistent example of suboptimal choice behavior seen in humans—occurs in an optimal Bayesian model-based learner using a max decision rule that is initialized with ecologically plausible, but incorrect beliefs about the generative process for outcomes and (ii) human behavior can be strongly and predictably altered by the presence of cues suggestive of various generative processes, despite statistically identical outcome generation. These results suggest human decision making is rational and model based and not consistent with model-free learning. PMID:20805507
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Distributed collaborative decision support environments for predictive awareness
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
McQuay, William K.; Stilman, Boris; Yakhnis, Vlad
2005-05-01
The past decade has produced significant changes in the conduct of military operations: asymmetric warfare, the reliance on dynamic coalitions, stringent rules of engagement, increased concern about collateral damage, and the need for sustained air operations. Mission commanders need to assimilate a tremendous amount of information, rapidly assess the enemy"s course of action (eCOA) or possible actions and promulgate their own course of action (COA) - a need for predictive awareness. Decision support tools in a distributed collaborative environment offer the capability of decomposing complex multitask processes and distributing them over a dynamic set of execution assets that include modeling, simulations, and analysis tools. Revolutionary new approaches to strategy generation and assessment such as Linguistic Geometry (LG) permit the rapid development of COA vs. enemy COA (eCOA). LG tools automatically generate and permit the operators to take advantage of winning strategies and tactics for mission planning and execution in near real-time. LG is predictive and employs deep "look-ahead" from the current state and provides a realistic, reactive model of adversary reasoning and behavior. Collaborative environments provide the framework and integrate models, simulations, and domain specific decision support tools for the sharing and exchanging of data, information, knowledge, and actions. This paper describes ongoing research efforts in applying distributed collaborative environments to decision support for predictive mission awareness.
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STATISTICS-BASED APPROACH TO WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT OPERATIONS
This paper describes work toward development of a convenient decision support system to improve everyday operation and control of the wastewater treatment process. The goal is to help the operator detect problems in the process and select appropriate control actions. The system...
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Context is everything or how could I have been that stupid?
Croskerry, Pat
2009-01-01
Dual Process Theory provides a useful working model of decision-making. It broadly divides decision-making into intuitive (System 1) and analytical (System 2) processes. System 1 is especially dependent on contextual cues. There appears to be a universal human tendency to contextualize information, mostly in an effort to imbue meaning but also, perhaps, to conserve cognitive energy. Most decision errors occur in System 1, and this has two major implications. The first is that insufficient account may have been taken out of context when the original decision was made. Secondly, in trying to learn from decision failures, we need the highest fidelity of context reconstruction as possible. It should be appreciated that learning from past events is inevitably an imperfect process. Retrospective investigations, such as root-cause analysis, critical incident review, morbidity and mortality rounds and legal investigations, all suffer the limitation that they cannot faithfully reconstruct the context in which decisions were made and from which actions followed.
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Neural substrates of decision-making.
Broche-Pérez, Y; Herrera Jiménez, L F; Omar-Martínez, E
2016-06-01
Decision-making is the process of selecting a course of action from among 2 or more alternatives by considering the potential outcomes of selecting each option and estimating its consequences in the short, medium and long term. The prefrontal cortex (PFC) has traditionally been considered the key neural structure in decision-making process. However, new studies support the hypothesis that describes a complex neural network including both cortical and subcortical structures. The aim of this review is to summarise evidence on the anatomical structures underlying the decision-making process, considering new findings that support the existence of a complex neural network that gives rise to this complex neuropsychological process. Current evidence shows that the cortical structures involved in decision-making include the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). This process is assisted by subcortical structures including the amygdala, thalamus, and cerebellum. Findings to date show that both cortical and subcortical brain regions contribute to the decision-making process. The neural basis of decision-making is a complex neural network of cortico-cortical and cortico-subcortical connections which includes subareas of the PFC, limbic structures, and the cerebellum. Copyright © 2014 Sociedad Española de Neurología. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.
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Predicting species distributions for conservation decisions
Guisan, Antoine; Tingley, Reid; Baumgartner, John B; Naujokaitis-Lewis, Ilona; Sutcliffe, Patricia R; Tulloch, Ayesha I T; Regan, Tracey J; Brotons, Lluis; McDonald-Madden, Eve; Mantyka-Pringle, Chrystal; Martin, Tara G; Rhodes, Jonathan R; Maggini, Ramona; Setterfield, Samantha A; Elith, Jane; Schwartz, Mark W; Wintle, Brendan A; Broennimann, Olivier; Austin, Mike; Ferrier, Simon; Kearney, Michael R; Possingham, Hugh P; Buckley, Yvonne M
2013-01-01
Species distribution models (SDMs) are increasingly proposed to support conservation decision making. However, evidence of SDMs supporting solutions for on-ground conservation problems is still scarce in the scientific literature. Here, we show that successful examples exist but are still largely hidden in the grey literature, and thus less accessible for analysis and learning. Furthermore, the decision framework within which SDMs are used is rarely made explicit. Using case studies from biological invasions, identification of critical habitats, reserve selection and translocation of endangered species, we propose that SDMs may be tailored to suit a range of decision-making contexts when used within a structured and transparent decision-making process. To construct appropriate SDMs to more effectively guide conservation actions, modellers need to better understand the decision process, and decision makers need to provide feedback to modellers regarding the actual use of SDMs to support conservation decisions. This could be facilitated by individuals or institutions playing the role of ‘translators’ between modellers and decision makers. We encourage species distribution modellers to get involved in real decision-making processes that will benefit from their technical input; this strategy has the potential to better bridge theory and practice, and contribute to improve both scientific knowledge and conservation outcomes. PMID:24134332
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Agent based modeling in tactical wargaming
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
James, Alex; Hanratty, Timothy P.; Tuttle, Daniel C.; Coles, John B.
2016-05-01
Army staffs at division, brigade, and battalion levels often plan for contingency operations. As such, analysts consider the impact and potential consequences of actions taken. The Army Military Decision-Making Process (MDMP) dictates identification and evaluation of possible enemy courses of action; however, non-state actors often do not exhibit the same level and consistency of planned actions that the MDMP was originally designed to anticipate. The fourth MDMP step is a particular challenge, wargaming courses of action within the context of complex social-cultural behaviors. Agent-based Modeling (ABM) and its resulting emergent behavior is a potential solution to model terrain in terms of the human domain and improve the results and rigor of the traditional wargaming process.
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Gresch, Helge; Bögeholz, Susanne
2013-04-01
Students are faced with a multitude of decisions as consumers and in societal debates. Because of the scarcity of resources, the destruction of ecosystems and social injustice in a globalized world, it is vital that students are able to identify non-sustainable courses of action when involved in decision-making. The application of decision-making strategies is one approach to enhancing the quality of decisions. Options that do not meet ecological, social or economic standards should be excluded using non-compensatory strategies whereas other tasks may require a complete trade-off of all the evidence, following a compensatory approach. To enhance decision-making competence, a computer-based intervention study was conducted that focused on the use of decision-making strategies. While the results of the summative evaluation are reported by Gresch et al. (International Journal of Science Education, 2011), in-depth analyses of process-related data collected during the information processing are presented in this paper to reveal insights into the mechanisms of the intervention. The quality of high school students' ( n = 120) metadecision skills when selecting a decision-making strategy was investigated using qualitative content analyses combined with inferential statistics. The results reveal that the students offered elaborate reflections on the sustainability of options. However, the characteristics that were declared non-sustainable differed among the students because societal norms and personal values were intertwined. One implication for education for sustainable development is that students are capable of reflecting on decision-making tasks and on corresponding favorable decision-making strategies at a metadecision level. From these results, we offer suggestions for improving learning environments and constructing test instruments for decision-making competence.
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Reward and decision processes in the brains of humans and nonhuman primates.
Sirigu, Angela; Duhamel, Jean-René
2016-03-01
Choice behavior requires weighing multiple decision variables, such as utility, uncertainty, delay, or effort, that combine to define a subjective value for each considered option or course of action. This capacity is based on prior learning about potential rewards (and punishments) that result from prior actions. When made in a social context, decisions can involve strategic thinking about the intentions of others and about the impact of others' behavior on one's own outcome. Valuation is also influenced by different emotions that serve to adaptively regulate our choices in order to, for example, stay away from excessively risky gambles, prevent future regrets, or avoid personal rejection or conflicts. Drawing on economic theory and on advances in the study of neuronal mechanisms, we review relevant recent experiments in nonhuman primates and clinical observations made in neurologically impaired patients suffering from impaired decision-making capacities.
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Reward and decision processes in the brains of humans and nonhuman primates
Sirigu, Angela; Duhamel, Jean-René
2016-01-01
Choice behavior requires weighing multiple decision variables, such as utility, uncertainty, delay, or effort, that combine to define a subjective value for each considered option or course of action. This capacity is based on prior learning about potential rewards (and punishments) that result from prior actions. When made in a social context, decisions can involve strategic thinking about the intentions of others and about the impact of others' behavior on one's own outcome. Valuation is also influenced by different emotions that serve to adaptively regulate our choices in order to, for example, stay away from excessively risky gambles, prevent future regrets, or avoid personal rejection or conflicts. Drawing on economic theory and on advances in the study of neuronal mechanisms, we review relevant recent experiments in nonhuman primates and clinical observations made in neurologically impaired patients suffering from impaired decision-making capacities. PMID:27069379
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A model for medical decision making and problem solving.
Werner, M
1995-08-01
Clinicians confront the classical problem of decision making under uncertainty, but a universal procedure by which they deal with this situation, both in diagnosis and therapy, can be defined. This consists in the choice of a specific course of action from available alternatives so as to reduce uncertainty. Formal analysis evidences that the expected value of this process depends on the a priori probabilities confronted, the discriminatory power of the action chosen, and the values and costs associated with possible outcomes. Clinical problem-solving represents the construction of a systematic strategy from multiple decisional building blocks. Depending on the level of uncertainty the physicians attach to their working hypothesis, they can choose among at least four prototype strategies: pattern recognition, the hypothetico-deductive process, arborization, and exhaustion. However, the resolution of real-life problems can involve a combination of these game plans. Formal analysis of each strategy permits definition of its appropriate a priori probabilities, action characteristics, and cost implications.
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Benjamin, Joseph R.; McDonnell, Kevin; Dunham, Jason B.; Brignon, William R.; Peterson, James T.
2017-06-21
With the decline of bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus), managers face multiple, and sometimes contradictory, management alternatives for species recovery. Moreover, effective decision-making involves all stakeholders influenced by the decisions (such as Tribal, State, Federal, private, and non-governmental organizations) because they represent diverse objectives, jurisdictions, policy mandates, and opinions of the best management strategy. The process of structured decision making is explicitly designed to address these elements of the decision making process. Here we report on an application of structured decision making to a population of bull trout believed threatened by high densities of nonnative brook trout (S. fontinalis) and habitat fragmentation in Long Creek, a tributary to the Sycan River in the Klamath River Basin, south-central Oregon. This involved engaging stakeholders to identify (1) their fundamental objectives for the conservation of bull trout, (2) feasible management alternatives to achieve their objectives, and (3) biological information and assumptions to incorporate in a decision model. Model simulations suggested an overarching theme among the top decision alternatives, which was a need to simultaneously control brook trout and ensure that the migratory tactic of bull trout can be expressed. More specifically, the optimal management decision, based on the estimated adult abundance at year 10, was to combine the eradication of brook trout from Long Creek with improvement of downstream conditions (for example, connectivity or habitat conditions). Other top decisions included these actions independently, as well as electrofishing removal of brook trout. In contrast, translocating bull trout to a different stream or installing a barrier to prevent upstream spread of brook trout had minimal or negative effects on the bull trout population. Moreover, sensitivity analyses suggested that these actions were consistently identified as optimal across a large range of parameter values. Taken together, these results support the conclusion that management actions focused on controlling brook trout and enhancing migrant bull trout are more likely to yield more adult bull trout within the 10-year time frame specified by stakeholders.
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Confronting dynamics and uncertainty in optimal decision making for conservation
Williams, Byron K.; Johnson, Fred A.
2013-01-01
The effectiveness of conservation efforts ultimately depends on the recognition that decision making, and the systems that it is designed to affect, are inherently dynamic and characterized by multiple sources of uncertainty. To cope with these challenges, conservation planners are increasingly turning to the tools of decision analysis, especially dynamic optimization methods. Here we provide a general framework for optimal, dynamic conservation and then explore its capacity for coping with various sources and degrees of uncertainty. In broadest terms, the dynamic optimization problem in conservation is choosing among a set of decision options at periodic intervals so as to maximize some conservation objective over the planning horizon. Planners must account for immediate objective returns, as well as the effect of current decisions on future resource conditions and, thus, on future decisions. Undermining the effectiveness of such a planning process are uncertainties concerning extant resource conditions (partial observability), the immediate consequences of decision choices (partial controllability), the outcomes of uncontrolled, environmental drivers (environmental variation), and the processes structuring resource dynamics (structural uncertainty). Where outcomes from these sources of uncertainty can be described in terms of probability distributions, a focus on maximizing the expected objective return, while taking state-specific actions, is an effective mechanism for coping with uncertainty. When such probability distributions are unavailable or deemed unreliable, a focus on maximizing robustness is likely to be the preferred approach. Here the idea is to choose an action (or state-dependent policy) that achieves at least some minimum level of performance regardless of the (uncertain) outcomes. We provide some examples of how the dynamic optimization problem can be framed for problems involving management of habitat for an imperiled species, conservation of a critically endangered population through captive breeding, control of invasive species, construction of biodiversity reserves, design of landscapes to increase habitat connectivity, and resource exploitation. Although these decision making problems and their solutions present significant challenges, we suggest that a systematic and effective approach to dynamic decision making in conservation need not be an onerous undertaking. The requirements are shared with any systematic approach to decision making--a careful consideration of values, actions, and outcomes.
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Confronting dynamics and uncertainty in optimal decision making for conservation
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Williams, Byron K.; Johnson, Fred A.
2013-06-01
The effectiveness of conservation efforts ultimately depends on the recognition that decision making, and the systems that it is designed to affect, are inherently dynamic and characterized by multiple sources of uncertainty. To cope with these challenges, conservation planners are increasingly turning to the tools of decision analysis, especially dynamic optimization methods. Here we provide a general framework for optimal, dynamic conservation and then explore its capacity for coping with various sources and degrees of uncertainty. In broadest terms, the dynamic optimization problem in conservation is choosing among a set of decision options at periodic intervals so as to maximize some conservation objective over the planning horizon. Planners must account for immediate objective returns, as well as the effect of current decisions on future resource conditions and, thus, on future decisions. Undermining the effectiveness of such a planning process are uncertainties concerning extant resource conditions (partial observability), the immediate consequences of decision choices (partial controllability), the outcomes of uncontrolled, environmental drivers (environmental variation), and the processes structuring resource dynamics (structural uncertainty). Where outcomes from these sources of uncertainty can be described in terms of probability distributions, a focus on maximizing the expected objective return, while taking state-specific actions, is an effective mechanism for coping with uncertainty. When such probability distributions are unavailable or deemed unreliable, a focus on maximizing robustness is likely to be the preferred approach. Here the idea is to choose an action (or state-dependent policy) that achieves at least some minimum level of performance regardless of the (uncertain) outcomes. We provide some examples of how the dynamic optimization problem can be framed for problems involving management of habitat for an imperiled species, conservation of a critically endangered population through captive breeding, control of invasive species, construction of biodiversity reserves, design of landscapes to increase habitat connectivity, and resource exploitation. Although these decision making problems and their solutions present significant challenges, we suggest that a systematic and effective approach to dynamic decision making in conservation need not be an onerous undertaking. The requirements are shared with any systematic approach to decision making—a careful consideration of values, actions, and outcomes.
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Lloyd, Amy; Joseph-Williams, Natalie; Edwards, Adrian; Rix, Andrew; Elwyn, Glyn
2013-09-05
Implementing shared decision making into routine practice is proving difficult, despite considerable interest from policy-makers, and is far more complex than merely making decision support interventions available to patients. Few have reported successful implementation beyond research studies. MAking Good Decisions In Collaboration (MAGIC) is a multi-faceted implementation program, commissioned by The Health Foundation (UK), to examine how best to put shared decision making into routine practice. In this paper, we investigate healthcare professionals' perspectives on implementing shared decision making during the MAGIC program, to examine the work required to implement shared decision making and to inform future efforts. The MAGIC program approached implementation of shared decision making by initiating a range of interventions including: providing workshops; facilitating development of brief decision support tools (Option Grids); initiating a patient activation campaign ('Ask 3 Questions'); gathering feedback using Decision Quality Measures; providing clinical leads meetings, learning events, and feedback sessions; and obtaining executive board level support. At 9 and 15 months (May and November 2011), two rounds of semi-structured interviews were conducted with healthcare professionals in three secondary care teams to explore views on the impact of these interventions. Interview data were coded by two reviewers using a framework derived from the Normalization Process Theory. A total of 54 interviews were completed with 31 healthcare professionals. Partial implementation of shared decision making could be explained using the four components of the Normalization Process Theory: 'coherence,' 'cognitive participation,' 'collective action,' and 'reflexive monitoring.' Shared decision making was integrated into routine practice when clinical teams shared coherent views of role and purpose ('coherence'). Shared decision making was facilitated when teams engaged in developing and delivering interventions ('cognitive participation'), and when those interventions fit with existing skill sets and organizational priorities ('collective action') resulting in demonstrable improvements to practice ('reflexive monitoring'). The implementation process uncovered diverse and conflicting attitudes toward shared decision making; 'coherence' was often missing. The study showed that implementation of shared decision making is more complex than the delivery of patient decision support interventions to patients, a portrayal that often goes unquestioned. Normalizing shared decision making requires intensive work to ensure teams have a shared understanding of the purpose of involving patients in decisions, and undergo the attitudinal shifts that many health professionals feel are required when comprehension goes beyond initial interpretations. Divergent views on the value of engaging patients in decisions remain a significant barrier to implementation.
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Knowledge focus via software agents
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Henager, Donald E.
2001-09-01
The essence of military Command and Control (C2) is making knowledge intensive decisions in a limited amount of time using uncertain, incorrect, or outdated information. It is essential to provide tools to decision-makers that provide: * Management of friendly forces by treating the "friendly resources as a system". * Rapid assessment of effects of military actions againt the "enemy as a system". * Assessment of how an enemy should, can, and could react to friendly military activities. Software agents in the form of mission agents, target agents, maintenance agents, and logistics agents can meet this information challenge. The role of each agent is to know all the details about its assigned mission, target, maintenance, or logistics entity. The Mission Agent would fight for mission resources based on the mission priority and analyze the effect that a proposed mission's results would have on the enemy. The Target Agent (TA) communicates with other targets to determine its role in the system of targets. A system of TAs would be able to inform a planner or analyst of the status of a system of targets, the effect of that status, adn the effect of attacks on that system. The system of TAs would also be able to analyze possible enemy reactions to attack by determining ways to minimize the effect of attack, such as rerouting traffic or using deception. The Maintenance Agent would scheudle maintenance events and notify the maintenance unit. The Logistics Agent would manage shipment and delivery of supplies to maintain appropriate levels of weapons, fuel and spare parts. The central idea underlying this case of software agents is knowledge focus. Software agents are createad automatically to focus their attention on individual real-world entities (e.g., missions, targets) and view the world from that entities perspective. The agent autonomously monitors the entity, identifies problems/opportunities, formulates solutions, and informs the decision-maker. The agent must be able to communicate to receive and disseminate information and provide the decision-maker with assistance via focused knowledge. THe agent must also be able to monitor the state of its own environment and make decisions necessary to carry out its delegated tasks. Agents bring three elements to the C2 domain that offer to improve decision-making. First, they provide higher-quality feedback and provide it more often. In doing so, the feedback loop becomes nearly continuous, reducing or eliminating delays in situation updates to decision-makers. Working with the most current information possible improves the control process, thus enabling effects based operations. Second, the agents accept delegation of actions and perform those actions following an established process. Agents' consistent actions reduce the variability of human input and stabilize the control process. Third, through the delegation of actions, agents ensure 100 percent consideration of plan details.
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Embodied Cognition: Is Activation of the Motor Cortex Essential for Understanding Action Verbs?
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Miller, Jeff; Brookie, Kate; Wales, Sid; Wallace, Simon; Kaup, Barbara
2018-01-01
In 8 experiments using language processing tasks ranging from lexical decision to sensibility judgment, participants made hand or foot responses after reading hand- or foot-associated words such as action verbs. In general, response time (RT) tended to be faster when the hand- versus foot-associated word was compatible with the limb that was…
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Solecki, W. D.; Friedman, E. S.; Breitzer, R.
2016-12-01
Increasingly frequent extreme weather events are becoming an immediate priority for urban coastal practitioners and stakeholders, adding complexity to decisions concerning risk management for short-term action and long-term needs of city climate stakeholders. The conflict between the prioritization of short versus long-term events by decision-makers creates disconnect between climate science and its applications. The Consortium for Climate Risk in the Urban Northeast (CCRUN), a NOAA RISA team, is developing a set of mechanisms to help bridge this gap. The mechanisms are designed to promote the application of climate science on extreme weather events and their aftermath. It is in the post event policy window where significant opportunities for science-policy linkages exist. In particular, CCRUN is interested in producing actionable and useful information for city managers to use in decision-making processes surrounding extreme weather events and climate change. These processes include a sector specific needs assessment survey instrument and two tools for urban coastal practitioners and stakeholders. The tools focus on post event learning and connections between resilience and transformative adaptation. Elements of the two tools are presented. Post extreme event learning supports urban coastal practitioners and decision-makers concerned about maximizing opportunities for knowledge transfer and assimilation, and policy initiation and development following an extreme weather event. For the urban U.S. Northeast, post event learning helps coastal stakeholders build the capacity to adapt to extreme weather events, and inform and develop their planning capacity through analysis of past actions and steps taken in response to Hurricane Sandy. Connecting resilience with transformative adaptation is intended to promote resilience in urban Northeast coastal settings to the long-term negative consequences of extreme weather events. This is done through a knowledge co-production engagement process that links innovative and flexible adaptation pathways that can address requirements for short-term action and long-term needs.
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At Least I Tried: The Relationship between Regulatory Focus and Regret Following Action vs. Inaction
Itzkin, Adi; Van Dijk, Dina; Azar, Ofer H.
2016-01-01
Regret is an unpleasant feeling that may arise following decisions that ended poorly, and may affect the decision-maker's well-being and future decision making. Some studies show that a decision to act leads to greater regret than a decision not to act when both resulted in failure, because the latter is usually the norm. In some cases, when the norm is to act, this pattern is reversed. We suggest that the decision maker's regulatory focus, affects regret after action or inaction. Specifically, promotion-focused individuals, who tend to be more proactive, view action as more normal than prevention-focused individuals, and therefore experience regulatory fit when an action decision is made. Hence, we hypothesized that promotion-focused individuals will feel less regret than prevention-focused individuals when a decision to act ended poorly. In addition, we hypothesized that a trigger for change implied in the situation, decreases the level of regret following action. We tested our hypotheses on a sample of 330 participants enrolled in an online survey. The participants received six decision scenarios, in which they were asked to evaluate the level of regret following action and inaction. Individual regulatory focus was measured by two different scales. Promotion-focused individuals attributed less regret than prevention-focused individuals to action decisions. Regret following inaction was not affected by regulatory focus. In addition, a trigger for change decreases regret following action. Orthodox people tend to attribute more regret than non-orthodox to a person who made an action decision. The results contribute to the literature by showing that not only the situation but also the decision maker's orientation affects the regret after action vs. inaction. PMID:27833581
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NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Woodward, Hugh
2005-01-01
Remote meetings are best for updates and information sharing, but it is possible to effectively facilitate decisions with a little planning. Generally, the meeting leader needs to clearly state the proposed decision and then separately poll each participant for concurrence. Normally, there will be a range of responses, requiring the facilitator to restate the proposal and repeat the process. Several iterations may be required before a consensus is achieved. I usually confirm decisions by restating the conclusion as it will appear in the meeting notes and asking the participants to express any objections. Gaining commitment to follow-up actions is never easy, of course, but tends to be particularly tricky in remote meetings. The ideal solution is to use collaboration software with a whiteboard as a means of recording the follow-up actions and responsibilities. (A Word or Excel document viewed through NetMeeting works equally well.) But if the meeting is being conducted without collaboration software, the leader must review each follow-up action explicitly, even painstakingly. I generally note follow-up actions throughout the meeting and use the last few minutes to confirm and finalize. I read each action and name the person I think owns the responsibility. When the person accepts, I validate by asking for a completion date. All the normal rules for assigning follow-up actions apply, of course. One, and only one, person must be responsible for each action, and assigning an action to somebody not present is akin to assigning it to nobody.
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Meris, Ronald G; Barbera, Joseph A
2014-01-01
In a large-scale outdoor, airborne, hazardous materials (HAZMAT) incident, such as ruptured chlorine rail cars during a train derailment, the local Incident Commanders and HAZMAT emergency responders must obtain accurate information quickly to assess the situation and act promptly and appropriately. HAZMAT responders must have a clear understanding of key information and how to integrate it into timely and effective decisions for action planning. This study examined the use of HAZMAT plume modeling as a decision support tool during incident action planning in this type of extreme HAZMAT incident. The concept of situation awareness as presented by Endsley's dynamic situation awareness model contains three levels: perception, comprehension, and projection. It was used to examine the actions of incident managers related to adequate data acquisition, current situational understanding, and accurate situation projection. Scientists and engineers have created software to simulate and predict HAZMAT plume behavior, the projected hazard impact areas, and the associated health effects. Incorporating the use of HAZMAT plume projection modeling into an incident action plan may be a complex process. The present analysis used a mixed qualitative and quantitative methodological approach and examined the use and limitations of a "HAZMAT Plume Modeling Cycle" process that can be integrated into the incident action planning cycle. HAZMAT response experts were interviewed using a computer-based simulation. One of the research conclusions indicated the "HAZMAT Plume Modeling Cycle" is a critical function so that an individual/team can be tasked with continually updating the hazard plume model with evolving data, promoting more accurate situation awareness.
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Difficult decisions: Migration from Small Island Developing States under climate change
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Kelman, Ilan
2015-04-01
The impacts of climate change on Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are leading to discussions regarding decision-making about the potential need to migrate. Despite the situation being well-documented, with many SIDS aiming to raise the topic to prominence and to take action for themselves, limited support and interest has been forthcoming from external sources. This paper presents, analyzes, and critiques a decision-making flowchart to support actions for SIDS dealing with climate change-linked migration. The flowchart contributes to identifying the pertinent topics to consider and the potential support needed to implement decision-making. The flowchart has significant limitations and there are topics which it cannot resolve. On-the-ground considerations include who decides, finances, implements, monitors, and enforces each decision. Additionally, views within communities differ, hence mechanisms are needed for dealing with differences, while issues to address include moral and legal blame for any climate change-linked migration, the ultimate goal of the decision-making process, the wider role of migration in SIDS communities and the right to judge decision-making and decisions. The conclusions summarize the paper, emphasizing the importance of considering contexts beyond climate change and multiple SIDS voices.
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Some Applications of Fuzzy Sets and the Analytical Hierarchy Process to Decision Making.
1984-09-01
presented in Figure 1.1. Another point of view is that of Kellerman [Ref. 2] whose analysis is related with the conflicts, needs and personality traits of...iii). The personality traits that influence the decision making process and differ in each iLdividual are the following: His tclerance for ambiguity or...a person with high tolerance for ambiguity is more likely to be patient in evaluating or collecting information before taking action. Cn the contrary
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43 CFR 429.37 - Does interest accrue on monies owed to the United States during my appeal process?
Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-10-01
... United States during my appeal process? 429.37 Section 429.37 Public Lands: Interior Regulations Relating... States during my appeal process? Except for any period in the appeal process during which a stay is then... decision to OHA, or during judicial review of final agency action. ...
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How decisions emerge: action dynamics in intertemporal decision making.
Dshemuchadse, Maja; Scherbaum, Stefan; Goschke, Thomas
2013-02-01
In intertemporal decision making, individuals prefer smaller rewards delivered sooner over larger rewards delivered later, often to an extent that seems irrational from an economical perspective. This behavior has been attributed to a lack of self-control and reflection, the nonlinearity of human time perception, and several other sources. Although an increasing number of models propose different mathematical descriptions of temporal discounting, the dynamics of the decision process behind temporal discounting are much less clear. In this study, we obtained further insights into the mechanisms of intertemporal decisions by observing choice action dynamics via a novel combination of continuously recorded mouse movements and a multiple regression approach. Participants had to choose between two hypothetical options (sooner/smaller vs. later/larger) by moving the mouse cursor from the bottom of the screen either to the top left or to the top right. We observed less direct mouse movements when participants chose later/larger rewards, indicating that participants had to overcome the attraction of the sooner/smaller reward first. Additionally, our results suggest that framing time information differently changes the weighting of value. We conclude that using a continuous process-oriented approach could further advance the understanding of intertemporal choice beyond the identification of the best fitted mathematical description of the discounting function by uncovering the way intertemporal decisions are performed. 2013 APA, all rights reserved
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Using Decision Structures for Policy Analysis in Software Product-line Evolution - A Case Study
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Sarang, Nita; Sanglikar, Mukund A.
Project management decisions are the primary basis for project success (or failure). Mostly, such decisions are based on an intuitive understanding of the underlying software engineering and management process and have a likelihood of being misjudged. Our problem domain is product-line evolution. We model the dynamics of the process by incorporating feedback loops appropriate to two decision structures: staffing policy, and the forces of growth associated with long-term software evolution. The model is executable and supports project managers to assess the long-term effects of possible actions. Our work also corroborates results from earlier studies of E-type systems, in particular the FEAST project and the rules for software evolution, planning and management.
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Assessing the Value of Frost Forecasts to Orchardists: A Dynamic Decision-Making Approach.
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Katz, Richard W.; Murphy, Allan H.; Winkler, Robert L.
1982-04-01
The methodology of decision analysis is used to investigate the economic value of frost (i.e., minimum temperature) forecasts to orchardists. First, the fruit-frost situation and previous studies of the value of minimum temperature forecasts in this context are described. Then, after a brief overview of decision analysis, a decision-making model for the fruit-frost problem is presented. The model involves identifying the relevant actions and events (or outcomes), specifying the effect of taking protective action, and describing the relationships among temperature, bud loss, and yield loss. A bivariate normal distribution is used to model the relationship between forecast and observed temperatures, thereby characterizing the quality of different types of information. Since the orchardist wants to minimize expenses (or maximize payoffs) over the entire frost-protection season and since current actions and outcomes at any point in the season are related to both previous and future actions and outcomes, the decision-making problem is inherently dynamic in nature. As a result, a class of dynamic models known as Markov decision processes is considered. A computational technique called dynamic programming is used in conjunction with these models to determine the optimal actions and to estimate the value of meteorological information.Some results concerning the value of frost forecasts to orchardists in the Yakima Valley of central Washington are presented for the cases of red delicious apples, bartlett pears, and elberta peaches. Estimates of the parameter values in the Markov decision process are obtained from relevant physical and economic data. Twenty years of National Weather Service forecast and observed temperatures for the Yakima key station are used to estimate the quality of different types of information, including perfect forecasts, current forecasts, and climatological information. The orchardist's optimal actions over the frost-protection season and the expected expenses associated with the use of such information are determined using a dynamic programming algorithm. The value of meteorological information is defined as the difference between the expected expense for the information of interest and the expected expense for climatological information. Over the entire frost-protection season, the value estimates (in 1977 dollars) for current forecasts were $808 per acre for red delicious apples, $492 per acre for bartlett pears, and $270 per acre for elberta peaches. These amounts account for 66, 63, and 47%, respectively, of the economic value associated with decisions based on perfect forecasts. Varying the quality of the minimum temperature forecasts reveals that the relationship between the accuracy and value of such forecasts is nonlinear and that improvements in current forecasts would not be as significant in terms of economic value as were comparable improvements in the past.Several possible extensions of this study of the value of frost forecasts to orchardists are briefly described. Finally, the application of the dynamic model formulated in this paper to other decision-making problems involving the use of meteorological information is mentioned.
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Theory of choice in bandit, information sampling and foraging tasks.
Averbeck, Bruno B
2015-03-01
Decision making has been studied with a wide array of tasks. Here we examine the theoretical structure of bandit, information sampling and foraging tasks. These tasks move beyond tasks where the choice in the current trial does not affect future expected rewards. We have modeled these tasks using Markov decision processes (MDPs). MDPs provide a general framework for modeling tasks in which decisions affect the information on which future choices will be made. Under the assumption that agents are maximizing expected rewards, MDPs provide normative solutions. We find that all three classes of tasks pose choices among actions which trade-off immediate and future expected rewards. The tasks drive these trade-offs in unique ways, however. For bandit and information sampling tasks, increasing uncertainty or the time horizon shifts value to actions that pay-off in the future. Correspondingly, decreasing uncertainty increases the relative value of actions that pay-off immediately. For foraging tasks the time-horizon plays the dominant role, as choices do not affect future uncertainty in these tasks.
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Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014
2013-02-13
... for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) Appeals Processes'' revises, updates, and combines two... regarding CDRH's appeal processes. Individuals outside of FDA who disagree with a decision or action taken by CDRH and wish to have it reviewed or reconsidered have several processes for resolution from which...
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Strategic decision making under climate change: a case study on Lake Maggiore water system
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Micotti, M.; Soncini Sessa, R.; Weber, E.
2014-09-01
Water resources planning processes involve different kinds of decisions that are generally evaluated under a stationary climate scenario assumption. In general, the possible combinations of interventions are mutually compared as single alternatives. However, the ongoing climate change requires us to reconsider this approach. Indeed, what have to be compared are not individual alternatives, but families of alternatives, characterized by the same structural decisions, i.e. by actions that have long-term effects and entail irrevocable changes in the system. The rationale is that the structural actions, once they have been implemented, cannot be easily modified, while the management decisions can be adapted to the evolving conditions. This paper considers this methodological problem in a real case study, in which a strategic decision has to be taken: a new barrage was proposed to regulate Lake Maggiore outflow, but, alternatively, either the present barrage can be maintained with its present regulation norms or with a new one. The problem was dealt with by multi-criteria decision analysis involving many stakeholders and two decision-makers. An exhaustive set of indicators was defined in the participatory process, conducted under the integrated water resource management paradigm, and many efficient (in Pareto sense) regulation policies were identified. The paper explores different formulations of a global index to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of the classes of alternatives under both stationary and changing hydrological scenarios in order to assess their adaptability to the ongoing climate change.
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Ethical safety of deep brain stimulation: A study on moral decision-making in Parkinson's disease.
Fumagalli, Manuela; Marceglia, Sara; Cogiamanian, Filippo; Ardolino, Gianluca; Picascia, Marta; Barbieri, Sergio; Pravettoni, Gabriella; Pacchetti, Claudio; Priori, Alberto
2015-07-01
The possibility that deep brain stimulation (DBS) in Parkinson's disease (PD) alters patients' decisions and actions, even temporarily, raises important clinical, ethical and legal questions. Abnormal moral decision-making can lead to ethical rules violations. Previous experiments demonstrated the subthalamic (STN) activation during moral decision-making. Here we aim to study whether STN DBS can affect moral decision-making in PD patients. Eleven patients with PD and bilateral STN DBS implant performed a computerized moral task in ON and OFF stimulation conditions. A control group of PD patients without DBS implant performed the same experimental protocol. All patients underwent motor, cognitive and psychological assessments. STN stimulation was not able to modify neither reaction times nor responses to moral task both when we compared the ON and the OFF state in the same patient (reaction times, p = .416) and when we compared DBS patients with those treated only with the best medical treatment (reaction times: p = .408, responses: p = .776). Moral judgment is the result of a complex process, requiring cognitive executive functions, problem-solving, anticipations of consequences of an action, conflict processing, emotional evaluation of context and of possible outcomes, and involving different brain areas and neural circuits. Our data show that STN DBS leaves unaffected moral decisions thus implying relevant clinical and ethical implications for DBS consequences on patients' behavior, on decision-making and on judgment ability. In conclusion, the technique can be considered safe on moral behavior. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Plitt, Mark; Savjani, Ricky R; Eagleman, David M
2015-04-01
To investigate whether the legal concept of "corporate personhood" mirrors an inherent similarity in the neural processing of the actions of corporations and people, we measured brain responses to vignettes about corporations and people while participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging. We found that anti-social actions of corporations elicited more intense negative emotions and that pro-social actions of people elicited more intense positive emotions. However, the networks underlying the moral decisions about corporations and people are strikingly similar, including regions of the canonical theory of mind network. In analyzing the activity in these networks, we found differences in the emotional processing of these two types of vignettes: neutral actions of corporations showed neural correlates that more closely resembled negative actions than positive actions. Collectively, these findings indicate that our brains understand and analyze the actions of corporations and people very similarly, with a small emotional bias against corporations.
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Elwyn, Glyn; Burstin, Helen; Barry, Michael J; Corry, Maureen P; Durand, Marie Anne; Lessler, Daniel; Saigal, Christopher
2018-04-27
Efforts to implement the use of patient decision aids to stimulate shared decision making are gaining prominence. Patient decision aids have been designed to help patients participate in making specific choices among health care options. Because these tools clearly influence decisions, poor quality, inaccurate or unbalanced presentations or misleading tools are a risk to patients. As payer interest in these tools increases, so does the risk that patients are harmed by the use of tools that are described as patient decision aids yet fail to meet established standards. To address this problem, the National Quality Forum (NQF) in the USA convened a multi-stakeholder expert panel in 2016 to propose national standards for a patient decision aid certification process. In 2017, NQF established an Action Team to foster shared decision making, and to call for a national certification process as one recommendation among others to stimulate improvement. A persistent barrier to the setup of a national patient decision aids certification process is the lack of a sustainable financial model to support the work. Copyright © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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Facilitators and constraints at each stage of the migration decision process.
Kley, Stefanie
2017-10-01
Behavioural models of migration emphasize the importance of migration decision-making for the explanation of subsequent behaviour. But empirical migration research regularly finds considerable gaps between those who intend to migrate and those who actually realize their intention. This paper applies the Theory of Planned Behaviour, enriched by the Rubicon model, to test specific hypotheses about distinct effects of facilitators and constraints on specific stages of migration decision-making and behaviour. The data come from a tailor-made panel survey based on random samples of people drawn from two German cities in 2006-07. The results show that in conventional models the effects of facilitators and constraints on migration decision-making are likely to be underestimated. Splitting the process of migration decision-making into a pre-decisional and a pre-actional phase helps to avoid bias in the estimated effects of facilitators and constraints on both migration decision-making and migration behaviour.
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Adaptive Multi-scale PHM for Robotic Assembly Processes
Choo, Benjamin Y.; Beling, Peter A.; LaViers, Amy E.; Marvel, Jeremy A.; Weiss, Brian A.
2017-01-01
Adaptive multiscale prognostics and health management (AM-PHM) is a methodology designed to support PHM in smart manufacturing systems. As a rule, PHM information is not used in high-level decision-making in manufacturing systems. AM-PHM leverages and integrates component-level PHM information with hierarchical relationships across the component, machine, work cell, and production line levels in a manufacturing system. The AM-PHM methodology enables the creation of actionable prognostic and diagnostic intelligence up and down the manufacturing process hierarchy. Decisions are made with the knowledge of the current and projected health state of the system at decision points along the nodes of the hierarchical structure. A description of the AM-PHM methodology with a simulated canonical robotic assembly process is presented. PMID:28664161
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Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-07-01
... PROCEDURES FOR SETTLING PERSONNEL AND GENERAL CLAIMS AND PROCESSING ADVANCE DECISION REQUESTS § 282.3... to perform the function or take the action indicated or from whose activity a claim arose. (e) Final...
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Alkhatib, Omar J
2017-12-01
The construction industry is typically characterized as a fragmented, multi-organizational setting in which members from different technical backgrounds and moral values join together to develop a particular business or project. The most challenging obstacle in the construction process is to achieve a successful practice and to identify and apply an ethical framework to manage the behavior of involved specialists and contractors and to ensure the quality of all completed construction activities. The framework should reflect a common moral ground for myriad people involved in this process to survive and compete ethically in today's turbulent construction market. This study establishes a framework for moral judgment of behavior and actions conducted in the construction process. The moral framework provides the basis of judging actions as "moral" or "immoral" based on three levels of moral accountability: personal, professional, and social. The social aspect of the proposed framework is developed primarily from the essential attributes of normative business decision-making models identified in the literature review and subsequently incorporates additional attributes related to professional and personal moral values. The normative decision-making models reviewed are based primarily on social attributes as related to moral theories (e.g., utilitarianism, duty, rights, virtue, etc.). The professional and moral attributes are established by identifying a set of common moral values recognized by professionals in the construction industry and required to prevent common construction breaches. The moral framework presented here is the complementary part of the ethical framework developed in Part I of this article and is based primarily on the personal behavior or the moral aspect of professional responsibility. The framework can be implemented as a form of preventive personal ethics, which would help avoid ethical dilemmas and moral implications in the first place. Furthermore, the moral framework can be considered as a decision-making model to guide actions and improve the moral reasoning process, which would help individuals think through possible implications and the consequences of ethical and moral issues in the construction industry.
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Collaborative deliberation: a model for patient care.
Elwyn, Glyn; Lloyd, Amy; May, Carl; van der Weijden, Trudy; Stiggelbout, Anne; Edwards, Adrian; Frosch, Dominick L; Rapley, Tim; Barr, Paul; Walsh, Thom; Grande, Stuart W; Montori, Victor; Epstein, Ronald
2014-11-01
Existing theoretical work in decision making and behavior change has focused on how individuals arrive at decisions or form intentions. Less attention has been given to theorizing the requirements that might be necessary for individuals to work collaboratively to address difficult decisions, consider new alternatives, or change behaviors. The goal of this work was to develop, as a forerunner to a middle range theory, a conceptual model that considers the process of supporting patients to consider alternative health care options, in collaboration with clinicians, and others. Theory building among researchers with experience and expertise in clinician-patient communication, using an iterative cycle of discussions. We developed a model composed of five inter-related propositions that serve as a foundation for clinical communication processes that honor the ethical principles of respecting individual agency, autonomy, and an empathic approach to practice. We named the model 'collaborative deliberation.' The propositions describe: (1) constructive interpersonal engagement, (2) recognition of alternative actions, (3) comparative learning, (4) preference construction and elicitation, and (5) preference integration. We believe the model underpins multiple suggested approaches to clinical practice that take the form of patient centered care, motivational interviewing, goal setting, action planning, and shared decision making. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Knopman, D.; Berg, N.
2017-12-01
The NOAA Mid-Atlantic Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments (MARISA) program was formed in September 2016 to increase climate resilience in the Mid-Atlantic, with an initial focus on the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. In this talk, we will discuss how the program's unique structure and approach are designed to advance resilience to a changing climate through improved data, place-based decision support, and public engagement. Emphasis will be placed on MARISA's approach to integrating stakeholder perspectives from the onset of decision scoping, through the creation of actionable data sets, and concluding with the co-development of adaptation strategies between the scientific community, decision-makers, and stakeholders. Specific examples of this process involving climate-sensitive decisions and investments regarding water resources, land management, and urban corridors will be discussed.
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18 CFR 708.5 - Program objectives implementation.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR
2011-04-01
... opinion, methods, shall include but not be limited to survey research. (1) The survey research process... significant actions prior to decision-making. Survey research methods and other procedures will be used to... participation elicited from each of the process phases—public meetings, public hearings, survey research, direct...
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18 CFR 708.5 - Program objectives implementation.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR
2012-04-01
... opinion, methods, shall include but not be limited to survey research. (1) The survey research process... significant actions prior to decision-making. Survey research methods and other procedures will be used to... participation elicited from each of the process phases—public meetings, public hearings, survey research, direct...
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18 CFR 708.5 - Program objectives implementation.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-04-01
... opinion, methods, shall include but not be limited to survey research. (1) The survey research process... significant actions prior to decision-making. Survey research methods and other procedures will be used to... participation elicited from each of the process phases—public meetings, public hearings, survey research, direct...
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18 CFR 708.5 - Program objectives implementation.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR
2014-04-01
... opinion, methods, shall include but not be limited to survey research. (1) The survey research process... significant actions prior to decision-making. Survey research methods and other procedures will be used to... participation elicited from each of the process phases—public meetings, public hearings, survey research, direct...
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18 CFR 708.5 - Program objectives implementation.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR
2013-04-01
... opinion, methods, shall include but not be limited to survey research. (1) The survey research process... significant actions prior to decision-making. Survey research methods and other procedures will be used to... participation elicited from each of the process phases—public meetings, public hearings, survey research, direct...
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36 CFR 220.7 - Environmental assessment and decision notice.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR
2013-07-01
... modifications and incremental design features developed through the analysis process to develop the alternatives... proposed action and any alternatives together in a comparative description or describe the impacts of each...
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36 CFR 220.7 - Environmental assessment and decision notice.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR
2012-07-01
... modifications and incremental design features developed through the analysis process to develop the alternatives... proposed action and any alternatives together in a comparative description or describe the impacts of each...
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36 CFR 220.7 - Environmental assessment and decision notice.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR
2014-07-01
... modifications and incremental design features developed through the analysis process to develop the alternatives... proposed action and any alternatives together in a comparative description or describe the impacts of each...
-
36 CFR 220.7 - Environmental assessment and decision notice.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR
2011-07-01
... modifications and incremental design features developed through the analysis process to develop the alternatives... proposed action and any alternatives together in a comparative description or describe the impacts of each...
-
36 CFR 220.7 - Environmental assessment and decision notice.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-07-01
... modifications and incremental design features developed through the analysis process to develop the alternatives... proposed action and any alternatives together in a comparative description or describe the impacts of each...
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Neural Signature of Value-Based Sensorimotor Prioritization in Humans.
Blangero, Annabelle; Kelly, Simon P
2017-11-01
In situations in which impending sensory events demand fast action choices, we must be ready to prioritize higher-value courses of action to avoid missed opportunities. When such a situation first presents itself, stimulus-action contingencies and their relative value must be encoded to establish a value-biased state of preparation for an impending sensorimotor decision. Here, we sought to identify neurophysiological signatures of such processes in the human brain (both female and male). We devised a task requiring fast action choices based on the discrimination of a simple visual cue in which the differently valued sensory alternatives were presented 750-800 ms before as peripheral "targets" that specified the stimulus-action mapping for the upcoming decision. In response to the targets, we identified a discrete, transient, spatially selective signal in the event-related potential (ERP), which scaled with relative value and strongly predicted the degree of behavioral bias in the upcoming decision both across and within subjects. This signal is not compatible with any hitherto known ERP signature of spatial selection and also bears novel distinctions with respect to characterizations of value-sensitive, spatially selective activity found in sensorimotor areas of nonhuman primates. Specifically, a series of follow-up experiments revealed that the signal was reliably invoked regardless of response laterality, response modality, sensory feature, and reward valence. It was absent, however, when the response deadline was relaxed and the strategic need for biasing removed. Therefore, more than passively representing value or salience, the signal appears to play a versatile and active role in adaptive sensorimotor prioritization. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT In many situations such as fast-moving sports, we must be ready to act fast in response to sensory events and, in our preparation, prioritize courses of action that lead to greater rewards. Although behavioral effects of value biases in sensorimotor decision making have been widely studied, little is known about the neural processes that set these biases in place beforehand. Here, we report the discovery of a transient, spatially selective neural signal in humans that encodes the relative value of competing decision alternatives and strongly predicts behavioral value biases in decisions made ∼500 ms later. Follow-up manipulations of value differential, reward valence, response modality, sensory features, and time constraints establish that the signal reflects an active, feature- and effector-general preparatory mechanism for value-based prioritization. Copyright © 2017 the authors 0270-6474/17/3710725-13$15.00/0.
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Using an ecological ethics framework to make decisions about the relocation of wildlife
McCoy, E.D.; Berry, K.
2008-01-01
Relocation is an increasingly prominent conservation tool for a variety of wildlife, but the technique also is controversial, even among conservation practitioners. An organized framework for addressing the moral dilemmas often accompanying conservation actions such as relocation has been lacking. Ecological ethics may provide such a framework and appears to be an important step forward in aiding ecological researchers and biodiversity managers to make difficult moral choices. A specific application of this framework can make the reasoning process more transparent and give more emphasis to the strong sentiments about non-human organisms held by many potential users. Providing an example of the application of the framework may also increase the appeal of the reasoning process to ecological researchers and biodiversity managers. Relocation as a conservation action can be accompanied by a variety of moral dilemmas that reflect the interconnection of values, ethical positions, and conservation decisions. A model that is designed to address moral dilemmas arising from relocation of humans provides/demonstrates/illustrates a possible way to apply the ecological ethics framework and to involve practicing conservationists in the overall decision-making process. ?? 2008 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
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Spiliopoulos, Leonidas
2018-03-01
The investigation of response time and behavior has a long tradition in cognitive psychology, particularly for non-strategic decision-making. Recently, experimental economists have also studied response time in strategic interactions, but with an emphasis on either one-shot games or repeated social-dilemmas. I investigate the determinants of response time in a repeated (pure-conflict) game, admitting a unique mixed strategy Nash equilibrium, with fixed partner matching. Response times depend upon the interaction of two decision models embedded in a dual-process framework (Achtziger and Alós-Ferrer, 2014; Alós-Ferrer, 2016). The first decision model is the commonly used win-stay/lose-shift heuristic and the second the pattern-detecting reinforcement learning model in Spiliopoulos (2013b). The former is less complex and can be executed more quickly than the latter. As predicted, conflict between these two models (i.e., each one recommending a different course of action) led to longer response times than cases without conflict. The dual-process framework makes other qualitative response time predictions arising from the interaction between the existence (or not) of conflict and which one of the two decision models the chosen action is consistent with-these were broadly verified by the data. Other determinants of RT were hypothesized on the basis of existing theory and tested empirically. Response times were strongly dependent on the actions chosen by both players in the previous rounds and the resulting outcomes. Specifically, response time was shortest after a win in the previous round where the maximum possible payoff was obtained; response time after losses was significantly longer. Strongly auto-correlated behavior (regardless of its sign) was also associated with longer response times. I conclude that, similar to other tasks, there is a strong coupling in repeated games between behavior and RT, which can be exploited to further our understanding of decision making. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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Reasoning and Action: Implementation of a Decision-Making Program in Sport.
Gil-Arias, Alexander; Moreno, M Perla; García-Mas, Alex; Moreno, Alberto; García-González, Luíz; Del Villar, Fernando
2016-09-20
The objective of this study was to apply a decision training programme, based on the use of video-feedback and questioning, in real game time, in order to improve decision-making in volleyball attack actions. A three-phase quasi-experimental design was implemented: Phase A (pre-test), Phase B (Intervention) and Phase C (Retention). The sample was made up of 8 female Under-16 volleyball players, who were divided into two groups: experimental group (n = 4) and control group (n = 4). The independent variable was the decision training program, which was applied for 11 weeks in a training context, more specifically in a 6x6 game situation. The player had to analyze the reasons and causes of the decision taken. The dependent variable was decision-making, which was assessed based on systematic observation, using the "Game Performance Assessment Instrument" (GPAI) (Oslin, Mitchell, & Griffin, 1998). Results showed that, after applying the decision training program, the experimental group showed a significantly higher average percentage of successful decisions than the control group F(1, 6) = 11.26; p = .015; η2 p = .652; 95% CI [056, 360]. These results highlight the need to complement the training process with cognitive tools such as video-feedback and questioning in order to improve athletes' decision-making.
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Harm aversion explains utilitarian choices in moral decision-making in males but not in females.
Rota, G; Palumbo, S; Lattanzi, N; Manfrinati, A; Sarlo, M; Lotto, L; Pietrini, P; Rumiati, R; Pellegrini, S
2016-06-01
In recent years, a great deal of research has relied on hypothetical sacrificial dilemmas to investigate decision-making processes involved in pro-social utilitarian choices. Recent evidence, however, has suggested that moral sacrificial choices may actually reflect reduced harm aversion and antisocial dispositions rather than an utilitarian inclination. Here, we used moral dilemmas to confront healthy volunteers with controversial action choices. We measured impulsiveness and venturesomeness personality traits, which have been shown to influence harm aversion, to test their role in utilitarian action and evaluation of moral acceptability. The results of the present study show that, in males, venturesomeness drives engagement in actions and increases moral acceptability. In contrast, in females no effects of venturesomeness were observed on moral action and evaluation. Rather, in females empathetic concern and personal distress, elicited by the vicarious experience of the other's emotional states, exerted an inhibitory effect on action. Taken together, these findings indicate that the "harm aversion hypothesis" may contribute to explain utilitarian choices in males but not in females. In both genders, no association was observed between impulsiveness and moral action.
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Functional specialization of the primate frontal cortex during decision making.
Lee, Daeyeol; Rushworth, Matthew F S; Walton, Mark E; Watanabe, Masataka; Sakagami, Masamichi
2007-08-01
Economic theories of decision making are based on the principle of utility maximization, and reinforcement-learning theory provides computational algorithms that can be used to estimate the overall reward expected from alternative choices. These formal models not only account for a large range of behavioral observations in human and animal decision makers, but also provide useful tools for investigating the neural basis of decision making. Nevertheless, in reality, decision makers must combine different types of information about the costs and benefits associated with each available option, such as the quality and quantity of expected reward and required work. In this article, we put forward the hypothesis that different subdivisions of the primate frontal cortex may be specialized to focus on different aspects of dynamic decision-making processes. In this hypothesis, the lateral prefrontal cortex is primarily involved in maintaining the state representation necessary to identify optimal actions in a given environment. In contrast, the orbitofrontal cortex and the anterior cingulate cortex might be primarily involved in encoding and updating the utilities associated with different sensory stimuli and alternative actions, respectively. These cortical areas are also likely to contribute to decision making in a social context.
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Arnold, Julia C.
2018-03-01
Health education is to foster health literacy, informed decision-making and to promote health behaviour. To date, there are several models that seek to explain health behaviour (e.g. the Theory of Planned Behaviour or the Health Belief Model). These models include motivational factors (expectancies and values) that play a role in decision-making in health contexts. In this theoretical paper, it is argued that none of these models makes consequent use of expectancy-value pairs. It is further argued that in order to make these models fruitful for science education and for informed decision-making, models should systematically incorporate knowledge as part of the decision-making process. To fill this gap, this theoretical paper introduces The Integrated Model of Decision-Making in Health Contexts. This model includes three types of knowledge (system health knowledge, action-related health knowledge and effectiveness health knowledge) as influencing factors for motivational factors (perceived health threat, attitude towards health action, attitude towards health outcome and subjective norm) that are formed of expectancy-value pairs and lead to decisions. The model's potential for health education in science education as well as research implications is discussed.
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Integrating Ecosystem Services Into Health Impact Assessment
Health Impact Assessment (HIA) provides a methodology for incorporating considerations of public health into planning and decision-making processes. HIA promotes interdisciplinary action, stakeholder participation, and timeliness and takes into account equity, sustainability, and...
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77 FR 41273 - Core Values and Characteristics of the Department
Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014
2012-07-13
... the product of a 2-year collaborative and comprehensive development process, which was motivated by a... continuous improvement, and be thoughtful and decisive in leadership, accountable for their actions, willing...
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Performance measurement integrated information framework in e-Manufacturing
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Teran, Hilaida; Hernandez, Juan Carlos; Vizán, Antonio; Ríos, José
2014-11-01
The implementation of Internet technologies has led to e-Manufacturing technologies becoming more widely used and to the development of tools for compiling, transforming and synchronising manufacturing data through the Web. In this context, a potential area for development is the extension of virtual manufacturing to performance measurement (PM) processes, a critical area for decision making and implementing improvement actions in manufacturing. This paper proposes a PM information framework to integrate decision support systems in e-Manufacturing. Specifically, the proposed framework offers a homogeneous PM information exchange model that can be applied through decision support in e-Manufacturing environment. Its application improves the necessary interoperability in decision-making data processing tasks. It comprises three sub-systems: a data model, a PM information platform and PM-Web services architecture. A practical example of data exchange for measurement processes in the area of equipment maintenance is shown to demonstrate the utility of the model.
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Cancer care decision making in multidisciplinary meetings.
Dew, Kevin; Stubbe, Maria; Signal, Louise; Stairmand, Jeannine; Dennett, Elizabeth; Koea, Jonathan; Simpson, Andrew; Sarfati, Diana; Cunningham, Chris; Batten, Lesley; Ellison-Loschmann, Lis; Barton, Josh; Holdaway, Maureen
2015-03-01
Little research has been undertaken on the actual decision-making processes in cancer care multidisciplinary meetings (MDMs). This article was based on a qualitative observational study of two regional cancer treatment centers in New Zealand. We audiorecorded 10 meetings in which 106 patient cases were discussed. Members of the meetings categorized cases in varying ways, drew on a range of sources of authority, expressed different value positions, and utilized a variety of strategies to justify their actions. An important dimension of authority was encountered authority-the authority a clinician has because of meeting the patient. The MDM chairperson can play an important role in making explicit the sources of authority being drawn on and the value positions of members to provide more clarity to the decision-making process. Attending to issues of process, authority, and values in MDMs has the potential to improve cancer care decision making and ultimately, health outcomes. © The Author(s) 2014.
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Motor Effort Alters Changes of Mind in Sensorimotor Decision Making
Burk, Diana; Ingram, James N.; Franklin, David W.; Shadlen, Michael N.; Wolpert, Daniel M.
2014-01-01
After committing to an action, a decision-maker can change their mind to revise the action. Such changes of mind can even occur when the stream of information that led to the action is curtailed at movement onset. This is explained by the time delays in sensory processing and motor planning which lead to a component at the end of the sensory stream that can only be processed after initiation. Such post-initiation processing can explain the pattern of changes of mind by asserting an accumulation of additional evidence to a criterion level, termed change-of-mind bound. Here we test the hypothesis that physical effort associated with the movement required to change one's mind affects the level of the change-of-mind bound and the time for post-initiation deliberation. We varied the effort required to change from one choice target to another in a reaching movement by varying the geometry of the choice targets or by applying a force field between the targets. We show that there is a reduction in the frequency of change of mind when the separation of the choice targets would require a larger excursion of the hand from the initial to the opposite choice. The reduction is best explained by an increase in the evidence required for changes of mind and a reduced time period of integration after the initial decision. Thus the criteria to revise an initial choice is sensitive to energetic costs. PMID:24651615
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Neural and neurochemical basis of reinforcement-guided decision making.
Khani, Abbas; Rainer, Gregor
2016-08-01
Decision making is an adaptive behavior that takes into account several internal and external input variables and leads to the choice of a course of action over other available and often competing alternatives. While it has been studied in diverse fields ranging from mathematics, economics, ecology, and ethology to psychology and neuroscience, recent cross talk among perspectives from different fields has yielded novel descriptions of decision processes. Reinforcement-guided decision making models are based on economic and reinforcement learning theories, and their focus is on the maximization of acquired benefit over a defined period of time. Studies based on reinforcement-guided decision making have implicated a large network of neural circuits across the brain. This network includes a wide range of cortical (e.g., orbitofrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex) and subcortical (e.g., nucleus accumbens and subthalamic nucleus) brain areas and uses several neurotransmitter systems (e.g., dopaminergic and serotonergic systems) to communicate and process decision-related information. This review discusses distinct as well as overlapping contributions of these networks and neurotransmitter systems to the processing of decision making. We end the review by touching on neural circuitry and neuromodulatory regulation of exploratory decision making. Copyright © 2016 the American Physiological Society.
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Innovation, Technology and Decision Making: A Perspective for Strategic Action in Firms
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Mulenburg, Gerald M.
2002-01-01
Innovation, technology, and the making of decisions are tightly intertwined in what can generally be called, strategic decision making. Although true for all firms, it is especially true in innovative, high technology firms that operate in a turbulent, fast moving environment where strategic decisions must be made accurately and quickly to survive. This paper looks at some factors reported in the literature that affect how and why the strategic decision process is so important, especially in companies in fast-moving, competitive environments. The work of several prominent authors who looked critically at past theory and research, and the current state of knowledge and practice, provides a perspective of how firms make strategic decisions.
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Neural basis of quasi-rational decision making.
Lee, Daeyeol
2006-04-01
Standard economic theories conceive homo economicus as a rational decision maker capable of maximizing utility. In reality, however, people tend to approximate optimal decision-making strategies through a collection of heuristic routines. Some of these routines are driven by emotional processes, and others are adjusted iteratively through experience. In addition, routines specialized for social decision making, such as inference about the mental states of other decision makers, might share their origins and neural mechanisms with the ability to simulate or imagine outcomes expected from alternative actions that an individual can take. A recent surge of collaborations across economics, psychology and neuroscience has provided new insights into how such multiple elements of decision making interact in the brain.
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Anger in brain and body: the neural and physiological perturbation of decision-making by emotion.
Garfinkel, Sarah N; Zorab, Emma; Navaratnam, Nakulan; Engels, Miriam; Mallorquí-Bagué, Núria; Minati, Ludovico; Dowell, Nicholas G; Brosschot, Jos F; Thayer, Julian F; Critchley, Hugo D
2016-01-01
Emotion and cognition are dynamically coupled to bodily arousal: the induction of anger, even unconsciously, can reprioritise neural and physiological resources toward action states that bias cognitive processes. Here we examine behavioural, neural and bodily effects of covert anger processing and its influence on cognition, indexed by lexical decision-making. While recording beat-to-beat blood pressure, the words ANGER or RELAX were presented subliminally just prior to rapid word/non-word reaction-time judgements of letter-strings. Subliminal ANGER primes delayed the time taken to reach rapid lexical decisions, relative to RELAX primes. However, individuals with high trait anger were speeded up by subliminal anger primes. ANGER primes increased systolic blood pressure and the magnitude of this increase predicted reaction time prolongation. Within the brain, ANGER trials evoked an enhancement of activity within dorsal pons and an attenuation of activity within visual occipitotemporal and attentional parietal cortices. Activity within periaqueductal grey matter, occipital and parietal regions increased linearly with evoked blood pressure changes, indicating neural substrates through which covert anger impairs semantic decisions, putatively through its expression as visceral arousal. The behavioural and physiological impact of anger states compromises the efficiency of cognitive processing through action-ready changes in autonomic response that skew regional neural activity. © The Author (2015). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.
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A Hybrid-Cloud Science Data System Enabling Advanced Rapid Imaging & Analysis for Monitoring Hazards
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Hua, H.; Owen, S. E.; Yun, S.; Lundgren, P.; Moore, A. W.; Fielding, E. J.; Radulescu, C.; Sacco, G.; Stough, T. M.; Mattmann, C. A.; Cervelli, P. F.; Poland, M. P.; Cruz, J.
2012-12-01
Volcanic eruptions, landslides, and levee failures are some examples of hazards that can be more accurately forecasted with sufficient monitoring of precursory ground deformation, such as the high-resolution measurements from GPS and InSAR. In addition, coherence and reflectivity change maps can be used to detect surface change due to lava flows, mudslides, tornadoes, floods, and other natural and man-made disasters. However, it is difficult for many volcano observatories and other monitoring agencies to process GPS and InSAR products in an automated scenario needed for continual monitoring of events. Additionally, numerous interoperability barriers exist in multi-sensor observation data access, preparation, and fusion to create actionable products. Combining high spatial resolution InSAR products with high temporal resolution GPS products--and automating this data preparation & processing across global-scale areas of interests--present an untapped science and monitoring opportunity. The global coverage offered by satellite-based SAR observations, and the rapidly expanding GPS networks, can provide orders of magnitude more data on these hazardous events if we have a data system that can efficiently and effectively analyze the voluminous raw data, and provide users the tools to access data from their regions of interest. Currently, combined GPS & InSAR time series are primarily generated for specific research applications, and are not implemented to run on large-scale continuous data sets and delivered to decision-making communities. We are developing an advanced service-oriented architecture for hazard monitoring leveraging NASA-funded algorithms and data management to enable both science and decision-making communities to monitor areas of interests via seamless data preparation, processing, and distribution. Our objectives: * Enable high-volume and low-latency automatic generation of NASA Solid Earth science data products (InSAR and GPS) to support hazards monitoring. * Facilitate NASA-USGS collaborations to share NASA InSAR and GPS data products, which are difficult to process in high-volume and low-latency, for decision-support. * Enable interoperable discovery, access, and sharing of NASA observations and derived actionable products, and between the observation and decision-making communities. * Enable their improved understanding through visualization, mining, and cross-agency sharing. Existing InSAR & GPS processing packages and other software are integrated for generating geodetic decision support monitoring products. We employ semantic and cloud-based data management and processing techniques for handling large data volumes, reducing end product latency, codifying data system information with semantics, and deploying interoperable services for actionable products to decision-making communities.
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Anell, Anders; Hagberg, Oskar; Liedberg, Fredrik; Ryden, Stefan
2016-12-01
Comparison of provider performance is commonly used to inform health care decision-making. Little attention has been paid to how data presentations influence decisions. This study analyzes differences in suggested actions by decision-makers informed by league tables or funnel plots. Decision-makers were invited to a survey and randomized to compare hospital performance using either league tables or funnel plots for four different measures within the area of cancer care. For each measure, decision-makers were asked to suggest actions towards 12-16 hospitals (no action, ask for more information, intervene) and provide feedback related to whether the information provided had been useful. Swedish health care. Two hundred and twenty-one decision-makers at administrative and clinical levels. Data presentations in the form of league tables or funnel plots. Number of actions suggested by participants. Proportion of appropriate actions. For all four measures, decision-makers tended to suggest more actions based on the information provided in league tables compared to funnel plots (44% vs. 21%, P < 0.001). Actions were on average more appropriate for funnel plots. However, when using funnel plots, decision-makers more often missed to react even when appropriate. The form of data presentation had an influence on decision-making. With league tables, decision-makers tended to suggest more actions compared to funnel plots. A difference in sensitivity and specificity conditioned by the form of presentation could also be identified, with different implications depending on the purpose of comparisons. Explanations and visualization aids are needed to support appropriate actions. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press in association with the International Society for Quality in Health Care. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com
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Alkhatib, Omar J; Abdou, Alaa
2018-04-01
The construction industry is usually characterized as a fragmented system of multiple-organizational entities in which members from different technical backgrounds and moral values join together to develop a particular business or project. The greatest challenge in the construction process for the achievement of a successful practice is the development of an outstanding reputation, which is built on identifying and applying an ethical framework. This framework should reflect a common ethical ground for myriad people involved in this process to survive and compete ethically in today's turbulent construction market. This study establishes a framework for ethical judgment of behavior and actions conducted in the construction process. The framework was primarily developed based on the essential attributes of business management identified in the literature review and subsequently incorporates additional attributes identified to prevent breaches in the construction industry and common ethical values related to professional engineering. The proposed judgment framework is based primarily on the ethical dimension of professional responsibility. The Ethical Judgment Framework consists of descriptive approaches involving technical, professional, administrative, and miscellaneous terms. The framework provides the basis for judging actions as either ethical or unethical. Furthermore, the framework can be implemented as a form of preventive ethics, which would help avoid ethical dilemmas and moral allegations. The framework can be considered a decision-making model to guide actions and improve the ethical reasoning process that would help individuals think through possible implications and consequences of ethical dilemmas in the construction industry.
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Kirchhoff, C.; Vang Rasmussen, L.; Lemos, M. C.
2016-12-01
While there has been considerable focus on understanding how factors related to the creation of climate knowledge affect its uptake and use, less attention has been paid to the actors, decisions, and processes through which climate information supports, or fails to support, action. This is particularly the case concerning how different scales of decision-making influence information uptake. In this study, we seek to understand how water and resource managers' decision space influences climate information use in two Great Lakes watersheds. We find that despite the availability of tailored climate information, actual use of information in decision making remains low. Reasons include: a) lack of willingness to place climate on agendas because local managers perceive climate change as politically risky and a difficult and intangible problem; b) lack of formal mandate or authority at the city and county scale to translate climate information into on-the-ground action, c) problems with the information itself, and d) perceived lack of demand for climate information by those managers who have the mandate and authority (e.g. at the state level) to use (or help others use) climate information. Our findings suggest that 1) climate scientists and information brokers should produce information that meets a range of decision needs and reserve intensive tailoring efforts for decision makers who have authority and willingness to employ climate information, 2) without support from higher levels of decision-making (e.g. state) it is unlikely that climate information use for adaptation decisions will accelerate significantly in the next few years, and 3) the trend towards adopting more sustainability and resilience practices over climate-specific actions should be supported as an important component of the climate adaptation repertoire.
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Making Information Useful: Engagement in the Sustained National Climate Assessment Process
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Lough, G. C.; Cloyd, E.
2015-12-01
Creation of actionable information requires that the producers of that information understand the needs of the intended users and decision makers. To that end, the U.S. Global Change Research Program's sustained National Climate Assessment process includes a focus on engaging users through an inclusive, broad-based, and ongoing process. Such a process provides opportunities for scientific experts and decision makers to share knowledge about the climate-related issues, impacts, and potential response actions that are most important in a particular region or sector. Such a process is also highly transparent in order to produce results that are credible, salient, and legitimate for both scientists and decision makers, ultimately making the results extremely useful. To implement these principles, USGCRP implements a broad-based engagement strategy that invites participation from users and stakeholder communities and considers methods for communicating with potential users at every step. The strategy elicits contributions to help shape the framing of the assessment process and products, improve the transparency of the process, and increase the utility of the final information. Specific user inputs are gathered through workshops, public comment opportunities, town hall meetings, presentations, requests for information, submitted documents, and open meetings. Further, a network of contributors self-organizes around topics of interest to extend assessment activities to a wider range of user groups. Here, we describe the outcomes of these innovations in assessment engagement and identify clear successes, notable surprises, future evaluation needs, and areas for new ideas.
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A multiscale forecasting method for power plant fleet management
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Chen, Hongmei
In recent years the electric power industry has been challenged by a high level of uncertainty and volatility brought on by deregulation and globalization. A power producer must minimize the life cycle cost while meeting stringent safety and regulatory requirements and fulfilling customer demand for high reliability. Therefore, to achieve true system excellence, a more sophisticated system-level decision-making process with a more accurate forecasting support system to manage diverse and often widely dispersed generation units as a single, easily scaled and deployed fleet system in order to fully utilize the critical assets of a power producer has been created as a response. The process takes into account the time horizon for each of the major decision actions taken in a power plant and develops methods for information sharing between them. These decisions are highly interrelated and no optimal operation can be achieved without sharing information in the overall process. The process includes a forecasting system to provide information for planning for uncertainty. A new forecasting method is proposed, which utilizes a synergy of several modeling techniques properly combined at different time-scales of the forecasting objects. It can not only take advantages of the abundant historical data but also take into account the impact of pertinent driving forces from the external business environment to achieve more accurate forecasting results. Then block bootstrap is utilized to measure the bias in the estimate of the expected life cycle cost which will actually be needed to drive the business for a power plant in the long run. Finally, scenario analysis is used to provide a composite picture of future developments for decision making or strategic planning. The decision-making process is applied to a typical power producer chosen to represent challenging customer demand during high-demand periods. The process enhances system excellence by providing more accurate market information, evaluating the impact of external business environment, and considering cross-scale interactions between decision actions. Along with this process, system operation strategies, maintenance schedules, and capacity expansion plans that guide the operation of the power plant are optimally identified, and the total life cycle costs are estimated.
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Dynamic Interplay of Value and Sensory Information in High-Speed Decision Making.
Afacan-Seref, Kivilcim; Steinemann, Natalie A; Blangero, Annabelle; Kelly, Simon P
2018-03-05
In dynamic environments, split-second sensorimotor decisions must be prioritized according to potential payoffs to maximize overall rewards. The impact of relative value on deliberative perceptual judgments has been examined extensively [1-6], but relatively little is known about value-biasing mechanisms in the common situation where physical evidence is strong but the time to act is severely limited. In prominent decision models, a noisy but statistically stationary representation of sensory evidence is integrated over time to an action-triggering bound, and value-biases are affected by starting the integrator closer to the more valuable bound. Here, we show significant departures from this account for humans making rapid sensory-instructed action choices. Behavior was best explained by a simple model in which the evidence representation-and hence, rate of accumulation-is itself biased by value and is non-stationary, increasing over the short decision time frame. Because the value bias initially dominates, the model uniquely predicts a dynamic "turn-around" effect on low-value cues, where the accumulator first launches toward the incorrect action but is then re-routed to the correct one. This was clearly exhibited in electrophysiological signals reflecting motor preparation and evidence accumulation. Finally, we construct an extended model that implements this dynamic effect through plausible sensory neural response modulations and demonstrate the correspondence between decision signal dynamics simulated from a behavioral fit of that model and the empirical decision signals. Our findings suggest that value and sensory information can exert simultaneous and dynamically countervailing influences on the trajectory of the accumulation-to-bound process, driving rapid, sensory-guided actions. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Byskov, Jens; Marchal, Bruno; Maluka, Stephen; Zulu, Joseph M; Bukachi, Salome A; Hurtig, Anna-Karin; Blystad, Astrid; Kamuzora, Peter; Michelo, Charles; Nyandieka, Lillian N; Ndawi, Benedict; Bloch, Paul; Olsen, Oystein E
2014-08-20
Priority-setting decisions are based on an important, but not sufficient set of values and thus lead to disagreement on priorities. Accountability for Reasonableness (AFR) is an ethics-based approach to a legitimate and fair priority-setting process that builds upon four conditions: relevance, publicity, appeals, and enforcement, which facilitate agreement on priority-setting decisions and gain support for their implementation. This paper focuses on the assessment of AFR within the project REsponse to ACcountable priority setting for Trust in health systems (REACT). This intervention study applied an action research methodology to assess implementation of AFR in one district in Kenya, Tanzania, and Zambia, respectively. The assessments focused on selected disease, program, and managerial areas. An implementing action research team of core health team members and supporting researchers was formed to implement, and continually assess and improve the application of the four conditions. Researchers evaluated the intervention using qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis methods. The values underlying the AFR approach were in all three districts well-aligned with general values expressed by both service providers and community representatives. There was some variation in the interpretations and actual use of the AFR in the decision-making processes in the three districts, and its effect ranged from an increase in awareness of the importance of fairness to a broadened engagement of health team members and other stakeholders in priority setting and other decision-making processes. District stakeholders were able to take greater charge of closing the gap between nationally set planning and the local realities and demands of the served communities within the limited resources at hand. This study thus indicates that the operationalization of the four broadly defined and linked conditions is both possible and seems to be responding to an actual demand. This provides arguments for the continued application and further assessment of the potential of AFR in supporting priority-setting and other decision-making processes in health systems to achieve better agreed and more sustainable health improvements linked to a mutual democratic learning with potential wider implications.
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2014-01-01
Background Priority-setting decisions are based on an important, but not sufficient set of values and thus lead to disagreement on priorities. Accountability for Reasonableness (AFR) is an ethics-based approach to a legitimate and fair priority-setting process that builds upon four conditions: relevance, publicity, appeals, and enforcement, which facilitate agreement on priority-setting decisions and gain support for their implementation. This paper focuses on the assessment of AFR within the project REsponse to ACcountable priority setting for Trust in health systems (REACT). Methods This intervention study applied an action research methodology to assess implementation of AFR in one district in Kenya, Tanzania, and Zambia, respectively. The assessments focused on selected disease, program, and managerial areas. An implementing action research team of core health team members and supporting researchers was formed to implement, and continually assess and improve the application of the four conditions. Researchers evaluated the intervention using qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis methods. Results The values underlying the AFR approach were in all three districts well-aligned with general values expressed by both service providers and community representatives. There was some variation in the interpretations and actual use of the AFR in the decision-making processes in the three districts, and its effect ranged from an increase in awareness of the importance of fairness to a broadened engagement of health team members and other stakeholders in priority setting and other decision-making processes. Conclusions District stakeholders were able to take greater charge of closing the gap between nationally set planning and the local realities and demands of the served communities within the limited resources at hand. This study thus indicates that the operationalization of the four broadly defined and linked conditions is both possible and seems to be responding to an actual demand. This provides arguments for the continued application and further assessment of the potential of AFR in supporting priority-setting and other decision-making processes in health systems to achieve better agreed and more sustainable health improvements linked to a mutual democratic learning with potential wider implications. PMID:25142148
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DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Makundi, Willy R.
2002-09-20
What constitutes 'dangerous anthropogenic interference' is a value judgment arrived at through a socio-political process, taking issues like equity and sustainability into account. Science provides key information needed to arrive at an informed judgment. However, that judgment is primarily a political one, and not a purely scientific decision. Such judgments are based on risk assessment, and lead to risk management choices by decision makers, about actions and policies.
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Distributed decision support for the 21st century mission space
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
McQuay, William K.
2002-07-01
The past decade has produced significant changes in the conduct of military operations: increased humanitarian missions, asymmetric warfare, the reliance on coalitions and allies, stringent rules of engagement, concern about casualties, and the need for sustained air operations. Future mission commanders will need to assimilate a tremendous amount of information, make quick-response decisions, and quantify the effects of those decisions in the face of uncertainty. Integral to this process is creating situational assessment-understanding the mission space, simulation to analyze alternative futures, current capabilities, planning assessments, course-of-action assessments, and a common operational picture-keeping everyone on the same sheet of paper. Decision support tools in a distributed collaborative environment offer the capability of decomposing these complex multitask processes and distributing them over a dynamic set of execution assets. Decision support technologies can semi-automate activities, such as planning an operation, that have a reasonably well-defined process and provide machine-level interfaces to refine the myriad of information that is not currently fused. The marriage of information and simulation technologies provides the mission commander with a collaborative virtual environment for planning and decision support.
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Sudore, Rebecca L; Knight, Sara J; McMahan, Ryan D; Feuz, Mariko; Farrell, David; Miao, Yinghui; Barnes, Deborah E
2014-04-01
We have reconceptualized advance care planning (ACP) as a multistep process focused on preparing patients with skills needed for communication and in-the-moment decision making. To operationalize this paradigm, we created an easy-to-use ACP website (prepareforyourcare.org) based on a theoretical framework of behavior change and pilot-tested its efficacy to engage older adults in ACP. At baseline and 1 week after viewing the PREPARE website, we assessed behavior change in ACP by using a validated survey that includes Process Measures (knowledge, contemplation, self-efficacy, and readiness, 5-point Likert scales) and Action Measures (yes/no whether an ACP behavior was completed). We also assigned participants into behavior change stages (i.e., precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance) and determined the percentage of participants who moved from precontemplation at baseline to higher stages at 1 week. We also assessed PREPARE ease-of-use (10-point scale, 10 being the easiest). Changes were assessed with Wilcoxon signed rank sum tests and McNemar's tests. Mean age of the participants was 68.4 years (SD 6.6), and 65% were nonwhite. Behavior Change Process Measures average Likert scores increased from 3.1 (0.9) to 3.7 (0.7), P < 0.001. Action Measures did not change significantly. However, precontemplation significantly decreased for most actions (e.g., talking to doctor about desired medical care, 61% to 35%, P < 0.003), with a mean decrease of 21% (range, 16%-33%). PREPARE was rated a nine of ten (±1.9) for ease-of-use. A new, patient-centered ACP website that focuses on preparing patients for communication and decision making significantly improves engagement in the process of ACP and behavior change. A clinical trial of PREPARE is currently underway. Published by Elsevier Inc.
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Neckles, Hilary A.; Lyons, James E.; Guntenspergen, Glenn R.; Shriver, W. Gregory; Adamowicz, Susan C.
2015-01-01
Most salt marshes in the USA have been degraded by human activities, and coastal managers are faced with complex choices among possible actions to restore or enhance ecosystem integrity. We applied structured decision making (SDM) to guide selection of monitoring variables and management priorities for salt marshes within the National Wildlife Refuge System in the northeastern USA. In general, SDM is a systematic process for decomposing a decision into its essential elements. We first engaged stakeholders in clarifying regional salt marsh decision problems, defining objectives and attributes to evaluate whether objectives are achieved, and developing a pool of alternative management actions for achieving objectives. Through this process, we identified salt marsh attributes that were applicable to monitoring National Wildlife Refuges on a regional scale and that targeted management needs. We then analyzed management decisions within three salt marsh units at Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge, coastal Delaware, as a case example of prioritizing management alternatives. Values for salt marsh attributes were estimated from 2 years of baseline monitoring data and expert opinion. We used linear value modeling to aggregate multiple attributes into a single performance score for each alternative, constrained optimization to identify alternatives that maximized total management benefits subject to refuge-wide cost constraints, and used graphical analysis to identify the optimal set of alternatives for the refuge. SDM offers an efficient, transparent approach for integrating monitoring into management practice and improving the quality of management decisions.
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Lammers, Craig; McGraw, Robert M.; Steinman, Jeffrey S.
2005-05-01
Technological advances and emerging threats reduce the time between target detection and action to an order of a few minutes. To effectively assist with the decision-making process, C4I decision support tools must quickly and dynamically predict and assess alternative Courses Of Action (COAs) to assist Commanders in anticipating potential outcomes. These capabilities can be provided through the faster-than-real-time predictive simulation of plans that are continuously re-calibrating with the real-time picture. This capability allows decision-makers to assess the effects of re-tasking opportunities, providing the decision-maker with tremendous freedom to make time-critical, mid-course decisions. This paper presents an overview and demonstrates the use of a software infrastructure that supports DSAP capabilities. These DSAP capabilities are demonstrated through the use of a Multi-Replication Framework that supports (1) predictivie simulations using JSAF (Joint Semi-Automated Forces); (2) real-time simulation, also using JSAF, as a state estimation mechanism; and, (3) real-time C4I data updates through TBMCS (Theater Battle Management Core Systems). This infrastructure allows multiple replications of a simulation to be executed simultaneously over a grid faster-than-real-time, calibrated with live data feeds. A cost evaluator mechanism analyzes potential outcomes and prunes simulations that diverge from the real-time picture. In particular, this paper primarily serves to walk a user through the process for using the Multi-Replication Framework providing an enhanced decision aid.
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Hénault-Ethier, Louise; Martin, Jean-Philippe; Housset, Johann
2017-08-01
A dynamic systems model of organic waste management for the province of Quebec, Canada, was built. Six distinct modules taking into account social, economical and environmental issues and perspectives were included. Five scenarios were designed and tested to identify the potential consequences of different governmental and demographic combinations of decisions over time. Among these scenarios, one examines Quebec's organic waste management policy (2011-2015), while the other scenarios represent business as usual or emphasize ecology, economy or social benefits in the decision-making process. Model outputs suggest that the current governmental policy should yield favorable environmental benefits, energy production and waste valorization. The projections stemming from the current policy action plan approach the benefits gained by another scenario emphasizing the environmental aspects in the decision-making process. As expected, without the current policy and action plan in place, or business as usual, little improvements are expected in waste management compared to current trends, and strictly emphasizing economic imperatives does not favor sustainable organic waste management. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
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Applications of Formal Methods to Specification and Safety of Avionics Software
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Hoover, D. N.; Guaspari, David; Humenn, Polar
1996-01-01
This report treats several topics in applications of formal methods to avionics software development. Most of these topics concern decision tables, an orderly, easy-to-understand format for formally specifying complex choices among alternative courses of action. The topics relating to decision tables include: generalizations fo decision tables that are more concise and support the use of decision tables in a refinement-based formal software development process; a formalism for systems of decision tables with behaviors; an exposition of Parnas tables for users of decision tables; and test coverage criteria and decision tables. We outline features of a revised version of ORA's decision table tool, Tablewise, which will support many of the new ideas described in this report. We also survey formal safety analysis of specifications and software.
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Edwards, Adrian; Elwyn, Glyn
2006-01-01
Abstract Background Shared decision making has practical implications for everyday health care. However, it stems from largely theoretical frameworks and is not widely implemented in routine practice. Aims We undertook an empirical study to inform understanding of shared decision making and how it can be operationalized more widely. Method The study involved patients visiting UK general practitioners already well experienced in shared decision making. After these consultations, semi‐structured telephone interviews were conducted and analysed using the constant comparative method of content analysis. Results All patients described at least some components of shared decision making but half appeared to perceive the decision as shared and half as ‘patient‐led’. However, patients exhibited some uncertainty about who had made the decision, reflecting different meanings of decision making from those described in the literature. A distinction is indicated between the process of involvement (option portrayal, exchange of information and exploring preferences for who makes the decision) and the actual decisional responsibility (who makes the decision). The process of involvement appeared to deliver benefits for patients, not the action of making the decision. Preferences for decisional responsibility varied during some consultations, generating unsatisfactory interactions when actual decisional responsibility did not align with patient preferences at that stage of a consultation. However, when conducted well, shared decision making enhanced reported satisfaction, understanding and confidence in the decisions. Conclusions Practitioners can focus more on the process of involving patients in decision making rather than attaching importance to who actually makes the decision. They also need to be aware of the potential for changing patient preferences for decisional responsibility during a consultation and address non‐alignment of patient preferences with the actual model of decision making if this occurs. PMID:17083558
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Pletti, Carolina; Sarlo, Michela; Palomba, Daniela; Rumiati, Rino; Lotto, Lorella
2015-03-01
In any modern society killing is regarded as a severe violation of the legal codes that is subjected to penal judgment. Therefore, it is likely that people take legal consequences into account when deciding about the hypothetical killing of one person in classic moral dilemmas, with legal concerns contributing to decision-making. In particular, by differing for the degree of intentionality and emotional salience, Footbridge- and Trolley-type dilemmas might promote differential assignment of blame and punishment while implicating the same severity of harm. The present study was aimed at comparing the neural activity, subjective emotional reactions, and behavioral choices in two groups of participants who either took (Legal group) or did not take (No Legal group) legal consequences into account when deciding on Footbridge-type and Trolley-type moral dilemmas. Stimulus- and response-locked ERPs were measured to investigate the neural activity underlying two separate phases of the decision process. No difference in behavioral choices was found between groups. However, the No Legal group reported greater overall emotional impact, associated with lower preparation for action, suggesting greater conflict between alternative motor responses representing the different decision choices. In contrast, the Legal group showed an overall dampened affective experience during decision-making associated with greater overall action readiness and intention to act, reflecting lower conflict in responding. On these bases, we suggest that in moral dilemmas legal consequences of actions provide a sort of reference point on which people can rely to support a decision, independent of dilemma type. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Le, Lena; Bagstad, Kenneth J.; Cook, Philip S.; Leong, Kirsten M.; DiDonato, Eva
2015-01-01
Gaining public support for management actions is important to the success of public land management agencies’ efforts to protect threatened and endangered species. This is especially relevant at national parks, where managers balance two aspects of their conservation mission: to protect resources and to provide for public enjoyment. This study examined variables potentially associated with support for management actions at Cape Lookout National Seashore, a unit of the National Park Service. Two visitor surveys were conducted at the park at different seasons, and a resident survey was conducted for households in Carteret County, North Carolina, where the park is located. The goal of the project was to provide park managers with information that may help with the development of communication strategies concerning the park’s conservation mission. These communication strategies may help to facilitate mutual understanding and garner public support for management actions. Several variables were examined as potential determinants that park managers ought to consider when developing communication strategies. Multinomial logistic regression was applied to examine the relationships between these variables and the likelihood of support for or opposition to management actions. The variables examined included perceived shared values of park resources, general environmental attitudes, level of familiarity with park resources and regulations, knowledge about threatened and endangered species, level of trust in the decision-making process, and perceived shared values with park management. In addition, demographic variables such as income level, respondent age, residency status, and visitor type were also used. The results show that perceived values of threatened and endangered species, trust in park managers and the decision-making process, and perceived share values with park managers were among the strongest indicators of support for management actions. Different user groups also exhibited different levels of support, with groups engaged in specialized recreation activities (fishers) being the most likely to oppose management actions. While our findings are not surprising, they corroborate past research that has shown an effective communications strategy should be customized to target different audiences. In addition, management should focus on developing long-term relationships that build trust in and foster credibility of decision-making processes.
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Shared Decision-Making for Nursing Practice: An Integrative Review.
Truglio-Londrigan, Marie; Slyer, Jason T
2018-01-01
Shared decision-making has received national and international interest by providers, educators, researchers, and policy makers. The literature on shared decision-making is extensive, dealing with the individual components of shared decision-making rather than a comprehensive process. This view of shared decision-making leaves healthcare providers to wonder how to integrate shared decision-making into practice. To understand shared decision-making as a comprehensive process from the perspective of the patient and provider in all healthcare settings. An integrative review was conducted applying a systematic approach involving a literature search, data evaluation, and data analysis. The search included articles from PubMed, CINAHL, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and PsycINFO from 1970 through 2016. Articles included quantitative experimental and non-experimental designs, qualitative, and theoretical articles about shared decision-making between all healthcare providers and patients in all healthcare settings. Fifty-two papers were included in this integrative review. Three categories emerged from the synthesis: (a) communication/ relationship building; (b) working towards a shared decision; and (c) action for shared decision-making. Each major theme contained sub-themes represented in the proposed visual representation for shared decision-making. A comprehensive understanding of shared decision-making between the nurse and the patient was identified. A visual representation offers a guide that depicts shared decision-making as a process taking place during a healthcare encounter with implications for the continuation of shared decisions over time offering patients an opportunity to return to the nurse for reconsiderations of past shared decisions.
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Perceptual decision processes flexibly adapt to avoid change-of-mind motor costs
Moher, Jeff; Song, Joo-Hyun
2014-01-01
The motor system is tightly linked with perception and cognition. Recent studies have shown that even anticipated biophysical action costs associated with competing response options can be incorporated into decision-making processes. As a result, choices associated with high energy costs are less likely to be selected. However, some action costs may be harder to predict. For example, a person choosing among apples at a grocery store may change his or her mind suddenly about which apple to put into the cart. This change of mind may be reflected in motor output as the initial decision triggers a motor response toward a Granny Smith that is subsequently redirected toward a Red Delicious. In the present study, to examine how motor costs associated with changes of mind affect perceptual decision making, participants performed a difficult random dot–motion discrimination task in which they had to indicate the direction of motion by reaching to one of two response options. Although each response box was always equidistant from the starting position, the physical distance between the two response options was varied. We found that when the boxes were far apart from one another, and thus changes of mind incurred greater redirection motor costs, change-of-mind frequency decreased while latency to initiate movement increased. This occurred even when response box distance varied randomly from trial to trial and was cued only 1 s before each trial began. Thus, we demonstrated that observers can dynamically adjust perceptual decision-making processes to avoid high motor costs incurred by a change of mind. PMID:24986186
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DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Not Available
1991-09-23
The 6,000-acre Anaconda Smelter site is a former copper and ore processing facility in Deer Lodge County, Montana. Land use in the area is predominantly residential. The site is bounded on the north and east, respectively, by the Warm Springs Creek and Mill Creek, both of which are potential sources of drinking water. From 1884 until 1980 when activities ceased, the site was used for ore processing and smelting operations. In 1988, EPA conducted an investigation to determine the nature and extent of the flue dust contamination. A 1988 ROD addressed the Mill Creek Operable Unit (OU15) and documented themore » relocation of residents from the community surrounding the smelter site as the selected remedial action. The Record of Decision (ROD) addresses the Flue Dust Operable Unit (OU11). The primary contaminants of concern affecting this site from the flue dust materials are metals including arsenic, cadmium, and lead. The selected remedial action for the site is included.« less
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Connors, Brenda L; Rende, Richard; Colton, Timothy J
2013-01-01
There has been a surge of interest in examining the utility of methods for capturing individual differences in decision-making style. We illustrate the potential offered by Movement Pattern Analysis (MPA), an observational methodology that has been used in business and by the US Department of Defense to record body movements that provide predictive insight into individual differences in decision-making motivations and actions. Twelve military officers participated in an intensive 2-h interview that permitted detailed and fine-grained observation and coding of signature movements by trained practitioners using MPA. Three months later, these subjects completed four hypothetical decision-making tasks in which the amount of information sought out before coming to a decision, as well as the time spent on the tasks, were under the partial control of the subject. A composite MPA indicator of how a person allocates decision-making actions and motivations to balance both Assertion (exertion of tangible movement effort on the environment to make something occur) and Perspective (through movements that support shaping in the body to perceive and create a suitable viewpoint for action) was highly correlated with the total number of information draws and total response time-individuals high on Assertion reached for less information and had faster response times than those high on Perspective. Discussion focuses on the utility of using movement-based observational measures to capture individual differences in decision-making style and the implications for application in applied settings geared toward investigations of experienced leaders and world statesmen where individuality rules the day.
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Connors, Brenda L.; Rende, Richard; Colton, Timothy J.
2013-01-01
There has been a surge of interest in examining the utility of methods for capturing individual differences in decision-making style. We illustrate the potential offered by Movement Pattern Analysis (MPA), an observational methodology that has been used in business and by the US Department of Defense to record body movements that provide predictive insight into individual differences in decision-making motivations and actions. Twelve military officers participated in an intensive 2-h interview that permitted detailed and fine-grained observation and coding of signature movements by trained practitioners using MPA. Three months later, these subjects completed four hypothetical decision-making tasks in which the amount of information sought out before coming to a decision, as well as the time spent on the tasks, were under the partial control of the subject. A composite MPA indicator of how a person allocates decision-making actions and motivations to balance both Assertion (exertion of tangible movement effort on the environment to make something occur) and Perspective (through movements that support shaping in the body to perceive and create a suitable viewpoint for action) was highly correlated with the total number of information draws and total response time—individuals high on Assertion reached for less information and had faster response times than those high on Perspective. Discussion focuses on the utility of using movement-based observational measures to capture individual differences in decision-making style and the implications for application in applied settings geared toward investigations of experienced leaders and world statesmen where individuality rules the day. PMID:24069012
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Gillan, Claire M.; Morein-Zamir, Sharon; Kaser, Muzaffer; Fineberg, Naomi A.; Sule, Akeem; Sahakian, Barbara J.; Cardinal, Rudolf N.; Robbins, Trevor W.
2014-01-01
Background Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a disorder of automatic, uncontrollable behaviors and obsessive rumination. There is evidence that OCD patients have difficulties performing goal-directed actions, instead exhibiting repetitive stimulus-response habit behaviors. This might result from the excessive formation of stimulus-response habit associations or from an impairment in the ability to use outcome value to guide behavior. We investigated the latter by examining counterfactual decision making, which is the ability to use comparisons of prospective action-outcome scenarios to guide economic choice. Methods We tested decision making (forward counterfactual) and affective responses (backward counterfactual) in 20 OCD patients and 20 matched healthy control subjects using an economic choice paradigm that previously revealed attenuation of both the experience and avoidance of counterfactual emotion in schizophrenia patients and patients with orbitofrontal cortex lesions. Results The use of counterfactual comparison to guide decision making was diminished in OCD patients, who relied primarily on expected value. Unlike the apathetic affective responses previously shown to accompany this decision style, OCD patients reported increased emotional responsivity to the outcomes of their choices and to the counterfactual comparisons that typify regret and relief. Conclusions Obsessive-compulsive disorder patients exhibit a pattern of decision making consistent with a disruption in goal-directed forward modeling, basing decisions instead on the temporally present (and more rational) calculation of expected value. In contrast to this style of decision making, emotional responses in OCD were more extreme and reactive than control subjects. These results are in line with an account of disrupted goal-directed cognitive control in OCD. PMID:23452663
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DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
DOE /NV
This Corrective Action Decision Document has been prepared for Corrective Action Unit 340, the NTS Pesticide Release Sites, in accordance with the Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order of 1996 (FFACO, 1996). Corrective Action Unit 340 is located at the Nevada Test Site, Nevada, and is comprised of the following Corrective Action Sites: 23-21-01, Area 23 Quonset Hut 800 Pesticide Release Ditch; 23-18-03, Area 23 Skid Huts Pesticide Storage; and 15-18-02, Area 15 Quonset Hut 15-11 Pesticide Storage. The purpose of this Corrective Action Decision Document is to identify and provide a rationale for the selection of a recommended correctivemore » action alternative for each Corrective Action Site. The scope of this Corrective Action Decision Document consists of the following tasks: Develop corrective action objectives; Identify corrective action alternative screening criteria; Develop corrective action alternatives; Perform detailed and comparative evaluations of the corrective action alternatives in relation to the corrective action objectives and screening criteria; and Recommend and justify a preferred corrective action alternative for each Corrective Action Site.« less
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DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Not Available
1994-07-01
This decision document presents the selected remedial actions for the Riverbank Army Ammunition Plant (RBAAP) in Riverbank, California. This sitewide ROD contains two response actions that address the media of concern at RBAAP. This ROD also documents the decision that no further action is warranted at the Evaporation/Percolation (E/P) ponds. The two response actions for this ROD are a groundwater response action and a landfill response action.
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Pathways to designing and running an operational flood forecasting system: an adventure game!
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Arnal, Louise; Pappenberger, Florian; Ramos, Maria-Helena; Cloke, Hannah; Crochemore, Louise; Giuliani, Matteo; Aalbers, Emma
2017-04-01
In the design and building of an operational flood forecasting system, a large number of decisions have to be taken. These include technical decisions related to the choice of the meteorological forecasts to be used as input to the hydrological model, the choice of the hydrological model itself (its structure and parameters), the selection of a data assimilation procedure to run in real-time, the use (or not) of a post-processor, and the computing environment to run the models and display the outputs. Additionally, a number of trans-disciplinary decisions are also involved in the process, such as the way the needs of the users will be considered in the modelling setup and how the forecasts (and their quality) will be efficiently communicated to ensure usefulness and build confidence in the forecasting system. We propose to reflect on the numerous, alternative pathways to designing and running an operational flood forecasting system through an adventure game. In this game, the player is the protagonist of an interactive story driven by challenges, exploration and problem-solving. For this presentation, you will have a chance to play this game, acting as the leader of a forecasting team at an operational centre. Your role is to manage the actions of your team and make sequential decisions that impact the design and running of the system in preparation to and during a flood event, and that deal with the consequences of the forecasts issued. Your actions are evaluated by how much they cost you in time, money and credibility. Your aim is to take decisions that will ultimately lead to a good balance between time and money spent, while keeping your credibility high over the whole process. This game was designed to highlight the complexities behind decision-making in an operational forecasting and emergency response context, in terms of the variety of pathways that can be selected as well as the timescale, cost and timing of effective actions.
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[Decision-making and apathy in early stage of Alzheimer's disease and in mild cognitive impairment].
Jacus, Jean-Pierre; Bayard, Sophie; Raffard, Stéphane; Gély-Nargeot, Marie-Christine
2013-06-01
Decision-making and apathy have common neuropsychological processes and neuroanatomical substrates. However, their links in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) remain unclear. in order to evaluate these links, we compared 3 groups of 20 control subjects to 20 patients with MCI and 20 patients with mild AD. All participants completed the mini mental state examination (MMSE), the Lille apathy rating scale (LARS, a multidimensional scale of apathy), the game of dice task (GDT, assessing decision under risk) and the Iowa gambling task (IGT, assessing decision under ambiguity). 60% of patients in both clinical groups were apathetic versus 5% of control subjects. In both clinical groups the IGT and GDT net scores were comparable (respectively: p = 0.76 and p = 0.84), while the control group had higher scores than MCI and AD's groups (respectively, GDT p < 0.02 and p < 0.05; IGT: p < 0.05 and p < 0.05). Cognitive impairment increased the risk of disadvantageous choices in decision under risk (× 6), and under ambiguity (× 3.5). No global contribution of apathy was found for decision-making performances (all PS > 0.05), but on the LARS, the "intellectual curiosity" (cognitive dimension) was a predictor for the performances on GDT's (OR = 1.73, p = 0.05), while the "action initiation" (behavioral dimension) was a predictor of those on IGT (OR = 1.57, p = 0.05). these results highlight the behavioral and the cognitive sensitivity of the IGT and the GDT, and are analyzed according to Levy and Dubois's model of apathy, and to the three steps of the decision-making process of Gleichgerrcht et al. (2010). However, more researches are necessary to explain the causality links between action initiation and decision under ambiguity.
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Koerner, John F; Coleman, C Norman; Murrain-Hill, Paula; FitzGerald, Denis J; Sullivan, Julie M
2014-06-01
Effective decision making during a rapidly evolving emergency such as a radiological or nuclear incident requires timely interim decisions and communications from onsite decision makers while further data processing, consultation, and review are ongoing by reachback experts. The authors have recently proposed a medical decision model for use during a radiological or nuclear disaster, which is similar in concept to that used in medical care, especially when delay in action can have disastrous effects. For decision makers to function most effectively during a complex response, they require access to onsite subject matter experts who can provide information, recommendations, and participate in public communication efforts. However, in the time before this expertise is available or during the planning phase, just-in-time tools are essential that provide critical overview of the subject matter written specifically for the decision makers. Recognizing the complexity of the science, risk assessment, and multitude of potential response assets that will be required after a nuclear incident, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, in collaboration with other government and non-government experts, has prepared a practical guide for decision makers. This paper illustrates how the medical decision model process could facilitate onsite decision making that includes using the deliberative reachback process from science and policy experts and describes the tools now available to facilitate timely and effective incident management.
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
McDaniels, T.; Steyn, D. G.; Johnson, M. S.; Small, M.; Leclerc, G.; Vignola, R.; Chan, K.; Grossmann, I.; Wong-Parodi, G.
2014-12-01
Improving resilience to drought in complex social-environmental systems (SES) is extraordinarily important, particularly for rural tropical locations where small changes in climate regimes can have dramatic SES impacts. Efforts to build drought resilience must necessarily be planned and implemented within SES governance systems that involve linkages in water and land use administration from local to national levels. These efforts require knowledge and understanding that links climate and weather forecasts to regional and local hydrology, to social-economic and environmental systems, and to governance processes. In order to provide structure for such complex choices and investments, we argue that a focus on structured decision processes that involve linkages among science, technological perspectives, and public values conducted with agencies and stakeholders will provide a crucial framework for comparing and building insight for pursuing alternative courses of action to build drought resilience. This paper focuses on a regional case study in the seasonally-dry northwest region of Costa Rica, in watersheds rated as most threatened in the country in terms of drought. We present the overall framework guiding the transdisciplinary efforts to link scientific and technical understanding to public values, in order to foster civil society actions that lead to improved drought resilience. Initial efforts to characterize hydrological and climate regimes will be reported along with our approach to linking natural science findings, social inventories in terms of perspectives on SES, and the psychology and patterns of reliance on forecast information that provide the basis for characterizing public understanding. The overall linkage of technical and value information is focused on creating and comparing alternative actions that can potentially build resilience in short and long time frames by building decision making processes involving stakeholders, agencies and interested parties.
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[Ethical and philosophical dimensions of decision-making in public health].
Grémy, F
2008-01-01
Decisions in public health, or in individual health care, are taken by people (individuals or collective) for other people (individuals or collective). Human values, that is to say what is connected to Ethics, should be to the fore, de jure. Too often, under the pretext that they refer to subjectivity, they appear only after very many technical considerations. The latter, in a scientist society, are supposed to deserve a claim to objectivity, this being of course illusory. The author, placing himself in the line of Levinas, Ricoeur, and also of Kant, for whom the "What must I do?" is the most fundamental question any human being has to face, develops four reasons which plead for the pre-eminence of ethics as the foundation of decisions in a policy for public health. 1) He reminds us the intangible values, which are on one side uniqueness and universality of mankind, and on the other side the singularity of the human person. 2) He insists on the ethical wreck which threatens the whole health- and healthcare systems. 3) He sets out some results of modern neurophysiological research (AR Damasio's work), joining an intuition of Aristoteles: the decision making process implies two phases: deliberation the aim of which is to list the different possible actions to undertake, then the choice between those actions. Damasio shows that the lack of emotions inhibits the choice, especially when decision implies human values. 4) Finally, he insists, after E. Morin, on the practical and theoretical difficulties in taking a "good" decision, and on what Morin calls "ecology of action". The results of a decision may completely escape from the decision-makers aims, very often for unexpected social and psychological reasons.
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Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-07-01
... actions and decisions in a manner that facilitates archival processing for public access. Central agency... Defense Other Regulations Relating to National Defense INFORMATION SECURITY OVERSIGHT OFFICE, NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION CLASSIFIED NATIONAL SECURITY INFORMATION Declassification § 2001.34...
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ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
George, David R.
1986-01-01
Presents a model of an environmental studies course that reflects a spaceship earth philosophy. Includes a rationale and a listing of concepts and processes for this action oriented program. Suggests several interdisciplinary experiences that emphasize problem-solving and decision-making skills. (ML)
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Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014
2013-11-18
..., the NPS undertook an evaluative process to consider a number of management actions that could be... decision-making. Both alternatives would employ a collaborative research and monitoring program (10-year...
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Information : recommendations from the program review on operations funding
DOT National Transportation Integrated Search
2001-11-26
Volpe Center staff completed the first phase of a review that investigated how operations projects compete for funding in the existing transportation decision-making process. This memorandum identifies possible actions that can be implemented in the ...
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Communal Cooperation in Sensor Networks for Situation Management
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Jones, Kennie H.; Lodding, Kenneth N.; Olariu, Stephan; Wilson, Larry; Xin,Chunsheng
2006-01-01
Situation management is a rapidly evolving science where managed sources are processed as realtime streams of events and fused in a way that maximizes comprehension, thus enabling better decisions for action. Sensor networks provide a new technology that promises ubiquitous input and action throughout an environment, which can substantially improve information available to the process. Here we describe a NASA program that requires improvements in sensor networks and situation management. We present an approach for massively deployed sensor networks that does not rely on centralized control but is founded in lessons learned from the way biological ecosystems are organized. In this approach, fully distributed data aggregation and integration can be performed in a scalable fashion where individual motes operate based on local information, making local decisions that achieve globally-meaningful results. This exemplifies the robust, fault-tolerant infrastructure required for successful situation management systems.
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fMRI evidence for a dual process account of the speed-accuracy tradeoff in decision-making.
Ivanoff, Jason; Branning, Philip; Marois, René
2008-07-09
The speed and accuracy of decision-making have a well-known trading relationship: hasty decisions are more prone to errors while careful, accurate judgments take more time. Despite the pervasiveness of this speed-accuracy trade-off (SAT) in decision-making, its neural basis is still unknown. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) we show that emphasizing the speed of a perceptual decision at the expense of its accuracy lowers the amount of evidence-related activity in lateral prefrontal cortex. Moreover, this speed-accuracy difference in lateral prefrontal cortex activity correlates with the speed-accuracy difference in the decision criterion metric of signal detection theory. We also show that the same instructions increase baseline activity in a dorso-medial cortical area involved in the internal generation of actions. These findings suggest that the SAT is neurally implemented by modulating not only the amount of externally-derived sensory evidence used to make a decision, but also the internal urge to make a response. We propose that these processes combine to control the temporal dynamics of the speed-accuracy trade-off in decision-making.
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The Role of Human Expertise in Enhancing Data Mining
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kaddouri, Abdelaaziz
2011-01-01
Current data mining (DM) technology is not domain-specific and therefore rarely generates reliable, business actionable knowledge that can be used to improve the effectiveness of the decision-making process in the banking industry. DM is mainly an autonomous, data-driven process with little focus on domain expertise, constraints, or requirements…
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Adaptive automation of human-machine system information-processing functions.
Kaber, David B; Wright, Melanie C; Prinzel, Lawrence J; Clamann, Michael P
2005-01-01
The goal of this research was to describe the ability of human operators to interact with adaptive automation (AA) applied to various stages of complex systems information processing, defined in a model of human-automation interaction. Forty participants operated a simulation of an air traffic control task. Automated assistance was adaptively applied to information acquisition, information analysis, decision making, and action implementation aspects of the task based on operator workload states, which were measured using a secondary task. The differential effects of the forms of automation were determined and compared with a manual control condition. Results of two 20-min trials of AA or manual control revealed a significant effect of the type of automation on performance, particularly during manual control periods as part of the adaptive conditions. Humans appear to better adapt to AA applied to sensory and psychomotor information-processing functions (action implementation) than to AA applied to cognitive functions (information analysis and decision making), and AA is superior to completely manual control. Potential applications of this research include the design of automation to support air traffic controller information processing.
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Neuroethology of Decision-making
Adams, Geoffrey K.; Watson, Karli K.; Pearson, John; Platt, Michael L.
2012-01-01
A neuroethological approach to decision-making considers the effect of evolutionary pressures on neural circuits mediating choice. In this view, decision systems are expected to enhance fitness with respect to the local environment, and particularly efficient solutions to specific problems should be conserved, expanded, and repurposed to solve other problems. Here, we discuss basic prerequisites for a variety of decision systems from this viewpoint. We focus on two of the best-studied and most widely represented decision problems. First, we examine patch leaving, a prototype of environmentally based switching between action patterns. Second, we consider social information seeking, a process resembling foraging with search costs. We argue that while the specific neural solutions to these problems sometimes differ across species, both the problems themselves and the algorithms instantiated by biological hardware are repeated widely throughout nature. The behavioral and mathematical study of ubiquitous decision processes like patch leaving and social information seeking thus provides a powerful new approach to uncovering the fundamental design structure of nervous systems. PMID:22902613
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MARKOV: A methodology for the solution of infinite time horizon MARKOV decision processes
Williams, B.K.
1988-01-01
Algorithms are described for determining optimal policies for finite state, finite action, infinite discrete time horizon Markov decision processes. Both value-improvement and policy-improvement techniques are used in the algorithms. Computing procedures are also described. The algorithms are appropriate for processes that are either finite or infinite, deterministic or stochastic, discounted or undiscounted, in any meaningful combination of these features. Computing procedures are described in terms of initial data processing, bound improvements, process reduction, and testing and solution. Application of the methodology is illustrated with an example involving natural resource management. Management implications of certain hypothesized relationships between mallard survival and harvest rates are addressed by applying the optimality procedures to mallard population models.
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Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation: Decomposing the Processes Underlying Action Preparation.
Bestmann, Sven; Duque, Julie
2016-08-01
Preparing actions requires the operation of several cognitive control processes that influence the state of the motor system to ensure that the appropriate behavior is ultimately selected and executed. For example, some form of competition resolution ensures that the right action is chosen among alternatives, often in the presence of conflict; at the same time, impulse control ought to be deployed to prevent premature responses. Here we review how state-changes in the human motor system during action preparation can be studied through motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) elicited by transcranial magnetic stimulation over the contralateral primary motor cortex (M1). We discuss how the physiological fingerprints afforded by MEPs have helped to decompose some of the dynamic and effector-specific influences on the motor system during action preparation. We focus on competition resolution, conflict and impulse control, as well as on the influence of higher cognitive decision-related variables. The selected examples demonstrate the usefulness of MEPs as physiological readouts for decomposing the influence of distinct, but often overlapping, control processes on the human motor system during action preparation. © The Author(s) 2015.
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Terti, G.; Ruin, I.; Kalas, M.; Lorini, V.; Sabbatini, T.; i Alonso, A. C.
2017-12-01
New technologies are currently adopted worldwide to improve weather forecasts and communication of the corresponding warnings to the end-users. "EnhANcing emergency management and response to extreme WeatHER and climate Events" (ANYWHERE) project is an innovating action that aims at developing and implementing a European decision-support platform for weather-related risks integrating cutting-edge forecasting technology. The initiative is built in a collaborative manner where researchers, developers, potential users and other stakeholders meet frequently to define needs, capabilities and challenges. In this study, we propose a role-playing game to test the added value of the ANYWHERE platform on i) the decision-making process and the choice of warning levels under uncertainty, ii) the management of the official emergency response and iii) the crisis communication and triggering of protective actions at different levels of the warning system (from hazard detection to citizen response). The designed game serves as an interactive communication tool. Here, flood and flash flood focused simulations seek to enhance participant's understanding of the complexities and challenges embedded in various levels of the decision-making process under the threat of weather disasters (e.g., forecasting/warnings, official emergency actions, self-protection). Also, we facilitate collaboration and coordination between the participants who belong to different national or local agencies/authorities across Europe. The game is first applied and tested in ANYWHERE's workshop in Helsinki (September, 2017) where about 30-50 people, including researchers, forecasters, civil protection and representatives of related companies, are anticipated to play the simulation. The main idea is to provide to the players a virtual case study that well represents realistic uncertainties and dilemmas embedded in the real-time forecasting-warning processes. At the final debriefing step the participants are encouraged to exchange knowledge, thoughts and insights on their capability or difficulty to decide and communicate their action based on the available information and given constrains. Such feedback will be analyzed and presented and future potentialities for the application of the game will be discussed.
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Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR
2012-04-01
... ACTIONS Commission Review of Decisions by the National Futures Association In Member Responsibility Actions § 171.42 Notice of a final decision of the National Futures Association in a member responsibility... the Proceeding Clerk and Secretary of the Commission, with a written notice of any final decision in a...
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Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR
2013-04-01
... ACTIONS Commission Review of Decisions by the National Futures Association In Member Responsibility Actions § 171.42 Notice of a final decision of the National Futures Association in a member responsibility... the Proceeding Clerk and Secretary of the Commission, with a written notice of any final decision in a...
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Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-04-01
... ACTIONS Commission Review of Decisions by the National Futures Association In Member Responsibility Actions § 171.42 Notice of a final decision of the National Futures Association in a member responsibility... the Proceeding Clerk and Secretary of the Commission, with a written notice of any final decision in a...
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Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR
2011-04-01
... ACTIONS Commission Review of Decisions by the National Futures Association In Member Responsibility Actions § 171.42 Notice of a final decision of the National Futures Association in a member responsibility... the Proceeding Clerk and Secretary of the Commission, with a written notice of any final decision in a...
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Garrigan, Beverley; Adlam, Anna L R; Langdon, Peter E
2016-10-01
The aims of this systematic review were to determine: (a) which brain areas are consistently more active when making (i) moral response decisions, defined as choosing a response to a moral dilemma, or deciding whether to accept a proposed solution, or (ii) moral evaluations, defined as judging the appropriateness of another's actions in a moral dilemma, rating moral statements as right or wrong, or identifying important moral issues; and (b) shared and significantly different activation patterns for these two types of moral judgements. A systematic search of the literature returned 28 experiments. Activation likelihood estimate analysis identified the brain areas commonly more active for moral response decisions and for moral evaluations. Conjunction analysis revealed shared activation for both types of moral judgement in the left middle temporal gyrus, cingulate gyrus, and medial frontal gyrus. Contrast analyses found no significant clusters of increased activation for the moral evaluations-moral response decisions contrast, but found that moral response decisions additionally activated the left and right middle temporal gyrus and the right precuneus. Making one's own moral decisions involves different brain areas compared to judging the moral actions of others, implying that these judgements may involve different processes. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Argumentation for Decision Making
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Amgoud, Leila
Decision making, often viewed as a form of reasoning toward action, has raised the interest of many scholars including economists, psychologists, and computer scientists for a long time. Any decision problem amounts to selecting the “best” or sufficiently “good” action(s) that are feasible among different alternatives, given some available information about the current state of the world and the consequences of potential actions. Available information may be incomplete or pervaded with uncertainty. Besides, the goodness of an action is judged by estimating how much its possible consequences fit the preferences of the decision maker. This agent is assumed to behave in a rational way [29] amgoud-woold, at least in the sense that his decisions should be as much as possible consistent with his preferences.
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A top-five list for emergency medicine: a pilot project to improve the value of emergency care.
Schuur, Jeremiah D; Carney, Dylan P; Lyn, Everett T; Raja, Ali S; Michael, John A; Ross, Nicholas G; Venkatesh, Arjun K
2014-04-01
IMPORTANCE The mean cost of medical care in the United States is growing at an unsustainable rate; from 2003 through 2011, the cost for an emergency department (ED) visit rose 240%, from $560 to $1354. The diagnostic tests, treatments, and hospitalizations that emergency clinicians order result in significant costs. OBJECTIVE To create a "top-five" list of tests, treatments, and disposition decisions that are of little value, are amenable to standardization, and are actionable by emergency medicine clinicians. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Modified Delphi consensus process and survey of 283 emergency medicine clinicians (physicians, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners) from 6 EDs. INTERVENTION We assembled a technical expert panel (TEP) and conducted a modified Delphi process to identify a top-five list using a 4-step process. In phase 1, we generated a list of low-value clinical decisions from TEP brainstorming and e-mail solicitation of clinicians. In phase 2, the TEP ranked items on contribution to cost, benefit to patients, and actionability by clinicians. In phase 3, we surveyed all ordering clinicians from the 6 EDs regarding distinct aspects of each item. In phase 4, the TEP voted for a final top-five list based on survey results and discussion. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES A top-five list for emergency medicine. The TEP ranked items on contribution to cost, benefit to patients, and actionability by clinicians. The survey asked clinicians to score items on the potential benefit or harm to patients and the provider actionability of each item. Voting and surveys used 5-point Likert scales. A Pearson interdomain correlation was used. RESULTS Phase 1 identified 64 low-value items. Phase 2 narrowed this list to 7 laboratory tests, 3 medications, 4 imaging studies, and 3 disposition decisions included in the phase 3 survey (71.0% response rate). All 17 items showed a significant positive correlation between benefit and actionability (r, 0.19-0.37 [P ≤ .01]). One item received unanimous TEP support, 4 received majority support, and 12 received at least 1 vote. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE Our TEP identified clinical actions that are of low value and within the control of ED health care providers. This method can be used to identify additional actionable targets of overuse in emergency medicine.
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Predicting explorative motor learning using decision-making and motor noise.
Chen, Xiuli; Mohr, Kieran; Galea, Joseph M
2017-04-01
A fundamental problem faced by humans is learning to select motor actions based on noisy sensory information and incomplete knowledge of the world. Recently, a number of authors have asked whether this type of motor learning problem might be very similar to a range of higher-level decision-making problems. If so, participant behaviour on a high-level decision-making task could be predictive of their performance during a motor learning task. To investigate this question, we studied performance during an explorative motor learning task and a decision-making task which had a similar underlying structure with the exception that it was not subject to motor (execution) noise. We also collected an independent measurement of each participant's level of motor noise. Our analysis showed that explorative motor learning and decision-making could be modelled as the (approximately) optimal solution to a Partially Observable Markov Decision Process bounded by noisy neural information processing. The model was able to predict participant performance in motor learning by using parameters estimated from the decision-making task and the separate motor noise measurement. This suggests that explorative motor learning can be formalised as a sequential decision-making process that is adjusted for motor noise, and raises interesting questions regarding the neural origin of explorative motor learning.
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Predicting explorative motor learning using decision-making and motor noise
Galea, Joseph M.
2017-01-01
A fundamental problem faced by humans is learning to select motor actions based on noisy sensory information and incomplete knowledge of the world. Recently, a number of authors have asked whether this type of motor learning problem might be very similar to a range of higher-level decision-making problems. If so, participant behaviour on a high-level decision-making task could be predictive of their performance during a motor learning task. To investigate this question, we studied performance during an explorative motor learning task and a decision-making task which had a similar underlying structure with the exception that it was not subject to motor (execution) noise. We also collected an independent measurement of each participant’s level of motor noise. Our analysis showed that explorative motor learning and decision-making could be modelled as the (approximately) optimal solution to a Partially Observable Markov Decision Process bounded by noisy neural information processing. The model was able to predict participant performance in motor learning by using parameters estimated from the decision-making task and the separate motor noise measurement. This suggests that explorative motor learning can be formalised as a sequential decision-making process that is adjusted for motor noise, and raises interesting questions regarding the neural origin of explorative motor learning. PMID:28437451
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Participatory modeling and structured decision making
Robinson, Kelly F.; Fuller, Angela K.
2016-01-01
Structured decision making (SDM) provides a framework for making sound decisions even when faced with uncertainty, and is a transparent, defensible, and replicable method used to understand complex problems. A hallmark of SDM is the explicit incorporation of values and science, which often includes participation from multiple stakeholders, helping to garner trust and ultimately result in a decision that is more likely to be implemented. The core steps in the SDM process are used to structure thinking about natural resources management choices, and include: (1) properly defining the problem and the decision context, (2) determining the objectives that help describe the aspirations of the decision maker, (3) devising management actions or alternatives that can achieve those objectives, (4) evaluating the outcomes or consequences of each alternative on each of the objectives, (5) evaluating trade-offs, and (6) implementing the decision. Participatory modeling for SDM includes engaging stakeholders in some or all of the steps of the SDM process listed above. In addition, participatory modeling often is crucial for creating qualitative and quantitative models of how the system works, providing data for these models, and eliciting expert opinion when data are unavailable. In these ways, SDM provides a framework for decision making in natural resources management that includes participation from stakeholder groups throughout the process, including the modeling phase.
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Douglas P. Peterson; Bruce E. Reiman; Jason B. Dunham; Kurt D. Fausch; Michael K. Young
2008-01-01
Native salmonid fishes often face simultaneous threats from habitat fragmentation and invasion by nonnative trout species. Unfortunately, management actions to address one may create or exacerbate the other. A consistent decision process would include a systematic analysis of when and where intentional use or removal of barriers is the most appropriate action. We...
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Effective crisis decision-making.
Kaschner, Holger
2017-01-01
When an organisation's reputation is at stake, crisis decision-making (CDM) is challenging and prone to failure. Most CDM schemes are strong at certain aspects of the overall CDM process, but almost none are strong at all of them. This paper defines criteria for good CDM schemes, analyses common approaches and introduces an alternative, stakeholder-driven scheme. Focusing on the most important stakeholders and directing any actions to preserve the relationships with them is crucial. When doing so, the interdependencies between the stakeholders must be identified and considered. Without knowledge of the sometimes less than obvious links, wellmeaning actions can cause adverse effects, so a cross-check for the impacts of potential options is recommended before making the final decision. The paper also gives recommendations on how to implement these steps at any organisation in order to enhance the quality of CDM and thus protect the organisation's reputation.
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Kar, B.; Robinson, C.; Koch, D. B.; Omitaomu, O.
2017-12-01
The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 identified the following four priorities to prevent and reduce disaster risks: i) understanding disaster risk; ii) strengthening governance to manage disaster risk; iii) investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience and; iv) enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response, and to "Build Back Better" in recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction. While forecasting and decision making tools are in place to predict and understand future impacts of natural hazards, the knowledge to action approach that currently exists fails to provide updated information needed by decision makers to undertake response and recovery efforts following a hazard event. For instance, during a tropical storm event advisories are released every two to three hours, but manual analysis of geospatial data to determine potential impacts of the event tends to be time-consuming and a post-event process. Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed a Spatial Decision Support System that enables real-time analysis of storm impact based on updated advisory. A prototype of the tool that focuses on determining projected power outage areas and projected duration of outages demonstrates the feasibility of integrating science with decision making for emergency management personnel to act in real time to protect communities and reduce risk.
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Feasibility of neuro-morphic computing to emulate error-conflict based decision making.
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Branch, Darren W.
2009-09-01
A key aspect of decision making is determining when errors or conflicts exist in information and knowing whether to continue or terminate an action. Understanding the error-conflict processing is crucial in order to emulate higher brain functions in hardware and software systems. Specific brain regions, most notably the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) are known to respond to the presence of conflicts in information by assigning a value to an action. Essentially, this conflict signal triggers strategic adjustments in cognitive control, which serve to prevent further conflict. The most probable mechanism is the ACC reports and discriminates different types of feedback,more » both positive and negative, that relate to different adaptations. Unique cells called spindle neurons that are primarily found in the ACC (layer Vb) are known to be responsible for cognitive dissonance (disambiguation between alternatives). Thus, the ACC through a specific set of cells likely plays a central role in the ability of humans to make difficult decisions and solve challenging problems in the midst of conflicting information. In addition to dealing with cognitive dissonance, decision making in high consequence scenarios also relies on the integration of multiple sets of information (sensory, reward, emotion, etc.). Thus, a second area of interest for this proposal lies in the corticostriatal networks that serve as an integration region for multiple cognitive inputs. In order to engineer neurological decision making processes in silicon devices, we will determine the key cells, inputs, and outputs of conflict/error detection in the ACC region. The second goal is understand in vitro models of corticostriatal networks and the impact of physical deficits on decision making, specifically in stressful scenarios with conflicting streams of data from multiple inputs. We will elucidate the mechanisms of cognitive data integration in order to implement a future corticostriatal-like network in silicon devices for improved decision processing.« less
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A holistic strategy for adaptive land management
USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database
Adaptive management is widely applied to natural resources management. Adaptive management can be generally defined as an iterative decision-making process that incorporates formulation of management objectives, actions designed to address these objectives, monitoring of results, and repeated adapta...
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Making Information Useful: Engagement in the National Climate Assessment Process
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Lough, G. C.; Cloyd, E.
2014-12-01
Creation of actionable information requires that the producers of that information understand the needs of the intended users and decision makers. To that end, development of the Third National Climate Assessment included a focus on engaging users through an inclusive, broad-based, and sustained process. Such a process provides opportunities for scientific experts and decision makers to share knowledge about the climate-related issues, impacts, and potential response actions that are most important in a particular region or sector. Such a process is also highly transparent in order to produce results that are credible, salient, and legitimate for both scientists and decision makers, ultimately making the results extremely useful. To implement these principles for the recent NCA, a broad-based engagement strategy was implemented from the start of the process. The strategy invited participation from users and stakeholder communities at each stage of the process, and considered methods for communicating with potential users at every step. The strategy was designed to elicit contributions to help shape the framing of the assessment, improve the transparency of the process, and increase the utility of the final information. Specific user inputs were gathered through a series of workshops, public comment opportunities, town hall meetings, presentations, requests for information, submitted documents, and open meetings. Further, a network of contributors self-organized around topics of interest to extend the NCA to a wider range of user groups. Here, we describe the outcomes of these innovations in assessment engagement and identify clear successes, notable surprises, future evaluation needs, and areas for new ideas.
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Meessen, Bruno; Hercot, David; Noirhomme, Mathieu; Ridde, Valéry; Tibouti, Abdelmajid; Tashobya, Christine Kirunga; Gilson, Lucy
2011-11-01
In recent years, governments of several low-income countries have taken decisive action by removing fully or partially user fees in the health sector. In this study, we review recent reforms in six sub-Saharan African countries: Burkina Faso, Burundi, Ghana, Liberia, Senegal and Uganda. The review describes the processes and strategies through which user fee removal reforms have been implemented and tries to assess them by referring to a good practice hypotheses framework. The analysis shows that African leaders are willing to take strong action to remove financial barriers met by vulnerable groups, especially pregnant women and children. However, due to a lack of consultation and the often unexpected timing of the decision taken by the political authorities, there was insufficient preparation for user fee removal in several countries. This lack of preparation resulted in poor design of the reform and weaknesses in the processes of policy formulation and implementation. Our assessment is that there is now a window of opportunity in many African countries for policy action to address barriers to accessing health care. Mobilizing sufficient financial resources and obtaining long-term commitment are obviously crucial requirements, but design details, the formulation process and implementation plan also need careful thought. We contend that national policy-makers and international agencies could better collaborate in this respect.
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Dreyer, Felix R.; Frey, Dietmar; Arana, Sophie; von Saldern, Sarah; Picht, Thomas; Vajkoczy, Peter; Pulvermüller, Friedemann
2015-01-01
Neuroimaging and neuropsychological experiments suggest that modality-preferential cortices, including motor- and somatosensory areas, contribute to the semantic processing of action related concrete words. Still, a possible role of sensorimotor areas in processing abstract meaning remains under debate. Recent fMRI studies indicate an involvement of the left sensorimotor cortex in the processing of abstract-emotional words (e.g., “love”) which resembles activation patterns seen for action words. But are the activated areas indeed necessary for processing action-related and abstract words? The current study now investigates word processing in two patients suffering from focal brain lesion in the left frontocentral motor system. A speeded Lexical Decision Task on meticulously matched word groups showed that the recognition of nouns from different semantic categories – related to food, animals, tools, and abstract-emotional concepts – was differentially affected. Whereas patient HS with a lesion in dorsolateral central sensorimotor systems next to the hand area showed a category-specific deficit in recognizing tool words, patient CA suffering from lesion centered in the left supplementary motor area was primarily impaired in abstract-emotional word processing. These results point to a causal role of the motor cortex in the semantic processing of both action-related object concepts and abstract-emotional concepts and therefore suggest that the motor areas previously found active in action-related and abstract word processing can serve a meaning-specific necessary role in word recognition. The category-specific nature of the observed dissociations is difficult to reconcile with the idea that sensorimotor systems are somehow peripheral or ‘epiphenomenal’ to meaning and concept processing. Rather, our results are consistent with the claim that cognition is grounded in action and perception and based on distributed action perception circuits reaching into modality-preferential cortex. PMID:26617535
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Neural Basis of Reinforcement Learning and Decision Making
Lee, Daeyeol; Seo, Hyojung; Jung, Min Whan
2012-01-01
Reinforcement learning is an adaptive process in which an animal utilizes its previous experience to improve the outcomes of future choices. Computational theories of reinforcement learning play a central role in the newly emerging areas of neuroeconomics and decision neuroscience. In this framework, actions are chosen according to their value functions, which describe how much future reward is expected from each action. Value functions can be adjusted not only through reward and penalty, but also by the animal’s knowledge of its current environment. Studies have revealed that a large proportion of the brain is involved in representing and updating value functions and using them to choose an action. However, how the nature of a behavioral task affects the neural mechanisms of reinforcement learning remains incompletely understood. Future studies should uncover the principles by which different computational elements of reinforcement learning are dynamically coordinated across the entire brain. PMID:22462543
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A Grounded Theory Study of Aircraft Maintenance Technician Decision-Making
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Norcross, Robert
Aircraft maintenance technician decision-making and actions have resulted in aircraft system errors causing aircraft incidents and accidents. Aircraft accident investigators and researchers examined the factors that influence aircraft maintenance technician errors and categorized the types of errors in an attempt to prevent similar occurrences. New aircraft technology introduced to improve aviation safety and efficiency incur failures that have no information contained in the aircraft maintenance manuals. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, aircraft maintenance technicians must use only approved aircraft maintenance documents to repair, modify, and service aircraft. This qualitative research used a grounded theory approach to explore the decision-making processes and actions taken by aircraft maintenance technicians when confronted with an aircraft problem not contained in the aircraft maintenance manuals. The target population for the research was Federal Aviation Administration licensed aircraft and power plant mechanics from across the United States. Nonprobability purposeful sampling was used to obtain aircraft maintenance technicians with the experience sought in the study problem. The sample population recruitment yielded 19 participants for eight focus group sessions to obtain opinions, perceptions, and experiences related to the study problem. All data collected was entered into the Atlas ti qualitative analysis software. The emergence of Aircraft Maintenance Technician decision-making themes regarding Aircraft Maintenance Manual content, Aircraft Maintenance Technician experience, and legal implications of not following Aircraft Maintenance Manuals surfaced. Conclusions from this study suggest Aircraft Maintenance Technician decision-making were influenced by experience, gaps in the Aircraft Maintenance Manuals, reliance on others, realizing the impact of decisions concerning aircraft airworthiness, management pressures, and legal concerns related to decision-making. Recommendations included an in-depth systematic review of the Aircraft Maintenance Manuals, development of a Federal Aviation Administration approved standardized Aircraft Maintenance Technician decision-making flow diagram, and implementation of risk based decision-making training. The benefit of this study is to save the airline industry revenue by preventing poor decision-making practices that result in inefficient maintenance actions and aircraft incidents and accidents.
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Nutley, Tara; Gnassou, Léontine; Traore, Moussa; Bosso, Abitche Edwige; Mullen, Stephanie
2014-01-01
Improving a health system requires data, but too often they are unused or under-used by decision makers. Without interventions to improve the use of data in decision making, health systems cannot meet the needs of the populations they serve. In 2008, in Côte d'Ivoire, data were largely unused in health decision-making processes. To implement and evaluate an intervention to improve the use of data in decision making in Cote d'Ivoire. From 2008 to 2012, Cote d'Ivoire sought to improve the use of national health data through an intervention that broadens participation in and builds links between data collection and decision-making processes; identifies information needs; improves data quality; builds capacity to analyze, synthesize, and interpret data; and develops policies to support data use. To assess the results, a Performance of Routine Information System Management Assessment was conducted before and after the intervention using a combination of purposeful and random sampling. In 2008, the sample consisted of the central level, 12 districts, and 119 facilities, and in 2012, the sample consisted of the central level, 20 districts, and 190 health facilities. To assess data use, we developed dichotomous indicators: discussions of analysis findings, decisions taken based on the analysis, and decisions referred to upper management for action. We aggregated the indicators to generate a composite, continuous index of data use. From 2008 to 2012, the district data-use score increased from 40 to 70%; the facility score remained the same - 38%. The central score is not reported, because of a methodological difference in the two assessments. The intervention improved the use of data in decision making at the district level in Côte d'Ivoire. This study provides an example of, and guidance for, implementing a large-scale intervention to improve data-informed decision making.
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Hippocampal Damage Increases Deontological Responses during Moral Decision Making
Rosenthal, Clive R.; Miller, Thomas D.
2016-01-01
Complex moral decision making is associated with the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) in humans, and damage to this region significantly increases the frequency of utilitarian judgments. Since the vmPFC has strong anatomical and functional links with the hippocampus, here we asked how patients with selective bilateral hippocampal damage would derive moral decisions on a classic moral dilemmas paradigm. We found that the patients approved of the utilitarian options significantly less often than control participants, favoring instead deontological responses—rejecting actions that harm even one person. Thus, patients with hippocampal damage have a strikingly opposite approach to moral decision making than vmPFC-lesioned patients. Skin-conductance data collected during the task showed increased emotional arousal in the hippocampal-damaged patients and they stated that their moral decisions were based on emotional instinct. By contrast, control participants made moral decisions based on the integration of an adverse emotional response to harming others, visualization of the consequences of one's action, and the rational re-evaluation of future benefits. This integration may be disturbed in patients with either hippocampal or vmPFC damage. Hippocampal lesions decreased the ability to visualize a scenario and its future consequences, which seemed to render the adverse emotional response overwhelmingly dominant. In patients with vmPFC damage, visualization might also be reduced alongside an inability to detect the adverse emotional response, leaving only the utilitarian option open. Overall, these results provide insights into the processes involved in moral decision making and highlight the complementary roles played by two closely connected brain regions. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) is closely associated with the ability to make complex moral judgements. When this area is damaged, patients become more utilitarian (the ends justify the means) and have decreased emotional arousal during moral decision making. The vmPFC is closely connected with another brain region—the hippocampus. In this study we found that patients with selective bilateral hippocampal damage show a strikingly opposite response pattern to those with vmPFC damage when making moral judgements. They rejected harmful actions of any kind (thus their responses were deontological) and showed increased emotional arousal. These results provide new insights into the processes involved in moral decision making and highlight the complementary roles played by two closely connected brain regions. PMID:27903725
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Hippocampal Damage Increases Deontological Responses during Moral Decision Making.
McCormick, Cornelia; Rosenthal, Clive R; Miller, Thomas D; Maguire, Eleanor A
2016-11-30
Complex moral decision making is associated with the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) in humans, and damage to this region significantly increases the frequency of utilitarian judgments. Since the vmPFC has strong anatomical and functional links with the hippocampus, here we asked how patients with selective bilateral hippocampal damage would derive moral decisions on a classic moral dilemmas paradigm. We found that the patients approved of the utilitarian options significantly less often than control participants, favoring instead deontological responses-rejecting actions that harm even one person. Thus, patients with hippocampal damage have a strikingly opposite approach to moral decision making than vmPFC-lesioned patients. Skin-conductance data collected during the task showed increased emotional arousal in the hippocampal-damaged patients and they stated that their moral decisions were based on emotional instinct. By contrast, control participants made moral decisions based on the integration of an adverse emotional response to harming others, visualization of the consequences of one's action, and the rational re-evaluation of future benefits. This integration may be disturbed in patients with either hippocampal or vmPFC damage. Hippocampal lesions decreased the ability to visualize a scenario and its future consequences, which seemed to render the adverse emotional response overwhelmingly dominant. In patients with vmPFC damage, visualization might also be reduced alongside an inability to detect the adverse emotional response, leaving only the utilitarian option open. Overall, these results provide insights into the processes involved in moral decision making and highlight the complementary roles played by two closely connected brain regions. The ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) is closely associated with the ability to make complex moral judgements. When this area is damaged, patients become more utilitarian (the ends justify the means) and have decreased emotional arousal during moral decision making. The vmPFC is closely connected with another brain region-the hippocampus. In this study we found that patients with selective bilateral hippocampal damage show a strikingly opposite response pattern to those with vmPFC damage when making moral judgements. They rejected harmful actions of any kind (thus their responses were deontological) and showed increased emotional arousal. These results provide new insights into the processes involved in moral decision making and highlight the complementary roles played by two closely connected brain regions. Copyright © 2015 McCormick et al.
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Christopoulos, Vassilios; Schrater, Paul R.
2015-01-01
Decisions involve two fundamental problems, selecting goals and generating actions to pursue those goals. While simple decisions involve choosing a goal and pursuing it, humans evolved to survive in hostile dynamic environments where goal availability and value can change with time and previous actions, entangling goal decisions with action selection. Recent studies suggest the brain generates concurrent action-plans for competing goals, using online information to bias the competition until a single goal is pursued. This creates a challenging problem of integrating information across diverse types, including both the dynamic value of the goal and the costs of action. We model the computations underlying dynamic decision-making with disparate value types, using the probability of getting the highest pay-off with the least effort as a common currency that supports goal competition. This framework predicts many aspects of decision behavior that have eluded a common explanation. PMID:26394299
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Shared Decision-Making for Nursing Practice: An Integrative Review
Truglio-Londrigan, Marie; Slyer, Jason T.
2018-01-01
Background: Shared decision-making has received national and international interest by providers, educators, researchers, and policy makers. The literature on shared decision-making is extensive, dealing with the individual components of shared decision-making rather than a comprehensive process. This view of shared decision-making leaves healthcare providers to wonder how to integrate shared decision-making into practice. Objective: To understand shared decision-making as a comprehensive process from the perspective of the patient and provider in all healthcare settings. Methods: An integrative review was conducted applying a systematic approach involving a literature search, data evaluation, and data analysis. The search included articles from PubMed, CINAHL, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and PsycINFO from 1970 through 2016. Articles included quantitative experimental and non-experimental designs, qualitative, and theoretical articles about shared decision-making between all healthcare providers and patients in all healthcare settings. Results: Fifty-two papers were included in this integrative review. Three categories emerged from the synthesis: (a) communication/ relationship building; (b) working towards a shared decision; and (c) action for shared decision-making. Each major theme contained sub-themes represented in the proposed visual representation for shared decision-making. Conclusion: A comprehensive understanding of shared decision-making between the nurse and the patient was identified. A visual representation offers a guide that depicts shared decision-making as a process taking place during a healthcare encounter with implications for the continuation of shared decisions over time offering patients an opportunity to return to the nurse for reconsiderations of past shared decisions. PMID:29456779
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The enactment stage of end-of-life decision-making for children.
Sullivan, Jane Elizabeth; Gillam, Lynn Heather; Monagle, Paul Terence
2018-01-11
Typically pediatric end-of-life decision-making studies have examined the decision-making process, factors, and doctors' and parents' roles. Less attention has focussed on what happens after an end-of-life decision is made; that is, decision enactment and its outcome. This study explored the views and experiences of bereaved parents in end-of-life decision-making for their child. Findings reported relate to parents' experiences of acting on their decision. It is argued that this is one significant stage of the decision-making process. A qualitative methodology was used. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with bereaved parents, who had discussed end-of-life decisions for their child who had a life-limiting condition and who had died. Data were thematically analysed. Twenty-five bereaved parents participated. Findings indicate that, despite differences in context, including the child's condition and age, end-of-life decision-making did not end when an end-of-life decision was made. Enacting the decision was the next stage in a process. Time intervals between stages and enactment pathways varied, but the enactment was always distinguishable as a separate stage. Decision enactment involved making further decisions - parents needed to discern the appropriate time to implement their decision to withdraw or withhold life-sustaining medical treatment. Unexpected events, including other people's actions, impacted on parents enacting their decision in the way they had planned. Several parents had to re-implement decisions when their child recovered from serious health issues without medical intervention. Significance of results A novel, critical finding was that parents experienced end-of-life decision-making as a sequence of interconnected stages, the final stage being enactment. The enactment stage involved further decision-making. End-of-life decision-making is better understood as a process rather than a discrete once-off event. The enactment stage has particular emotional and practical implications for parents. Greater understanding of this stage can improve clinician's support for parents as they care for their child.
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[The relationship between fat intake behavior and psychological impact factor in adolescent].
Fang, Mingzhu; Zhang, Jie; Wu, Xian; Huang, Xianhong; Gu, Fang; Qu, Xuping; Xu, Liangwen
2015-02-01
To learn the dietary fat intake behavior status and influencing psychological factors in teenagers. According to the multi-stage stratified cluster sampling method, students were recruited from middle and high schools in Hangzhou, Wuhan and Xi'an from March to May, 2012. Chinese version of adolescent dietary fat intake behavior of psychological measurement scales was utilized in field investigations with 3 448 effective questionnaires. Under the transtheoretical model, the status quo of teenagers fat intake behavior was analyzed and it shows the relationship between stages and psychological variables, including strategy of change, decision balance and self-efficacy. In the 3 448 participants, the proportion of girls were 52.4% (1 806/3 448) and boys were 47.6% (1 642/3 448), while the mean age was (14.85 ± 1.46). There are significant differences among distributed stages of behavior change, grouped by gender, grade and region (χ(2) values were 33.59, 20.53, 27.92, P < 0.001). In different gender groups, the number of boys in precontemplation came to the first and accounted for 24.2% (438/1 806), and the number of girls were more in contemplation and preparation stage, which accounted for 49.5% (813/1 642), and it was the least both in the action stage with the ratio 12.1% (218/1 806) and 14.7% (241/1 642) respectively; in different grade groups, the numbers of student in middle school and high school were the largest in contemplation and precontemplation stage, accounted for 24.9% (494/1 986) and 23.4% (343/1 462); and among different regions, the proportion in precontemplation, contemplation and preparation stage was not a few, and this ratio in Hangzhou, Wuhan, Xi'an area was 70.6% (801/1 135), 61.7% (649/1 052) and 68.8% (867/1 261), respectively. The number in action stage was the least of all, which were 144, 147, 168, respectively. Ordinal logistic mode showed that the four variables, including the scores of process of change, decision balance (pros), decision balance (cons) and self-efficacy, were factors which significantly affected the stages of behavior change, which showed a significant difference (F values were 155.12, 19.86, 44.59, 94.27, P < 0.001) in different stages. From precontemplation stage to action stage, the score of the process of change, decision balance (pros) and self-efficacy showed an upward trend, and achieved the highest score in the action stage (from 32.6 ± 12.8, 8.4 ± 2.9, 19.7 ± 6.9 to 48.4 ± 12.6, 10.1 ± 2.5, 25.9 ± 6.9, respectively); contrarily, the decision balance (cons) decreased with the development of behavioral stage (from 14.7 ± 4.4 to 12.2 ± 3.9). Post hoc comparison also found that the score of process of change, decision balance (pros) and self-efficacy after action stages were higher than those before action, while the score of decisional balance (cons) in the precontemplation stage was higher than that in the other 4 stages. Fat intake behavior in teenagers showed different stages, whose psychological factors had significant influences, with decision balance (pros) hindered the progress of stages of behavior change, while other three factors played a positive role.
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Decision-Making in the Ventral Premotor Cortex Harbinger of Action
Pardo-Vazquez, Jose L.; Padron, Isabel; Fernandez-Rey, Jose; Acuña, Carlos
2011-01-01
Although the premotor (PM) cortex was once viewed as the substrate of pure motor functions, soon it was realized that it was involved in higher brain functions. By this it is meant that the PM cortex functions would better be explained as motor set, preparation for limb movement, or sensory guidance of movement rather than solely by a fixed link to motor performance. These findings, together with a better knowledge of the PM cortex histology and hodology in human and non-human primates prompted quantitative studies of this area combining behavioral tasks with electrophysiological recordings. In addition, the exploration of the PM cortex neurons with qualitative methods also suggested its participation in higher functions. Behavioral choices frequently depend on temporal cues, which together with knowledge of previous outcomes and expectancies are combined to decide and choose a behavioral action. In decision-making the knowledge about the consequences of decisions, either correct or incorrect, is fundamental because they can be used to adapt future behavior. The neuronal correlates of a decision process have been described in several cortical areas of primates. Among them, there is evidence that the monkey ventral premotor (PMv) cortex, an anatomical and physiological well-differentiated area of the PM cortex, supports both perceptual decisions and performance monitoring. Here we review the evidence that the steps in a decision-making process are encoded in the firing rate of the PMv neurons. This provides compelling evidence suggesting that the PMv is involved in the use of recent and long-term sensory memory to decide, execute, and evaluate the outcomes of the subjects’ choices. PMID:21991249
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Decision making under uncertainty in a spiking neural network model of the basal ganglia.
Héricé, Charlotte; Khalil, Radwa; Moftah, Marie; Boraud, Thomas; Guthrie, Martin; Garenne, André
2016-12-01
The mechanisms of decision-making and action selection are generally thought to be under the control of parallel cortico-subcortical loops connecting back to distinct areas of cortex through the basal ganglia and processing motor, cognitive and limbic modalities of decision-making. We have used these properties to develop and extend a connectionist model at a spiking neuron level based on a previous rate model approach. This model is demonstrated on decision-making tasks that have been studied in primates and the electrophysiology interpreted to show that the decision is made in two steps. To model this, we have used two parallel loops, each of which performs decision-making based on interactions between positive and negative feedback pathways. This model is able to perform two-level decision-making as in primates. We show here that, before learning, synaptic noise is sufficient to drive the decision-making process and that, after learning, the decision is based on the choice that has proven most likely to be rewarded. The model is then submitted to lesion tests, reversal learning and extinction protocols. We show that, under these conditions, it behaves in a consistent manner and provides predictions in accordance with observed experimental data.
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Robinson, Oliver J; Bond, Rebecca L; Roiser, Jonathan P
2015-01-01
Anxiety and stress-related disorders constitute a large global health burden, but are still poorly understood. Prior work has demonstrated clear impacts of stress upon basic cognitive function: biasing attention toward unexpected and potentially threatening information and instantiating a negative affective bias. However, the impact that these changes have on higher-order, executive, decision-making processes is unclear. In this study, we examined the impact of a translational within-subjects stress induction (threat of unpredictable shock) on two well-established executive decision-making biases: the framing effect (N = 83), and temporal discounting (N = 36). In both studies, we demonstrate (a) clear subjective effects of stress, and (b) clear executive decision-making biases but (c) no impact of stress on these decision-making biases. Indeed, Bayes factor analyses confirmed substantial preference for decision-making models that did not include stress. We posit that while stress may induce subjective mood change and alter low-level perceptual and action processes (Robinson et al., 2013c), some higher-level executive processes remain unperturbed by these impacts. As such, although stress can induce a transient affective biases and altered mood, these need not result in poor financial decision-making.
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Total Quality Management (TQM): Group Dynamics Workshop
1990-05-15
interactions with other OSD decision-making bodies. " Remove barriers /facilitate implementation. " Direct action on unresolved process problems referred...TQM leadership. - Total Quality Management FUNCTIONS: * Translate goals to tangible internal initiatives. " Remove barriers . " Establish and...Quality Management FUNCTIONS: • Identify and remove barriers . " Develop practical process improvements. " Install solutions and measurement systems for
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Incentives and Motivation in the Teaching-Learning Process: The Role of Teacher Intentions.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Menges, Robert J.
The theory of "reasoned action" is applied to the teaching-learning process. This theory asserts that people use the information available to them in a reasonable manner to arrive at their decisions and that a person's behavior follows logically and systematically from whatever information he has available. To illustrate application of the theory…
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Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014
2013-05-17
... availability of the draft guidance entitled ``Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) Appeals Processes: Questions and Answers About 517A.'' This draft document provides CDRH's proposed interpretation... decisions and actions taken by CDRH. This draft guidance is not final nor is it in effect at this time...
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Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014
2011-12-28
... ``Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) Appeals Processes.'' This document describes the processes available to outside stakeholders to request additional review of decisions and actions by CDRH... submit related requests to CDRH and FDA. This draft guidance is not final nor is it in effect at this...
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Everything is Not a Process: Products, Games and Emerging Metaphors for Work
2012-02-01
intriguing metaphors for work to emerge in re- cent years is to describe it as a game. Jane McGonigal is a lead- ing expert on “ gamification ,” and her...descriptions, to include a gamified approach, when making decisions and taking action. Ultimately, whether we call it a process, a journey, or a game
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Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-07-01
... on behalf of the applicant; (4) The decision of the DRB; (5) Advisory opinions relief upon for the final action; and (6) The final action on the DRB decision by the Commandant or Secretary. (b) The... the decision of the DRB and the final action thereon is made available for public inspection and...
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Gillan, Claire M; Morein-Zamir, Sharon; Kaser, Muzaffer; Fineberg, Naomi A; Sule, Akeem; Sahakian, Barbara J; Cardinal, Rudolf N; Robbins, Trevor W
2014-04-15
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a disorder of automatic, uncontrollable behaviors and obsessive rumination. There is evidence that OCD patients have difficulties performing goal-directed actions, instead exhibiting repetitive stimulus-response habit behaviors. This might result from the excessive formation of stimulus-response habit associations or from an impairment in the ability to use outcome value to guide behavior. We investigated the latter by examining counterfactual decision making, which is the ability to use comparisons of prospective action-outcome scenarios to guide economic choice. We tested decision making (forward counterfactual) and affective responses (backward counterfactual) in 20 OCD patients and 20 matched healthy control subjects using an economic choice paradigm that previously revealed attenuation of both the experience and avoidance of counterfactual emotion in schizophrenia patients and patients with orbitofrontal cortex lesions. The use of counterfactual comparison to guide decision making was diminished in OCD patients, who relied primarily on expected value. Unlike the apathetic affective responses previously shown to accompany this decision style, OCD patients reported increased emotional responsivity to the outcomes of their choices and to the counterfactual comparisons that typify regret and relief. Obsessive-compulsive disorder patients exhibit a pattern of decision making consistent with a disruption in goal-directed forward modeling, basing decisions instead on the temporally present (and more rational) calculation of expected value. In contrast to this style of decision making, emotional responses in OCD were more extreme and reactive than control subjects. These results are in line with an account of disrupted goal-directed cognitive control in OCD. Copyright © 2014 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Multi-criteria evaluation methods in the production scheduling
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Kalinowski, K.; Krenczyk, D.; Paprocka, I.; Kempa, W.; Grabowik, C.
2016-08-01
The paper presents a discussion on the practical application of different methods of multi-criteria evaluation in the process of scheduling in manufacturing systems. Among the methods two main groups are specified: methods based on the distance function (using metacriterion) and methods that create a Pareto set of possible solutions. The basic criteria used for scheduling were also described. The overall procedure of evaluation process in production scheduling was presented. It takes into account the actions in the whole scheduling process and human decision maker (HDM) participation. The specified HDM decisions are related to creating and editing a set of evaluation criteria, selection of multi-criteria evaluation method, interaction in the searching process, using informal criteria and making final changes in the schedule for implementation. According to need, process scheduling may be completely or partially automated. Full automatization is possible in case of metacriterion based objective function and if Pareto set is selected - the final decision has to be done by HDM.
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Volition and will in psychoanalysis.
Meissner, W W
2009-10-01
To clarify the role and function of the will in psychoanalytic theory and praxis, the use and meaning of the concept of will are traced in the philosophical tradition influencing Freud, in Freud's own view of will, and in the subsequent history of psychoanalysis. Functions of the will relevant to psychoanalysis are described in terms of intellective preference and executive functioning. Operations of will as an executive function of the ego-self are analyzed, emphasizing will as efficient cause of motivated actions. The will functions to decide, choose, and initiate action directed to motivationally determined goals. The conclusion is drawn that will action is determined and directed by motivational influences, and that will decision and choice, while predominantly secondary process in organization, can operate consciously or unconsciously. Expressions of will action in psychopathology and in the analytic process are briefly discussed.
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Fischhoff, Baruch
2010-09-01
The study of judgment and decision making entails three interrelated forms of research: (1) normative analysis, identifying the best courses of action, given decision makers' values; (2) descriptive studies, examining actual behavior in terms comparable to the normative analyses; and (3) prescriptive interventions, helping individuals to make better choices, bridging the gap between the normative ideal and the descriptive reality. The research is grounded in analytical foundations shared by economics, psychology, philosophy, and management science. Those foundations provide a framework for accommodating affective and social factors that shape and complement the cognitive processes of decision making. The decision sciences have grown through applications requiring collaboration with subject matter experts, familiar with the substance of the choices and the opportunities for interventions. Over the past half century, the field has shifted its emphasis from predicting choices, which can be successful without theoretical insight, to understanding the processes shaping them. Those processes are often revealed through biases that suggest non-normative processes. The practical importance of these biases depends on the sensitivity of specific decisions and the support that individuals have in making them. As a result, the field offers no simple summary of individuals' competence as decision makers, but a suite of theories and methods suited to capturing these sensitivities. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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49 CFR 1503.655 - Initial decision.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-10-01
... Rules of Practice in TSA Civil Penalty Actions § 1503.655 Initial decision. (a) Contents. The ALJ may... copies of that initial decision available to all parties and the TSA decision maker. (b) Written decision... ALJ is persuasive authority in any other civil penalty action, unless appealed and reversed by the TSA...
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Trammel, E. Jamie; Carter, Sarah; Haby, Travis S.; Taylor, Jason J.
2018-01-01
Enhancing natural resource management has been a focus of landscape ecology since its inception, but numerous authors argue that landscape ecology has not yet been effective in achieving the underlying goal of planning and designing sustainable landscapes. We developed nine questions reflecting the application of fundamental research topics in landscape ecology to the landscape planning process and reviewed two recent landscape-scale plans in western North America for evidence of these concepts in plan decisions. Both plans considered multiple resources, uses, and values, including energy development, recreation, conservation, and protection of cultural and historic resources. We found that land use change and multiscale perspectives of resource uses and values were very often apparent in planning decisions. Pattern-process relationships, connectivity and fragmentation, ecosystem services, landscape history, and climate change were reflected less frequently. Landscape sustainability was considered only once in the 295 decisions reviewed, and outputs of landscape models were not referenced. We suggest six actionable opportunities for further integrating landscape ecology concepts into landscape planning efforts: 1) use landscape sustainability as an overarching goal, 2) adopt a broad ecosystem services framework, 3) explore the role of landscape history more comprehensively, 4) regularly consider and accommodate potential effects of climate change, 5) use landscape models to support plan decisions, and 6) promote a greater presence of landscape ecologists within agencies that manage large land bases and encourage active involvement in agency planning efforts. Together these actions may improve the defensibility, durability, and sustainability of landscape plan decisions.
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Training conservation practitioners to be better decision makers
Johnson, Fred A.; Eaton, Mitchell J.; Williams, James H.; Jensen, Gitte H.; Madsen, Jesper
2015-01-01
Traditional conservation curricula and training typically emphasizes only one part of systematic decision making (i.e., the science), at the expense of preparing conservation practitioners with critical skills in values-setting, working with decision makers and stakeholders, and effective problem framing. In this article we describe how the application of decision science is relevant to conservation problems and suggest how current and future conservation practitioners can be trained to be better decision makers. Though decision-analytic approaches vary considerably, they all involve: (1) properly formulating the decision problem; (2) specifying feasible alternative actions; and (3) selecting criteria for evaluating potential outcomes. Two approaches are available for providing training in decision science, with each serving different needs. Formal education is useful for providing simple, well-defined problems that allow demonstrations of the structure, axioms and general characteristics of a decision-analytic approach. In contrast, practical training can offer complex, realistic decision problems requiring more careful structuring and analysis than those used for formal training purposes. Ultimately, the kinds and degree of training necessary depend on the role conservation practitioners play in a decision-making process. Those attempting to facilitate decision-making processes will need advanced training in both technical aspects of decision science and in facilitation techniques, as well as opportunities to apprentice under decision analysts/consultants. Our primary goal should be an attempt to ingrain a discipline for applying clarity of thought to all decisions.
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20 CFR 405.420 - Effect of Decision Review Board action on the right to seek judicial review.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-04-01
... § 405.420 Effect of Decision Review Board action on the right to seek judicial review. (a)(1) Subject to... must wait for the Board to take action. The appeal rights, if any, that will be available at that time... 20 Employees' Benefits 2 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Effect of Decision Review Board action on the...
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The International Applied Military Psychology Symposium (27th): A Focus on Decision Making Research
1992-08-04
kinds of elements that need to be con- sidered: goals , actions , side effects and processes to be controlled. Thus, complexity would be related to the...number of processes to be controlled, the number of goals , the number of action alternatives, and the number of side effects. In the case of the fire...t FOA, d~~s~ I decisio ~nsuppo rt system called vih ’Yais developeIt ir responding !i A;cta"m ic iiui’aI1 (NJW’, attacks. This "endrti in use. serv
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ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Turnbull, Ann P.; Summers, Jean Ann; Gotto, George; Stowe, Matt; Beauchamp, Donna; Klein, Samara; Kyzar, Kathleen; Turnbull, Rud; Zuna, Nina
2009-01-01
This article discusses a new approach to knowledge translation using Web 2.0 technologies in an online Community of Practice (CoP). The purpose of the CoP is to promote wisdom-based action, a process that encourages people to engage with knowledge, match it to their own values, vision, and contexts, make a well-informed decision, and act on that…
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Health decision making: lynchpin of evidence-based practice.
Spring, Bonnie
2008-01-01
Health decision making is both the lynchpin and the least developed aspect of evidence-based practice. The evidence-based practice process requires integrating the evidence with consideration of practical resources and patient preferences and doing so via a process that is genuinely collaborative. Yet, the literature is largely silent about how to accomplish integrative, shared decision making. for evidence-based practice are discussed for 2 theories of clinician decision making (expected utility and fuzzy trace) and 2 theories of patient health decision making (transtheoretical model and reasoned action). Three suggestions are offered. First, it would be advantageous to have theory-based algorithms that weight and integrate the 3 data strands (evidence, resources, preferences) in different decisional contexts. Second, patients, not providers, make the decisions of greatest impact on public health, and those decisions are behavioral. Consequently, theory explicating how provider-patient collaboration can influence patient lifestyle decisions made miles from the provider's office is greatly needed. Third, although the preponderance of data on complex decisions supports a computational approach, such an approach to evidence-based practice is too impractical to be widely applied at present. More troublesomely, until patients come to trust decisions made computationally more than they trust their providers' intuitions, patient adherence will remain problematic. A good theory of integrative, collaborative health decision making remains needed.
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Health Decision Making: Lynchpin of Evidence-Based Practice
Spring, Bonnie
2008-01-01
Health decision making is both the lynchpin and the least developed aspect of evidence-based practice. The evidence-based practice process requires integrating the evidence with consideration of practical resources and patient preferences and doing so via a process that is genuinely collaborative. Yet, the literature is largely silent about how to accomplish integrative, shared decision making. Implications for evidence-based practice are discussed for 2 theories of clinician decision making (expected utility and fuzzy trace) and 2 theories of patient health decision making (transtheoretical model and reasoned action). Three suggestions are offered. First, it would be advantageous to have theory-based algorithms that weight and integrate the 3 data strands (evidence, resources, preferences) in different decisional contexts. Second, patients, not providers, make the decisions of greatest impact on public health, and those decisions are behavioral. Consequently, theory explicating how provider-patient collaboration can influence patient lifestyle decisions made miles from the provider's office is greatly needed. Third, although the preponderance of data on complex decisions supports a computational approach, such an approach to evidence-based practice is too impractical to be widely applied at present. More troublesomely, until patients come to trust decisions made computationally more than they trust their providers’ intuitions, patient adherence will remain problematic. A good theory of integrative, collaborative health decision making remains needed. PMID:19015288
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Zeelenberg; van Dijk WW; van der Pligt J; Manstead; van Empelen P; Reinderman
1998-08-01
Regret and disappointment are emotions that can be experienced in response to an unfavorable outcome of a decision. Previous research suggests that both emotions are related to the process of counterfactual thinking. The present research extends this idea by combining it with ideas from regret and disappointment theory. The results show that regret is related to behavior-focused counterfactual thought in which the decision-maker's own actions are changed, whereas disappointment is related to situation-focused counterfactual thought in which aspects of the situation are changed. In Study 1 participants (N = 130) were asked to recall an autobiographical episode of either a regretful or a disappointing event. When asked to undo this event, regret participants predominantly changed their own actions, whereas disappointment participants predominantly changed aspects of the situation. In Study 2 all participants (N = 50) read a scenario in which a person experiences a negative event. Participants who were instructed to undo the event by changing the person's actions reported more regret than disappointment, while participants who were instructed to undo the event by changing aspects of the situation reported more disappointment than regret. Study 3 (N = 140) replicated the findings from Study 2 with a different scenario, and a design in which regret and disappointment were measured between rather than within subjects. In the discussion we address the relation among counterfactual thinking, attributions and affective reactions to decision outcomes, and the implications for decision research. Copyright 1998 Academic Press.
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[Food behaviour and obesity: insights from decision neuroscience].
Petit, Olivia; Basso, Frédéric; Huguet, Pascal; Plassmann, Hilke; Oullier, Olivier
2011-11-01
Neuroimaging allows to estimate brain activity when individuals are doing something. The location and intensity of this estimated activity provides information on the dynamics and processes that guide choice behaviour and associated actions that should be considered a complement to behavioural studies. Decision neuroscience therefore sheds new light on whether the brain evaluates and compares alternatives when decisions are made, or if other processes are at stake. This work helped to demonstrate that the situations faced by individuals (risky, uncertain, delayed in time) do not all have the same (behavioural) complexity, and are not underlined by activity in the cerebral networks. Taking into account brain dynamics of people (suffering from obesity or not) when making food consumption decisions might allow for improved strategies in public health prevention, far from the rational choice theory promoted by neoclassical economics. © 2011 médecine/sciences – Inserm / SRMS.
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Hippocampal-cortical interaction in decision making
Yu, Jai Y.; Frank, Loren M.
2014-01-01
When making a decision it is often necessary to consider the available alternatives in order to choose the most appropriate option. This deliberative process, where the pros and cons of each option are considered, relies on memories of past actions and outcomes. The hippocampus and prefrontal cortex are required for memory encoding, memory retrieval and decision making, but it is unclear how these areas support deliberation. Here we examine the potential neural substrates of these processes in the rat. The rat is a powerful model to investigate the network mechanisms underlying deliberation in the mammalian brain given the anatomical and functional conservation of its hippocampus and prefrontal cortex to other mammalian systems. Importantly, it is amenable to large scale neural recording while performing laboratory tasks that exploit its natural decisionmaking behavior. Focusing on findings in the rat, we discuss how hippocampal-cortical interactions could provide a neural substrate for deliberative decision making. PMID:24530374
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DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Chen, S.Y.
2013-07-01
In August 2008, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued its final Protective Action Guide (PAG) for radiological dispersal device (RDD) and improvised nuclear device (IND) incidents. This document specifies protective actions for public health during the early and intermediate phases and cleanup guidance for the late phase of RDD or IND incidents, and it discusses approaches to implementing the necessary actions. However, while the PAG provides specific guidance for the early and intermediate phases, it prescribes no equivalent guidance for the late-phase cleanup actions. Instead, the PAG offers a general description of a complex process using a site-specificmore » optimization approach. This approach does not predetermine cleanup levels but approaches the problem from the factors that would bear on the final agreed-on cleanup levels. Based on this approach, the decision-making process involves multifaceted considerations including public health, the environment, and the economy, as well as socio-political factors. In an effort to fully define the process and approach to be used in optimizing late-phase recovery and site restoration following an RDD or IND incident, DHS has tasked the NCRP with preparing a comprehensive report addressing all aspects of the optimization process. Preparation of the NCRP report is a three-year (2010-2013) project assigned to a scientific committee, the Scientific Committee (SC) 5-1; the report was initially titled, Approach to Optimizing Decision Making for Late- Phase Recovery from Nuclear or Radiological Terrorism Incidents. Members of SC 5-1 represent a broad range of expertise, including homeland security, health physics, risk and decision analysis, economics, environmental remediation and radioactive waste management, and communication. In the wake of the Fukushima nuclear accident of 2011, and guided by a recent process led by the White House through a Principal Level Exercise (PLE), the optimization approach has since been expanded to include off-site contamination from major nuclear power plant accidents as well as other nuclear or radiological incidents. The expanded application under the current guidance has thus led to a broadened scope of the report, which is reflected in its new title, Decision Making for Late-Phase Recovery from Nuclear or Radiological Incidents. The NCRP report, which is due for publication in 2013, will substantiate the current DHS guidance by clarifying and elaborating on the processes required for the development and implementation of procedures for optimizing decision making for late-phase recovery, enabling the establishment of cleanup goals on a site-specific basis. The report will contain a series of topics addressing important issues related to the long-term recovery from nuclear or radiological incidents. Special topics relevant to supporting the optimization of the decision-making process will include cost-benefit analysis, radioactive waste management, risk communication, stakeholder interaction, risk assessment, and decontamination approaches and techniques. The committee also evaluated past nuclear and radiological incidents for their relevance to the report, including the emerging issues associated with the Fukushima nuclear accident. Thus, due to the commonality of the late-phase issues (such as the potential widespread contamination following an event), the majority of the information pertaining to the response in the late-phase decision-making period, including site-specific optimization framework and approach, could be used or adapted for use in case of similar situations that are not due to terrorism, such as those that would be caused by major nuclear facility accidents or radiological incidents. To ensure that the report and the NCRP recommendations are current and relevant to the effective implementation of federal guidance, SC 5-1 has actively coordinated with the agencies of interest and other relevant stakeholders throughout the duration of the project. The resulting report will be an important resource to guide those involved in late-phase recovery efforts following a nuclear or radiological incident. (authors)« less
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Behar, D. H.; Pfeffer, W. T.; Beier, P.
2015-12-01
"Actionable Science provides data, analyses, projections, or tools that can support decisions regarding the management of the risks and impacts of climate change. It is ideally co-produced by scientists and decision makers and creates rigorous and accessible products to meet the needs of stakeholders. (Report to the Secretary of the Interior, Advisory Committee on Climate Change and Natural Resource Science (ACCCNRS), March 30, 2015)During one 17 month period ending in 2013, three major reports on sea level rise from three highly respected science providers produced three divergent estimates of sea level rise. These reports collectively flummoxed the lay reader seeking direction for adaptation planning. Guidance documents soon emerged from state entities which caused further confusion. The City and County of San Francisco began developing "Guidance for Incorporating Sea Level Rise into Capital Planning" in 2013 at the direction of San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee (http://onesanfrancisco.org/staff-resources/sea-level-rise-guidance/). The first task in developing this Guidance was to convert these highly technical reports into "actionable science." This required extensive expert elicitation to tease out their meaning and use value for decision making. This process, which resulted in detailed guidance on the use of SLR science in planning, is increasingly being called "co-production."Co-production requires both scientist and decision-maker to hear the other's perspective, reflect upon the decision-maker's precise needs, and translate peer review science into lay language and practical advice for decision making. The co-production dynamic was the subject of extensive discussion in the federal Advisory Committee on Climate Change and Natural Resource Science. The ACCCNRS recommendations (https://nccwsc.usgs.gov/acccnrs) include not only the new definition of Actionable Science cited above, but also a "How-To-Guide" that outlines principles for successfully creating a co-production environment and case studies highlighting where this has worked to date.This talk will summarize our state of understanding of "actionable science" and this new "co-production" dynamic within climate change science and planning, with focused reference on recent case studies, particularly San Francisco.
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Linking knowledge with action in the pursuit of sustainable water-resources management
Jacobs, Katharine; Lebel, Louis; Buizer, James; Addams, Lee; Matson, Pamela; McCullough, Ellen; Garden, Po; Saliba, George; Finan, Timothy
2016-01-01
Managing water for sustainable use and economic development is both a technical and a governance challenge in which knowledge production and sharing play a central role. This article evaluates and compares the role of participatory governance and scientific information in decision-making in four basins in Brazil, Mexico, Thailand, and the United States. Water management institutions in each of the basins have evolved during the last 10–20 years from a relatively centralized water-management structure at the state or national level to a decision structure that involves engaging water users within the basins and the development of participatory processes. This change is consistent with global trends in which states increasingly are expected to gain public acceptance for larger water projects and policy changes. In each case, expanded citizen engagement in identifying options and in decision-making processes has resulted in more complexity but also has expanded the culture of integrated learning. International funding for water infrastructure has been linked to requirements for participatory management processes, but, ironically, this study finds that participatory processes appear to work better in the context of decisions that are short-term and easily adjusted, such as water-allocation decisions, and do not work so well for longer-term, high-stakes decisions regarding infrastructure. A second important observation is that the costs of capacity building to allow meaningful stakeholder engagement in water-management decision processes are not widely recognized. Failure to appreciate the associated costs and complexities may contribute to the lack of successful engagement of citizens in decisions regarding infrastructure. PMID:20080611
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District decision-making for health in low-income settings: a systematic literature review
Avan, Bilal Iqbal
2016-01-01
Health management information systems (HMIS) produce large amounts of data about health service provision and population health, and provide opportunities for data-based decision-making in decentralized health systems. Yet the data are little-used locally. A well-defined approach to district-level decision-making using health data would help better meet the needs of the local population. In this second of four papers on district decision-making for health in low-income settings, our aim was to explore ways in which district administrators and health managers in low- and lower-middle-income countries use health data to make decisions, to describe the decision-making tools they used and identify challenges encountered when using these tools. A systematic literature review, following PRISMA guidelines, was undertaken. Experts were consulted about key sources of information. A search strategy was developed for 14 online databases of peer reviewed and grey literature. The resources were screened independently by two reviewers using pre-defined inclusion criteria. The 14 papers included were assessed for the quality of reported evidence and a descriptive evidence synthesis of the review findings was undertaken. We found 12 examples of tools to assist district-level decision-making, all of which included two key stages—identification of priorities, and development of an action plan to address them. Of those tools with more steps, four included steps to review or monitor the action plan agreed, suggesting the use of HMIS data. In eight papers HMIS data were used for prioritization. Challenges to decision-making processes fell into three main categories: the availability and quality of health and health facility data; human dynamics and financial constraints. Our findings suggest that evidence is available about a limited range of processes that include the use of data for decision-making at district level. Standardization and pre-testing in diverse settings would increase the potential that these tools could be used more widely. PMID:27591202
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Does unconscious thought improve complex decision making?
Rey, Arnaud; Goldstein, Ryan M; Perruchet, Pierre
2009-05-01
In a recent study, Dijksterhuis et al. (Science 311:1005, 2006) reported that participants were better at solving complex decisions after a period of unconscious thought relative to a period of conscious thought. They interpreted their results as an existence proof of powerful unconscious deliberation mechanisms. In the present report, we used a similar experimental design with an additional control, immediate condition, and we observed that participants produced as good (and even descriptively better) decisions in this condition than in the "unconscious" one, hence challenging the initial interpretation of the authors. However, we still obtained lower performances in the "conscious" relative to the "immediate" condition, suggesting that the initial result of Dijksterhuis et al. was not due to the action of powerful unconscious thought processes, but to the apparent disadvantage of further conscious processing. We provide an explanation for this observation on the basis of current models of decision making. It is finally concluded that the benefit of unconscious thought in complex decision making is still a controversial issue that should be considered cautiously.
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Overcoming Learning Aversion in Evaluating and Managing Uncertain Risks.
Cox, Louis Anthony Tony
2015-10-01
Decision biases can distort cost-benefit evaluations of uncertain risks, leading to risk management policy decisions with predictably high retrospective regret. We argue that well-documented decision biases encourage learning aversion, or predictably suboptimal learning and premature decision making in the face of high uncertainty about the costs, risks, and benefits of proposed changes. Biases such as narrow framing, overconfidence, confirmation bias, optimism bias, ambiguity aversion, and hyperbolic discounting of the immediate costs and delayed benefits of learning, contribute to deficient individual and group learning, avoidance of information seeking, underestimation of the value of further information, and hence needlessly inaccurate risk-cost-benefit estimates and suboptimal risk management decisions. In practice, such biases can create predictable regret in selection of potential risk-reducing regulations. Low-regret learning strategies based on computational reinforcement learning models can potentially overcome some of these suboptimal decision processes by replacing aversion to uncertain probabilities with actions calculated to balance exploration (deliberate experimentation and uncertainty reduction) and exploitation (taking actions to maximize the sum of expected immediate reward, expected discounted future reward, and value of information). We discuss the proposed framework for understanding and overcoming learning aversion and for implementing low-regret learning strategies using regulation of air pollutants with uncertain health effects as an example. © 2015 Society for Risk Analysis.
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DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Matthews, Patrick K.
This Corrective Action Decision Document/Closure Report presents information supporting the closure of Corrective Action Unit (CAU) 550: Smoky Contamination Area, Nevada National Security Site, Nevada. CAU 550 includes 19 corrective action sites (CASs), which consist of one weapons-related atmospheric test (Smoky), three safety experiments (Ceres, Oberon, Titania), and 15 debris sites (Table ES-1). The CASs were sorted into the following study groups based on release potential and technical similarities: • Study Group 1, Atmospheric Test • Study Group 2, Safety Experiments • Study Group 3, Washes • Study Group 4, Debris The purpose of this document is to provide justificationmore » and documentation supporting the conclusion that no further corrective action is needed for CAU 550 based on implementation of the corrective actions listed in Table ES-1. Corrective action investigation (CAI) activities were performed between August 2012 and October 2013 as set forth in the Corrective Action Investigation Plan for Corrective Action Unit 550: Smoky Contamination Area; and in accordance with the Soils Activity Quality Assurance Plan. The approach for the CAI was to investigate and make data quality objective (DQO) decisions based on the types of releases present. The purpose of the CAI was to fulfill data needs as defined during the DQO process. The CAU 550 dataset of investigation results was evaluated based on a data quality assessment. This assessment demonstrated the dataset is complete and acceptable for use in fulfilling the DQO data needs.« less
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Navigating complex decision spaces: Problems and paradigms in sequential choice
Walsh, Matthew M.; Anderson, John R.
2015-01-01
To behave adaptively, we must learn from the consequences of our actions. Doing so is difficult when the consequences of an action follow a delay. This introduces the problem of temporal credit assignment. When feedback follows a sequence of decisions, how should the individual assign credit to the intermediate actions that comprise the sequence? Research in reinforcement learning provides two general solutions to this problem: model-free reinforcement learning and model-based reinforcement learning. In this review, we examine connections between stimulus-response and cognitive learning theories, habitual and goal-directed control, and model-free and model-based reinforcement learning. We then consider a range of problems related to temporal credit assignment. These include second-order conditioning and secondary reinforcers, latent learning and detour behavior, partially observable Markov decision processes, actions with distributed outcomes, and hierarchical learning. We ask whether humans and animals, when faced with these problems, behave in a manner consistent with reinforcement learning techniques. Throughout, we seek to identify neural substrates of model-free and model-based reinforcement learning. The former class of techniques is understood in terms of the neurotransmitter dopamine and its effects in the basal ganglia. The latter is understood in terms of a distributed network of regions including the prefrontal cortex, medial temporal lobes cerebellum, and basal ganglia. Not only do reinforcement learning techniques have a natural interpretation in terms of human and animal behavior, but they also provide a useful framework for understanding neural reward valuation and action selection. PMID:23834192
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76 FR 17710 - Proposed Collection, Comment Request
Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014
2011-03-30
... Rowan, BLS Clearance Officer, Division of Management Systems, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Room 4080, 2.... The statistics are fundamental inputs in economic decision processes at all levels of government... the State mandatory reporting authority. II. Current Action Office of Management and Budget clearance...
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40 CFR 1.27 - Offices of the Associate Administrators.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR
2012-07-01
... Agency decision-making processes, assessing the impact of Headquarters actions on Regional operations... Regional Operations. The Office of Regional Operations, under the supervision of an Associate Administrator... communications link between the Administrator/Deputy Administrator and the Regional Administrators. It provides a...
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2013-12-01
quantity of brigade combat team facilities. Buildable acres Sum of all the buildable acreage on the installation not counting training land. Urban sprawl ...socioeconomic impacts , among others, and develop stationing options for decision makers. The Army also considered other factors, or attributes—such as training...out. Army officials said that the model has generally been used for large- impact stationing decisions and may not be appropriate for minor
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An Introspective Critique of Past, Present, and Future USGS Decision Support
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Neff, B. P.; Pavlick, M.
2017-12-01
In response to increasing scrutiny of publicly funded science, the Water Mission Area of USGS is shifting its approach for informing decisions that affect the country. Historically, USGS has focused on providing sound science on cutting edge, societally relevant issues with the expectation that decision makers will take action on this information. In practice, scientists often do not understand or focus on the needs of decision makers and decision makers often cannot or do not utilize information produced by scientists. The Water Mission Area of USGS has recognized that it can better serve the taxpayer by delivering information more relevant to decision making in a form more conducive to its use. To this end, the Water Mission Area of USGS is seeking greater integration with the decision making process to better inform what information it produces. In addition, recognizing that the transfer of scientific knowledge to decision making is fundamentally a social process, USGS is embracing the use of social science to better inform how it delivers scientific information and facilitates its use. This study utilizes qualitative methods to document the evolution of decision support at USGS and provide a rationale for a shift in direction. Challenges to implementation are identified and collaborative opportunities to improve decision making are discussed.
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Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-07-01
... 32 National Defense 6 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Board actions. 865.4 Section 865.4 National... PERSONNEL REVIEW BOARDS Air Force Board for Correction of Military Records § 865.4 Board actions. (a) Board... serves as its chair. The panel's actions and decisions constitute the actions and decisions of the Board...
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Action and Valence Modulate Choice and Choice-Induced Preference Change
Koster, Raphael; Duzel, Emrah; Dolan, Raymond J.
2015-01-01
Choices are not only communicated via explicit actions but also passively through inaction. In this study we investigated how active or passive choice impacts upon the choice process itself as well as a preference change induced by choice. Subjects were tasked to select a preference for unfamiliar photographs by action or inaction, before and after they gave valuation ratings for all photographs. We replicate a finding that valuation increases for chosen items and decreases for unchosen items compared to a control condition in which the choice was made post re-evaluation. Whether choice was expressed actively or passively affected the dynamics of revaluation differently for positive and negatively valenced items. Additionally, the choice itself was biased towards action such that subjects tended to choose a photograph obtained by action more often than a photographed obtained through inaction. These results highlight intrinsic biases consistent with a tight coupling of action and reward and add to an emerging understanding of how the mode of action itself, and not just an associated outcome, modulates the decision making process. PMID:25747703
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Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process for Decision-Making in Ecosystem Management
Daniel L. Schmoldt; David L. Peterson
1997-01-01
Land management activities on public lands combine multiple objectives in order to create a plan of action over a finite time horizon. Because management activities are constrained by time and money, it is critical to make the best use of available agency resources. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) offers a structure for multi-objective decisionmaking so that...
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37 CFR 1.17 - Patent application and reexamination processing fees.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR
2011-07-01
... decision on petition refusing to accept delayed payment of maintenance fee in an expired patent. § 1.741(b... and record payment of a maintenance fee filed prior to expiration of a patent. § 1.550(c)—for patent... application from issue. § 1.314—to defer issuance of a patent. (i) Processing fee for taking action under one...
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Measuring Command Post Operations in a Decisive Action Training Environment
2017-05-01
Research Report 2001 Measuring Command Post Operations in a Decisive Action Training Environment Michelle N...September 2014 - September 2015 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE Measuring Command Post Operations in a Decisive Action Training Environment 5a...Readiness Training Center Warrior Leadership Council, we explored whether a guide on Command Post (CP) Operations could improve performance during
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Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR
2014-04-01
... RESPONSIBILITY ACTIONS Commission Review of Decisions by the National Futures Association In Member Responsibility Actions § 171.42 Notice of a final decision of the National Futures Association in a member... well as the Proceeding Clerk and Secretary of the Commission, with a written notice of any final...
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Blanchfield, Anthony; Hardy, James; Marcora, Samuele
2014-01-01
The psychobiological model of endurance performance proposes that endurance performance is determined by a decision-making process based on perception of effort and potential motivation. Recent research has reported that effort-based decision-making during cognitive tasks can be altered by non-conscious visual cues relating to affect and action. The effects of these non-conscious visual cues on effort and performance during physical tasks are however unknown. We report two experiments investigating the effects of subliminal priming with visual cues related to affect and action on perception of effort and endurance performance. In Experiment 1 thirteen individuals were subliminally primed with happy or sad faces as they cycled to exhaustion in a counterbalanced and randomized crossover design. A paired t-test (happy vs. sad faces) revealed that individuals cycled significantly longer (178 s, p = 0.04) when subliminally primed with happy faces. A 2 × 5 (condition × iso-time) ANOVA also revealed a significant main effect of condition on rating of perceived exertion (RPE) during the time to exhaustion (TTE) test with lower RPE when subjects were subliminally primed with happy faces (p = 0.04). In Experiment 2, a single-subject randomization tests design found that subliminal priming with action words facilitated a significantly longer TTE (399 s, p = 0.04) in comparison to inaction words. Like Experiment 1, this greater TTE was accompanied by a significantly lower RPE (p = 0.03). These experiments are the first to show that subliminal visual cues relating to affect and action can alter perception of effort and endurance performance. Non-conscious visual cues may therefore influence the effort-based decision-making process that is proposed to determine endurance performance. Accordingly, the findings raise notable implications for individuals who may encounter such visual cues during endurance competitions, training, or health related exercise. PMID:25566014
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TMS-induced modulation of action sentence priming in the ventral premotor cortex.
Tremblay, Pascale; Sato, Marc; Small, Steven L
2012-01-01
Despite accumulating evidence that cortical motor areas, particularly the lateral premotor cortex, are activated during language comprehension, the question of whether motor processes help mediate the semantic encoding of language remains controversial. To address this issue, we examined whether low frequency (1 Hz) repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) of the left ventral premotor cortex (PMv) can interfere with the comprehension of sentences describing manual actions, visual properties of manipulable and non-manipulable objects, and actions of the lips and mouth. Using a primed semantic decision task, sixteen participants were asked to determine for a given sentence whether or not an auditorily presented target word was congruent with the sentence. We hypothesized that if the left PMv is contributing semantic information that is used to comprehend action and object related sentences, then TMS applied over PMv should result in a disruption of semantic priming. Our results show that TMS reduces semantic priming, induces a shift in response bias, and increases response sensitivity, but does so only during the processing of manual action sentences. This suggests a preferential contribution of PMv to the processing of sentences describing manual actions compared to other types of sentences. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Body-part specific interactions of action verb processing with motor behaviour.
Klepp, Anne; Niccolai, Valentina; Sieksmeyer, Jan; Arnzen, Stephanie; Indefrey, Peter; Schnitzler, Alfons; Biermann-Ruben, Katja
2017-06-15
The interaction of action-related language processing with actual movement is an indicator of the functional role of motor cortical involvement in language understanding. This paper describes two experiments using single action verb stimuli. Motor responses were performed with the hand or the foot. To test the double dissociation of language-motor facilitation effects within subjects, Experiments 1 and 2 used a priming procedure where both hand and foot reactions had to be performed in response to different geometrical shapes, which were preceded by action verbs. In Experiment 1, the semantics of the verbs could be ignored whereas Experiment 2 included semantic decisions. Only Experiment 2 revealed a clear double dissociation in reaction times: reactions were facilitated when preceded by verbs describing actions with the matching effector. In Experiment 1, by contrast, there was an interaction between verb-response congruence and a semantic variable related to motor features of the verbs. Thus, the double dissociation paradigm of semantic motor priming was effective, corroborating the role of the motor system in action-related language processing. Importantly, this effect was body part specific. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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Truglio-Londrigan, Marie
2013-10-01
To come to know, understand and describe the experience of shared decision-making in home-care from the nurse's perspective. The literature presents the concept of shared decision-making as a complex process characterised by a partnership between the healthcare provider and the patient, which is participatory and action oriented with education and negotiation leading to agreement. Few studies have been carried out to explore and describe the events that make up the experiences of shared decision-making in home-care from the nurse's perspective. A qualitative descriptive study was implemented. Semi structured interviews were performed with 10 home-care nurses who were asked to reflect on a time in their practice when they were involved in a shared decision-making process with their patient. All data were analysed using Colaizzi's method. The following Themes were uncovered: Begin where the patient is; Education for shared decision-making; The village and shared decision-making; and Whose decision is it? Each of the four Themes contained Subthemes. The findings of this study present shared decision-making as a complex, multidimensional and fluid process. A thorough understanding of shared decision-making is essential within the multiple contexts in which care is delivered. Nurses in clinical practice need to know and understand the events of the experience of shared decision-making. A more comprehensive understanding of these facts can assist home-care nurses in their practice with regard to the application of shared decision-making. © 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
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Biology-inspired Architecture for Situation Management
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Jones, Kennie H.; Lodding, Kenneth N.; Olariu, Stephan; Wilson, Larry; Xin, Chunsheng
2006-01-01
Situation Management is a rapidly developing science combining new techniques for data collection with advanced methods of data fusion to facilitate the process leading to correct decisions prescribing action. Current research focuses on reducing increasing amounts of diverse data to knowledge used by decision makers and on reducing time between observations, decisions and actions. No new technology is more promising for increasing the diversity and fidelity of observations than sensor networks. However, current research on sensor networks concentrates on a centralized network architecture. We believe this trend will not realize the full potential of situation management. We propose a new architecture modeled after biological ecosystems where motes are autonomous and intelligent, yet cooperate with local neighborhoods. Providing a layered approach, they sense and act independently when possible, and cooperate with neighborhoods when necessary. The combination of their local actions results in global effects. While situation management research is currently dominated by military applications, advances envisioned for industrial and business applications have similar requirements. NASA has requirements for intelligent and autonomous systems in future missions that can benefit from advances in situation management. We describe requirements for the Integrated Vehicle Health Management program where our biology-inspired architecture provides a layered approach and decisions can be made at the proper level to improve safety, reduce costs, and improve efficiency in making diagnostic and prognostic assessments of the structural integrity, aerodynamic characteristics, and operation of aircraft.
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Ensemble modelling and structured decision-making to support Emergency Disease Management.
Webb, Colleen T; Ferrari, Matthew; Lindström, Tom; Carpenter, Tim; Dürr, Salome; Garner, Graeme; Jewell, Chris; Stevenson, Mark; Ward, Michael P; Werkman, Marleen; Backer, Jantien; Tildesley, Michael
2017-03-01
Epidemiological models in animal health are commonly used as decision-support tools to understand the impact of various control actions on infection spread in susceptible populations. Different models contain different assumptions and parameterizations, and policy decisions might be improved by considering outputs from multiple models. However, a transparent decision-support framework to integrate outputs from multiple models is nascent in epidemiology. Ensemble modelling and structured decision-making integrate the outputs of multiple models, compare policy actions and support policy decision-making. We briefly review the epidemiological application of ensemble modelling and structured decision-making and illustrate the potential of these methods using foot and mouth disease (FMD) models. In case study one, we apply structured decision-making to compare five possible control actions across three FMD models and show which control actions and outbreak costs are robustly supported and which are impacted by model uncertainty. In case study two, we develop a methodology for weighting the outputs of different models and show how different weighting schemes may impact the choice of control action. Using these case studies, we broadly illustrate the potential of ensemble modelling and structured decision-making in epidemiology to provide better information for decision-making and outline necessary development of these methods for their further application. Crown Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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[Motivation as a basis of mental activity].
Sudakov, K V
2006-01-01
Motivation is considered as a key component of systemic organization of mental activity. Forming on the stage of afferent synthesis, motivation determines activity of the subsequent systemic architectonic stages of mental acts: decision-making, construction of an acceptor of resulting actions, efferent synthesis and the very purposeful action. It is shown that motivation acts as an energy basis of mental activity. The foresight instrument of required resulting actions--an acceptor of resulting actions that, strongly linked to dominating motivation, is a leading guiding component of mental actions. A role of motivation in the processes of perception, memory, movement organization, intellectual and creative activity and their relationship to emotions are considered. A conception of motivation as a basis of intellect is formulated.
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Markov Tracking for Agent Coordination
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Washington, Richard; Lau, Sonie (Technical Monitor)
1998-01-01
Partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs) axe an attractive representation for representing agent behavior, since they capture uncertainty in both the agent's state and its actions. However, finding an optimal policy for POMDPs in general is computationally difficult. In this paper we present Markov Tracking, a restricted problem of coordinating actions with an agent or process represented as a POMDP Because the actions coordinate with the agent rather than influence its behavior, the optimal solution to this problem can be computed locally and quickly. We also demonstrate the use of the technique on sequential POMDPs, which can be used to model a behavior that follows a linear, acyclic trajectory through a series of states. By imposing a "windowing" restriction that restricts the number of possible alternatives considered at any moment to a fixed size, a coordinating action can be calculated in constant time, making this amenable to coordination with complex agents.
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Stakeholder analysis methodologies resource book
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Babiuch, W.M.; Farhar, B.C.
1994-03-01
Stakeholder analysis allows analysts to identify how parties might be affected by government projects. This process involves identifying the likely impacts of a proposed action and stakeholder groups affected by that action. Additionally, the process involves assessing how these groups might be affected and suggesting measures to mitigate any adverse effects. Evidence suggests that the efficiency and effectiveness of government actions can be increased and adverse social impacts mitigated when officials understand how a proposed action might affect stakeholders. This report discusses how to conduct useful stakeholder analyses for government officials making decisions on energy-efficiency and renewable-energy technologies and theirmore » commercialization. It discusses methodological issues that may affect the validity and reliability of findings, including sampling, generalizability, validity, ``uncooperative`` stakeholder groups, using social indicators, and the effect of government regulations. The Appendix contains resource directories and a list of specialists in stakeholder analysis and involvement.« less
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[School readiness and community mobilization: study retrospective in a Montreal area].
Laurin, Isabelle; Bilodeau, Angèle; Chartrand, Sébastien
2012-02-22
This article presents a modelling of the collective decision-making process by which a community-based population-level intervention transformed the organization of early childhood services in a Montréal community from 2001 to 2006. Multisectoral players from a childhood/family issue table. The chosen territory is one of the most multi-ethnic and poorest neighbourhoods of Montréal. The intervention being examined is Understanding the Early Years (UEY), a Canada-wide initiative aiming to strengthen communities' capacity to use quality information to support the thought process relating to the organization of early childhood services. Twelve Canadian regions took part, including Montréal. The time chart for the collective decision-making process presents the events that significantly influenced the procedure: establishment of an intersectoral working committee, production of a portrait of the neighbourhood, think tank, development and implementation of the Passage maison-école [home-to-school] and Femmes-Relais [relay women] projects, retreats, and inclusion of school readiness as a priority focus area in the neighbourhood's three-year action plan. Also presented are the contextual factors that influenced decision making: the neighbourhood's cooperation and coordination history, the researcher's involvement, financial support and shared leadership. The benefits of UEY-Montréal in this territory extended beyond 2006. With respect to current priorities for action in early childhood, this territory is a good example of mobilization for school readiness.
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Intelligent flight control systems
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Stengel, Robert F.
1993-01-01
The capabilities of flight control systems can be enhanced by designing them to emulate functions of natural intelligence. Intelligent control functions fall in three categories. Declarative actions involve decision-making, providing models for system monitoring, goal planning, and system/scenario identification. Procedural actions concern skilled behavior and have parallels in guidance, navigation, and adaptation. Reflexive actions are spontaneous, inner-loop responses for control and estimation. Intelligent flight control systems learn knowledge of the aircraft and its mission and adapt to changes in the flight environment. Cognitive models form an efficient basis for integrating 'outer-loop/inner-loop' control functions and for developing robust parallel-processing algorithms.
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32 CFR 651.17 - Environmental justice.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-07-01
... 32 National Defense 4 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 true Environmental justice. 651.17 Section 651.17 National Defense Department of Defense (Continued) DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY (CONTINUED) ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS OF ARMY ACTIONS (AR 200-2) National Environmental Policy Act and the Decision Process...
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In-Service Education: A Blueprint for Action
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Keller, Arnold J.
1978-01-01
Inservice teacher education is the logical catalyst to any process of school improvement but school board members and school administrators must insure that their forthcoming efforts fulfill three important criteria: (1) Shared decision-making responsibilities with recognized representatives of the teaching staff, preferably at the individual…
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Adaptive Management and Monitoring as Fundamental Tools to Effective Salt Marsh Restoration
Adaptive management as applied to ecological restoration is a systematic decision-making process in which the results of restoration activities are repeatedly monitored and evaluated to provide guidance that can be used in determining any necessary future restoration actions. In...
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32 CFR 651.17 - Environmental justice.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR
2011-07-01
... 32 National Defense 4 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Environmental justice. 651.17 Section 651.17 National Defense Department of Defense (Continued) DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY (CONTINUED) ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS OF ARMY ACTIONS (AR 200-2) National Environmental Policy Act and the Decision Process...
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76 FR 7757 - Hull Identification Numbers for Recreational Vessels
Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014
2011-02-11
... DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY Coast Guard 33 CFR Part 181 [Docket No. USCG-2007-29236] Hull Identification Numbers for Recreational Vessels AGENCY: Coast Guard, DHS. ACTION: Follow-up to request for... expanded hull identification number (HIN). The Coast Guard's decision-making process included consideration...
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32 CFR 989.5 - Organizational relationships.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-07-01
... 32 National Defense 6 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Organizational relationships. 989.5 Section 989... PROTECTION ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ANALYSIS PROCESS (EIAP) § 989.5 Organizational relationships. (a) The host... decision is made on the proposal and an action is undertaken. Support agreements should provide specific...
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Mahone, Irma H.; Farrell, Sarah P.; Hinton, Ivora; Johnson, Robert; Moody, David; Rifkin, Karen; Moore, Kenneth; Becker, Marcia; Barker, Margaret
2011-01-01
Summary An academic-community partnership between a school of nursing (SON) at a public university (the University of Virginia, or UVA) and a public mental health clinic developed around a shared goal of finding an acceptable shared decision making (SDM) intervention targeting medication use by persons with serious mental illness. The planning meetings of the academic-community partnership were recorded and analyzed. Issues under the partnership process included 1) clinic values and priorities, 2) research agenda, 3) ground rules, and 4) communication. Issues under the SDM content included: 1) barriers, 2) information exchange, 3) positive aspects of shared decision making, and 4) technology. Using participatory-action research (PAR), the community clinic was able to raise questions and concerns throughout the process, be actively involved in research activities (such as identifying stakeholders and co-leading focus groups), participate in the reflective activities on the impact of SDM on practice and policy, and feel ownership of the SDM intervention. PMID:22163075
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Schmidt, Brandy; Papale, Andrew; Redish, A David; Markus, Etan J
2013-02-15
Navigation can be accomplished through multiple decision-making strategies, using different information-processing computations. A well-studied dichotomy in these decision-making strategies compares hippocampal-dependent "place" and dorsal-lateral striatal-dependent "response" strategies. A place strategy depends on the ability to flexibly respond to environmental cues, while a response strategy depends on the ability to quickly recognize and react to situations with well-learned action-outcome relationships. When rats reach decision points, they sometimes pause and orient toward the potential routes of travel, a process termed vicarious trial and error (VTE). VTE co-occurs with neurophysiological information processing, including sweeps of representation ahead of the animal in the hippocampus and transient representations of reward in the ventral striatum and orbitofrontal cortex. To examine the relationship between VTE and the place/response strategy dichotomy, we analyzed data in which rats were cued to switch between place and response strategies on a plus maze. The configuration of the maze allowed for place and response strategies to work competitively or cooperatively. Animals showed increased VTE on trials entailing competition between navigational systems, linking VTE with deliberative decision-making. Even in a well-learned task, VTE was preferentially exhibited when a spatial selection was required, further linking VTE behavior with decision-making associated with hippocampal processing.
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Pacheco, José Márcio da Cunha; Gomes, Romeu
2016-08-01
This paper analyses the decision making process for senior management in public hospitals that are a part of the National Health Service in Brazil (hereafter SUS) in relation to projects aimed at changing clinical management. The methodological design of this study is qualitative in nature taking a hermeneutics-dialectics perspective in terms of results. Hospital directors noted that clinical management projects changed the state of hospitals through: improving their organizations, mobilizing their staff in order to increase a sense of order and systemizing actions and available resources. Technical rationality was the principal basis used in the decision making process for managers. Due to the reality of many hospitals having fragmented organizations, this fact impeded the use of aspects related to rationality, such as economic and financial factors in the decision making process. The incremental model and general politics also play a role in this area. We concluded that the decision making process embraces a large array of factors including rational aspects such as the use of management techniques and the ability to analyze, interpret and summarize. It also incorporates subjective elements such as how to select values and dealing with people's working experiences. We recognized that management problems are wide in scope, ambiguous, complex and do not come with a lot of structure in practice.
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46 CFR 1.03-40 - Appeals from decisions or actions of the National Maritime Center.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-10-01
... Maritime Center. 1.03-40 Section 1.03-40 Shipping COAST GUARD, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY PROCEDURES... Appeal § 1.03-40 Appeals from decisions or actions of the National Maritime Center. Any person directly affected by a decision or action of an officer or employee of the National Maritime Center (NMC) involving...
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Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-04-01
... 25 Indians 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Appeals from decision or action by Agency Superintendent, Area Director or Grants Officer. 23.61 Section 23.61 Indians BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR HUMAN SERVICES INDIAN CHILD WELFARE ACT Appeals § 23.61 Appeals from decision or action...
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1995-01-01
FURTHER ACTION DECISION UNDER CERCLAI STUDY AREA 31 MOORE ARMY AIRFIELD FIRE FIGHTING TRAINING AREA FORT DEVENS , MASSACHUSETFS TABLE OF CONTENTS jSection...Inc. 31DD.DOC 6917.11 111,, NO FURTHER ACTION DECISION UNDER CERCLA I STUDY AREA 31 MOORE ARMY AIRFIELD FIRE FIGHTING TRAINING AREA 3 FORT DEVENS ...Fire Fighting Training Area) at Fort Devens , Massachusetts, have resulted in the decision that no further studies or remediation are required at this
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Family Communication about End-of-Life Decisions and the Enactment of the Decision-Maker Role.
Trees, April R; Ohs, Jennifer E; Murray, Meghan C
2017-06-07
End-of-life (EOL) decisions in families are complex and emotional sites of family interaction necessitating family members coordinate roles in the EOL decision-making process. How family members in the United States enact the decision-maker role in EOL decision situations was examined through in-depth interviews with 22 individuals who participated in EOL decision-making for a family member. A number of themes emerged from the data with regard to the enactment of the decision-maker role. Families varied in how decision makers enacted the role in relation to collective family input, with consulting, informing and collaborating as different patterns of behavior. Formal family roles along with gender- and age-based roles shaped who took on the decision-maker role. Additionally, both family members and medical professionals facilitated or undermined the decision-maker's role enactment. Understanding the structure and enactment of the decision-maker role in family interaction provides insight into how individuals and/or family members perform the decision-making role within a cultural context that values autonomy and self-determination in combination with collective family action in EOL decision-making.
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Decision-making contexts involving Earth observations in federal and state government agencies
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Kuwayama, Y.; Thompson, A.
2017-12-01
National and international organizations are placing greater emphasis on the societal and economic benefits that can be derived from applications of Earth observations, yet improvements are needed to connect to the decision processes that produce actions with direct societal benefits. The Consortium for the Valuation of Applications Benefits Linked with Earth Science (VALUABLES), a cooperative agreement between Resources for the Future (RFF) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), has the goal of advancing methods for the valuation and communication of the applied benefits linked with Earth observations. One of the Consortium's activities is a set of Policy Briefs that document the use of Earth observations for decision making in federal and state government agencies. In developing these Policy Briefs, we pay special attention to documenting the entire information value chain associated with the use of Earth observations in government decision making, namely (a) the specific data product, modeling capability, or information system used by the agency, (b) the decision context that employs the Earth observation information and translates it into an agency action, (c) the outcomes that are realized as a result of the action, and (d) the beneficiaries associated with the outcomes of the decision. Two key examples include the use of satellite data for informing the US Drought Monitor (USDM), which is used to determine the eligibility of agricultural communities for drought disaster assistance programs housed at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the use of satellite data by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to develop numeric nutrient water quality standards and monitoring methods for chlorophyll-a, which is codified in Florida state code (62-302.532).
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Habits as action sequences: hierarchical action control and changes in outcome value
Dezfouli, Amir; Lingawi, Nura W.; Balleine, Bernard W.
2014-01-01
Goal-directed action involves making high-level choices that are implemented using previously acquired action sequences to attain desired goals. Such a hierarchical schema is necessary for goal-directed actions to be scalable to real-life situations, but results in decision-making that is less flexible than when action sequences are unfolded and the decision-maker deliberates step-by-step over the outcome of each individual action. In particular, from this perspective, the offline revaluation of any outcomes that fall within action sequence boundaries will be invisible to the high-level planner resulting in decisions that are insensitive to such changes. Here, within the context of a two-stage decision-making task, we demonstrate that this property can explain the emergence of habits. Next, we show how this hierarchical account explains the insensitivity of over-trained actions to changes in outcome value. Finally, we provide new data that show that, under extended extinction conditions, habitual behaviour can revert to goal-directed control, presumably as a consequence of decomposing action sequences into single actions. This hierarchical view suggests that the development of action sequences and the insensitivity of actions to changes in outcome value are essentially two sides of the same coin, explaining why these two aspects of automatic behaviour involve a shared neural structure. PMID:25267824
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Wang, Jane X; Cohen, Neal J; Voss, Joel L
2015-01-01
Effective choices generally require memory, yet little is known regarding the cognitive or neural mechanisms that allow memory to influence choices. We outline a new framework proposing that covert memory processing of hippocampus interacts with action-generation processing of prefrontal cortex in order to arrive at optimal, memory-guided choices. Covert, rapid action-memory simulation (CRAMS) is proposed here as a framework for understanding cognitive and/or behavioral choices, whereby prefrontal-hippocampal interactions quickly provide multiple simulations of potential outcomes used to evaluate the set of possible choices. We hypothesize that this CRAMS process is automatic, obligatory, and covert, meaning that many cycles of action-memory simulation occur in response to choice conflict without an individual's necessary intention and generally without awareness of the simulations, leading to adaptive behavior with little perceived effort. CRAMS is thus distinct from influential proposals that adaptive memory-based behavior in humans requires consciously experienced memory-based construction of possible future scenarios and deliberate decisions among possible future constructions. CRAMS provides an account of why hippocampus has been shown to make critical contributions to the short-term control of behavior, and it motivates several new experimental approaches and hypotheses that could be used to better understand the ubiquitous role of prefrontal-hippocampal interactions in situations that require adaptively using memory to guide choices. Importantly, this framework provides a perspective that allows for testing decision-making mechanisms in a manner that translates well across human and nonhuman animal model systems. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Plant, Katherine L; Stanton, Neville A
2015-01-01
The perceptual cycle model (PCM) has been widely applied in ergonomics research in domains including road, rail and aviation. The PCM assumes that information processing occurs in a cyclical manner drawing on top-down and bottom-up influences to produce perceptual exploration and actions. However, the validity of the model has not been addressed. This paper explores the construct validity of the PCM in the context of aeronautical decision-making. The critical decision method was used to interview 20 helicopter pilots about critical decision-making. The data were qualitatively analysed using an established coding scheme, and composite PCMs for incident phases were constructed. It was found that the PCM provided a mutually exclusive and exhaustive classification of the information-processing cycles for dealing with critical incidents. However, a counter-cycle was also discovered which has been attributed to skill-based behaviour, characteristic of experts. The practical applications and future research questions are discussed. Practitioner Summary: This paper explores whether information processing, when dealing with critical incidents, occurs in the manner anticipated by the perceptual cycle model. In addition to the traditional processing cycle, a reciprocal counter-cycle was found. This research can be utilised by those who use the model as an accident analysis framework.
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Health professionals' decision-making in wound management: a grounded theory.
Gillespie, Brigid M; Chaboyer, Wendy; St John, Winsome; Morley, Nicola; Nieuwenhoven, Paul
2015-06-01
To develop a conceptual understanding of the decision-making processes used by healthcare professionals in wound care practice. With the global move towards using an evidence-base in standardizing wound care practices and the need to reduce hospital wound care costs, it is important to understand health professionals' decision-making in this important yet under-researched area. A grounded theory approach was used to explore clinical decision-making of healthcare professionals in wound care practice. Interviews were conducted with 20 multi-disciplinary participants from nursing, surgery, infection control and wound care who worked at a metropolitan hospital in Australia. Data were collected during 2012-2013. Constant comparative analysis underpinned by Strauss and Corbin's framework was used to identify clinical decision-making processes. The core category was 'balancing practice-based knowledge with evidence-based knowledge'. Participants' clinical practice and actions embedded the following processes: 'utilizing the best available information', 'using a consistent approach in wound assessment' and 'using a multidisciplinary approach'. The substantive theory explains how practice and evidence knowledge was balanced and the variation in use of intuitive practice-based knowledge versus evidence-based knowledge. Participants considered patients' needs and preferences, costs, outcomes, technologies, others' expertise and established practices. Participants' decision-making tended to be more heavily weighted towards intuitive practice-based processes. These findings offer a better understanding of the processes used by health professionals' in their decision-making in wound care. Such an understanding may inform the development of evidence-based interventions that lead to better patient outcomes. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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When irrelevance matters: Stimulus-response binding in decision making under uncertainty.
Nett, Nadine; Bröder, Arndt; Frings, Christian
2015-11-01
According to distractor-based response retrieval (Frings, Rothermund, & Wentura, 2007), irrelevant information will be integrated with the response to the relevant stimuli and further, the immediate repetition of irrelevant information can retrieve the previously executed response thereby influencing responding to the current target (leading either to benefits or costs if the retrieved response is compatible or incompatible, respectively, to the currently demanded response). We analyzed whether this effect also holds for decisions rather than simple motoric reactions. The hypothesis was tested in 4 experiments in which participants had to decide as fast as possible which disease an imagined patient suffered from. The decisions were based on 2 cues; 1 did not give any hint for a disease (the irrelevant cue), whereas the other did (the relevant cue). We found a significant influence of repeating the irrelevant cue on decision behavior. That is, participants tended to repeat their decision if the irrelevant cue was repeated in the following decision situation. Thus, stimulus-response binding which typically is discussed in basic processes of perception and action has also implications for arguably more deliberative cognitive processes in decision making under uncertainty. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).
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The judicial role in life-sustaining medical treatment decisions.
Hafemeister, T L; Keilitz, I; Banks, S M
1991-01-01
Although there has been speculation regarding the pervasiveness and nature of judicial decisions regarding life-sustaining medical treatment (LSMT), no attempt has been made to empirically assess their prevalence or the issues they address. An exploratory study utilizing a mail survey of a nationwide random sample (N = 905) of state trial court judges was conducted to provide initial information regarding this decision-making process. Twenty-two percent of the responding judges had heard at least one LSMT case, and judicial review did not appear endemic to particular states. The number of judges hearing LSMT cases dropped from 1975 to 1981 but has increased since then. Three major issues predominate: patient competency, appointment of a surrogate decisionmaker, and resolution of the ultimate issue of forgoing LSMT. Relatively few cases either contested a prior directive's validity or involved imposing sanctions for instituting or forgoing LSMT. Although subject to different interpretations, the results suggest the courts are having a significant impact on certain aspects of the LSMT decision-making process. However, the infrequency with which any one judge is called upon to make an LSMT decision causes concern about the judiciary's ability to respond in a timely and appropriate manner. With their potential for a profound effect on the actions of health care providers, greater attention to this decision-making process is warranted.
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DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Grant Evenson
2006-09-01
This Corrective Action Decision Document/Closure Report has been prepared for Corrective Action Unit 274, Septic Systems, Nevada Test Site (NTS), Nevada in accordance with the ''Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order'' (1996). Corrective Action Unit (CAU) 274 is comprised of five corrective action sites (CASs): (1) CAS 03-02-01, WX-6 ETS Building Septic System; (2) CAS 06-02-01, Cesspool; (3) CAS 09-01-01, Spill Site; (4) CAS 09-05-01, Leaching Pit; and (5) CAS 20-05-01, Septic System. The purpose of this Corrective Action Decision Document/Closure Report is to provide justification and documentation supporting the closure of CAU 274 with no further corrective action. Tomore » achieve this, corrective action investigation (CAI) activities were performed from November 14 through December 17, 2005 as set forth in the CAU 274 Corrective Action Investigation Plan. The purpose of the CAI was to fulfill the following data needs as defined during the data quality objective (DQO) process: (1) Determine whether contaminants of concern (COCs) are present. (2) If contaminants of concern are present, determine their nature and extent. (3) Provide sufficient information and data to complete appropriate corrective actions. The CAU 274 dataset from the investigation results was evaluated based on the data quality indicator parameters. This evaluation demonstrated the quality and acceptability of the dataset for use in fulfilling the DQO data needs. Analytes detected during the CAI were evaluated against final action levels (FALs) established in this document. No analytes were detected at concentrations exceeding the FALs. No COCs have been released to the soil at CAU 274, and corrective action is not required. Therefore, the DQO data needs were met, and it was determined that no corrective action based on risk to human receptors is necessary for the site. All FALs were calculated using the industrial site worker scenario except for benzo(a)pyrene, which was calculated based on the occasional use scenario. Benzo(a)pyrene was detected above the preliminary action level at CAS 20-05-01; however, it was not identified as a COC because the concentration was below the FAL. As a best management practice and to ensure that future site workers are not exposed to this site contaminant for more than this decision-basis exposure duration, an administrative use restriction was established around the leachfield at CAS 20-05-01. In addition, the removal of the septic tanks and septic tank contents at CASs 03-02-01, 06-02-01, and 20-05-01 was performed.« less
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Søvik, Eirik; LaMora, Angela; Seehra, Gurpreet; Barron, Andrew B.; Duncan, Jennifer G.; Ben-Shahar, Yehuda
2017-01-01
Members of the Natural resistance-associated macrophage protein (NRAMP) family are evolutionarily-conserved metal ion transporters that play an essential role in regulating intracellular divalent cation homeostasis in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Malvolio (Mvl), the sole NRAMP family member in insects, plays a role in food choice behaviors in Drosophila and other species. However, the specific physiological and cellular processes that require the action of Mvl for appropriate feeding decisions remain elusive. Here we demonstrate that normal food choice requires Mvl function specifically in the dopaminergic system, and can be rescued by supplementing food with manganese. Collectively, our data indicate that the action of the Mvl transporter affects food choice behavior via the regulation of dopaminergic innervation of the mushroom bodies, a principle brain region associated with decision making in insects. Our studies suggest that the homeostatic regulation of the intra-neuronal levels of divalent cations plays an important role in the development and function of the dopaminergic system and associated behaviors. PMID:28220999
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Kocur, Józef; Trendak, Wiesława
2009-01-01
The report presents the current views on the development, course, as well as mechanisms underlying some disorders in the sphere of motivational processes, and especially in the sphere of will expression, aspirations and actions. The authors also analyze various aspects of the effect that is exerted by such disorders on such mental and psychosomatic functions that determine the validity of will declaration. The report emphasizes the necessity for separate evaluation of the ability to consciously or freely express will and reach decisions. Another important issue discussed in the paper is the prerequisite of including the effect of a given specific legal situation and factors other than psychopathological that can modify motivation, behavior and actions undertaken by the evaluated person.
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[The role of epidemiology in the process of decision-making].
Prost, A
1997-01-01
Epidemiology is the method of choice for quantifying and interpreting health phenomena, placing them into perspective to allow trend analysis and projections. It is a tool for analysis, evaluation and forecasting and is thus indispensable in the decision-making process. However, this comprehensive technique has its limitations since health is the result of complex interactions: individual requirements do not always correspond to the overall needs of the community; consideration has to be given to solidarity and the necessity for cost-sharing; and the decision process is strongly influenced by social, cultural, religious and political factors which defy quantification and, on occasion, any rational course of action. Each indicator only takes into account one aspect of the situation and the pertinent indicator should therefore be carefully selected. At the same time, any choice implicitly signifies value judgements-often unnoticed-which need to be balanced and validated in relation to the ethical values of the community in order to be of any assistance to decision-making. Decision-making is a qualitative political process which, although based on the quantitative analysis supplied by epidemiology, cannot be limited to it. Each approach enhance the other, but they should not be confused if freedom to act is to be preserved from being locked into some kind of mechanical process that is unacceptable both to man and to society.
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Participation and Family Education in School: Successful Educational Actions
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Garcia, Lars Bonell; Ríos, Oriol
2014-01-01
The research "INCLUD-ED, Strategies for Inclusion and Social Cohesion in Europe from Education" (2006-11) identified several forms of family participation that contribute to the improvement of school performance and living together in schools: participation in decision-making processes, participation in the evaluation of educational…
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39 CFR 776.5 - Review procedures.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-07-01
... Floodplain Management § 776.5 Review procedures. Officials shall follow the decision-making process outlined in paragraphs (a) through (f) of this section, when a facility action may involve floodplain issues... Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) maps, or more detailed maps if available. If such maps are not available...
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Structured Programming on the 380-Z.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Horton, Graeme
1983-01-01
With the production of SBAS, a combination of language and machine allowing for a disciplined and error-free approach to teaching programming is available. Instructional strategies for use with SBAS and basic concepts (decisions, repetitions/iterations, actions/processes) are discussed. Sample flow charts and program listings are provided. (JN)
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DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Irene Farnham and Sam Marutzky
2011-07-01
This CADD/CAP follows the Corrective Action Investigation (CAI) stage, which results in development of a set of contaminant boundary forecasts produced from groundwater flow and contaminant transport modeling of the Frenchman Flat CAU. The Frenchman Flat CAU is located in the southeastern portion of the NNSS and comprises 10 underground nuclear tests. The tests were conducted between 1965 and 1971 and resulted in the release of radionuclides in the subsurface in the vicinity of the test cavities. Two important aspects of the corrective action process are presented within this CADD/CAP. The CADD portion describes the results of the Frenchman Flatmore » CAU data-collection and modeling activities completed during the CAI stage. The corrective action objectives and the actions recommended to meet the objectives are also described. The CAP portion describes the corrective action implementation plan. The CAP begins with the presentation of CAU regulatory boundary objectives and initial use restriction boundaries that are identified and negotiated by NNSA/NSO and the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection (NDEP). The CAP also presents the model evaluation process designed to build confidence that the flow and contaminant transport modeling results can be used for the regulatory decisions required for CAU closure. The first two stages of the strategy have been completed for the Frenchman Flat CAU. A value of information analysis and a CAIP were developed during the CAIP stage. During the CAI stage, a CAIP addendum was developed, and the activities proposed in the CAIP and addendum were completed. These activities included hydrogeologic investigation of the underground testing areas, aquifer testing, isotopic and geochemistry-based investigations, and integrated geophysical investigations. After these investigations, a groundwater flow and contaminant transport model was developed to forecast contaminant boundaries that enclose areas potentially exceeding the Safe Drinking Water Act radiological standards at any time within 1,000 years. An external peer review of the groundwater flow and contaminant transport model was completed, and the model was accepted by NDEP to allow advancement to the CADD/CAP stage. The CADD/CAP stage focuses on model evaluation to ensure that existing models provide adequate guidance for the regulatory decisions regarding monitoring and institutional controls. Data-collection activities are identified and implemented to address key uncertainties in the flow and contaminant transport models. During the CR stage, final use restriction boundaries and CAU regulatory boundaries are negotiated and established; a long-term closure monitoring program is developed and implemented; and the approaches and policies for institutional controls are initiated. The model evaluation process described in this plan consists of an iterative series of five steps designed to build confidence in the site conceptual model and model forecasts. These steps are designed to identify data-collection activities (Step 1), document the data-collection activities in the 0CADD/CAP (Step 2), and perform the activities (Step 3). The new data are then assessed; the model is refined, if necessary; the modeling results are evaluated; and a model evaluation report is prepared (Step 4). The assessments are made by the modeling team and presented to the pre-emptive review committee. The decision is made by the modeling team with the assistance of the pre-emptive review committee and concurrence of NNSA/NSO to continue data and model assessment/refinement, recommend additional data collection, or recommend advancing to the CR stage. A recommendation to advance to the CR stage is based on whether the model is considered to be sufficiently reliable for designing a monitoring system and developing effective institutional controls. The decision to advance to the CR stage or to return to step 1 of the process is then made by NDEP (Step 5).« less
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Burman, Christopher J; Aphane, Marota A
2016-09-01
This article focuses on the utility of a knowledge management heuristic called the Cynefin framework, which was applied during an ongoing pilot intervention in the Limpopo province, South Africa. The intervention aimed to identify and then consolidate low-cost, innovative bio-social responses to reinforce the biomedical opportunities that now have the potential to "end AIDS by 2030″. The Cynefin framework is designed to enable leaders to identify specific decision-making domain typologies as a mechanism to maximise the effectiveness of leadership responses to both opportunities and challenges that emerge during interventions. In this instance the Cynefin framework was used to: (1) provide an indication to the project managers whether the early stages of the intervention had been effective; (2) provide the participants an opportunity to identify emergent knowledge action spaces (opportunities and challenges); and (3) categorise them into appropriate decision-making domains in preparation for the next phases of the intervention. A qualitative methodology was applied to collect and analyse the findings. The findings indicate that applying the Cynefin framework enabled the participants to situate knowledge action spaces into appropriate decision-making domains. From this participatory evaluation a targeted management strategy was developed for the next phases of the initiative. The article concludes by arguing that the Cynefin framework was an effective mechanism for situating emergent knowledge action spaces into appropriate decision-making domains, which enabled them to prepare for the next phases of the intervention. This process of responsive decision making could have utility in other development related interventions.
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O'Shanahan Juan, José Joaquín; Hernández Rodríguez, Miguel Ángel; Del Otero Sanz, Laura; Henríquez Suárez, José Andrés; Mahtani Chugani, Vinita
The need for new approaches to strategic planning by incorporating the perspectives of professionals and inhabitants has led to a new model for the 3rd Canary Islands (Spain) Health Plan (IIIPSC). A dual-phase participatory process using qualitative techniques is proposed: 1) local phase: a quantitative and qualitative study based on training and a research-action-participation initiative; and 2) insular phase: health conferences with face-to-face discussion of results in each health area (island) and proposals for action. The process prioritises problems and establishes a specific action plan for each island through initiatives that are considered to be viable, grouped by themes and weighted according to the potential impact on priority problems. This process of interaction may help to guide planning model changes and health policy decision-making, and was included in the IIIPSC Project for its parliamentary procedure. Copyright © 2016 SESPAS. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.
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DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Kidman, Raymond; Matthews, Patrick
The purpose of this Corrective Action Decision Document/Closure Report is to provide justification and documentation supporting the recommendation that no further corrective action is needed for CAU 541 based on the no further action alternative listed in Table ES-1.
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Unregulated drinking water initiative for environmental surveillance and public health.
Backer, Lorraine C; Tosta, Nancy
2011-03-01
The critical public health need to assess and protect the drinking water used by 37 million Americans requires attention and resources. NCEH, in partnership with states, has begun the process to identify information available on unregulated drinking water sources to improve the availability of data to support decisive public health actions and resource allocation. Far more attention and resources are needed to complete this process.
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Perceived Gaze Direction Modulates Neural Processing of Prosocial Decision Making
Sun, Delin; Shao, Robin; Wang, Zhaoxin; Lee, Tatia M. C.
2018-01-01
Gaze direction is a common social cue implying potential interpersonal interaction. However, little is known about the neural processing of social decision making influenced by perceived gaze direction. Here, we employed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) method to investigate 27 females when they were engaging in an economic exchange game task during which photos of direct or averted eye gaze were shown. We found that, when averted but not direct gaze was presented, prosocial vs. selfish choices were associated with stronger activations in the right superior temporal gyrus (STG) as well as larger functional couplings between right STG and the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC). Moreover, stronger activations in right STG was associated with quicker actions for making prosocial choice accompanied with averted gaze. The findings suggest that, when the cue implying social contact is absent, the processing of understanding others’ intention and the relationship between self and others is more involved for making prosocial than selfish decisions. These findings could advance our understanding of the roles of subtle cues in influencing prosocial decision making, as well as shedding lights on deficient social cue processing and functioning among individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). PMID:29487516
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Engaging stakeholders for adaptive management using structured decision analysis
Irwin, Elise R.; Kathryn, D.; Kennedy, Mickett
2009-01-01
Adaptive management is different from other types of management in that it includes all stakeholders (versus only policy makers) in the process, uses resource optimization techniques to evaluate competing objectives, and recognizes and attempts to reduce uncertainty inherent in natural resource systems. Management actions are negotiated by stakeholders, monitored results are compared to predictions of how the system should respond, and management strategies are adjusted in a “monitor-compare-adjust” iterative routine. Many adaptive management projects fail because of the lack of stakeholder identification, engagement, and continued involvement. Primary reasons for this vary but are usually related to either stakeholders not having ownership (or representation) in decision processes or disenfranchisement of stakeholders after adaptive management begins. We present an example in which stakeholders participated fully in adaptive management of a southeastern regulated river. Structured decision analysis was used to define management objectives and stakeholder values and to determine initial flow prescriptions. The process was transparent, and the visual nature of the modeling software allowed stakeholders to see how their interests and values were represented in the decision process. The development of a stakeholder governance structure and communication mechanism has been critical to the success of the project.
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Positives and pathologies of natural resource management on private land-conservation areas.
Clements, Hayley S; Cumming, Graeme S
2017-06-01
In managed natural resource systems, such as fisheries and rangelands, there is a recognized trade-off between managing for short-term benefits and managing for longer term resilience. Management actions that stabilize ecological attributes or processes can improve productivity in the supply of ecosystem goods and services in the short term but erode system resilience at longer time scales. For example, fire suppression in rangelands can increase grass biomass initially but ultimately result in an undesirable, shrub-dominated system. Analyses of this phenomenon have focused largely on how management actions influence slow-changing biophysical system attributes (such as vegetation composition). Data on the frequency of management actions that reduce natural ecological variation on 66 private land-conservation areas (PLCAs) in South Africa were used to investigate how management actions are influenced by manager decision-making approaches, a largely ignored part of the problem. The pathology of natural resource management was evident on some PLCAs: increased focus on revenue-generation in decision making resulted in an increased frequency of actions to stabilize short-term variation in large mammal populations, which led to increased revenues from ecotourism or hunting. On many PLCAs, these management actions corresponded with a reduced focus on ecological monitoring and an increase in overstocking of game (i.e., ungulate species) and stocking of extralimitals (i.e., game species outside their historical range). Positives in natural resource management also existed. Some managers monitored slower changing ecological attributes, which resulted in less-intensive management, fewer extralimital species, and lower stocking rates. Our unique, empirical investigation of monitoring-management relationships illustrates that management decisions informed by revenue monitoring versus ecological monitoring can have opposing consequences for natural resource productivity and sustainability. Promoting management actions that maintain resilience in natural resource systems therefore requires cognizance of why managers act the way they do and how these actions can gradually shift managers toward unsustainable strategies. © 2016 Society for Conservation Biology.
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Birchley, Giles; Jones, Kerry; Huxtable, Richard; Dixon, Jeremy; Kitzinger, Jenny; Clare, Linda
2016-07-27
In most Anglophone nations, policy and law increasingly foster an autonomy-based model, raising issues for large numbers of people who fail to fit the paradigm, and indicating problems in translating practical and theoretical understandings of 'good death' to policy. Three exemplar populations are frail older people, people with dementia and people with severe traumatic brain injury. We hypothesise that these groups face some over-lapping challenges in securing good end-of-life care linked to their limited agency. To better understand these challenges, we conducted a scoping review and thematic synthesis. To capture a range of literature, we followed established scoping review methods. We then used thematic synthesis to describe the broad themes emerging from this literature. Initial searches generated 22,375 references, and screening yielded 49, highly heterogeneous, studies that met inclusion criteria, encompassing 12 countries and a variety of settings. The thematic synthesis identified three themes: the first concerned the processes of end-of-life decision-making, highlighting the ambiguity of the dominant shared decision-making process, wherein decisions are determined by families or doctors, sometimes explicitly marginalising the antecedent decisions of patients. Despite this marginalisation, however, the patient does play a role both as a social presence and as an active agent, by whose actions the decisions of those with authority are influenced. The second theme examined the tension between predominant notions of a good death as 'natural' and the drive to medicalise death through the lens of the experiences and actions of those faced with the actuality of death. The final theme considered the concept of antecedent end-of-life decision-making (in all its forms), its influence on policy and decision-making, and some caveats that arise from the studies. Together these three themes indicate a number of directions for future research, which are likely to be applicable to other conditions that result in reduced agency. Above all, this review emphasises the need for new concepts and fresh approaches to end of life decision-making that address the needs of the growing population of frail older people, people with dementia and those with severe traumatic brain injury.
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Mental workload as a key factor in clinical decision making.
Byrne, Aidan
2013-08-01
The decision making process is central to the practice of a clinician and has traditionally been described in terms of the hypothetico-deductive model. More recently, models adapted from cognitive psychology, such as the dual process and script theories have proved useful in explaining patterns of practice not consistent with purely cognitive based practice. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the concept of mental workload as a key determinant of the type of cognitive processing used by clinicians. Published research appears to be consistent with 'schemata' based cognition as the principle mode of working for those engaged in complex tasks under time pressure. Although conscious processing of factual data is also used, it may be the primary mode of cognition only in situations where time pressure is not a factor. Further research on the decision making process should be based on outcomes which are not dependant on conscious recall of past actions or events and include a measure of mental workload. This further appears to support the concept of the patient, within the clinical environment, as the most effective learning resource.
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Auditory perception modulated by word reading.
Cao, Liyu; Klepp, Anne; Schnitzler, Alfons; Gross, Joachim; Biermann-Ruben, Katja
2016-10-01
Theories of embodied cognition positing that sensorimotor areas are indispensable during language comprehension are supported by neuroimaging and behavioural studies. Among others, the auditory system has been suggested to be important for understanding sound-related words (visually presented) and the motor system for action-related words. In this behavioural study, using a sound detection task embedded in a lexical decision task, we show that in participants with high lexical decision performance sound verbs improve auditory perception. The amount of modulation was correlated with lexical decision performance. Our study provides convergent behavioural evidence of auditory cortex involvement in word processing, supporting the view of embodied language comprehension concerning the auditory domain.
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DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Dufour, F., E-mail: dufour@math.u-bordeaux1.fr; Prieto-Rumeau, T., E-mail: tprieto@ccia.uned.es
We consider a discrete-time constrained discounted Markov decision process (MDP) with Borel state and action spaces, compact action sets, and lower semi-continuous cost functions. We introduce a set of hypotheses related to a positive weight function which allow us to consider cost functions that might not be bounded below by a constant, and which imply the solvability of the linear programming formulation of the constrained MDP. In particular, we establish the existence of a constrained optimal stationary policy. Our results are illustrated with an application to a fishery management problem.
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Parkinson, Jim; Garfinkel, Sarah; Critchley, Hugo; Dienes, Zoltan; Seth, Anil K
2017-04-01
Volitional action and self-control-feelings of acting according to one's own intentions and in being control of one's own actions-are fundamental aspects of human conscious experience. However, it is unknown whether high-level cognitive control mechanisms are affected by socially salient but nonconscious emotional cues. In this study, we manipulated free choice decisions to act or withhold an action by subliminally presenting emotional faces: In a novel version of the Go/NoGo paradigm, participants made speeded button-press responses to Go targets, withheld responses to NoGo targets, and made spontaneous, free choices to execute or withhold the response for Choice targets. Before each target, we presented emotional faces, backwards masked to render them nonconscious. In Intentional trials, subliminal angry faces made participants more likely to voluntarily withhold the action, whereas fearful and happy faces had no effects. In a second experiment, the faces were made supraliminal, which eliminated the effects of angry faces on volitional choices. A third experiment measured neural correlates of the effects of subliminal angry faces on intentional choice using EEG. After replicating the behavioural results found in Experiment 1, we identified a frontal-midline theta component-associated with cognitive control processes-which is present for volitional decisions, and is modulated by subliminal angry faces. This suggests a mechanism whereby subliminally presented "threat" stimuli affect conscious control processes. In summary, nonconscious perception of angry faces increases choices to inhibit, and subliminal influences on volitional action are deep seated and ecologically embedded.
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Zardo, Pauline; Collie, Alex; Livingstone, Charles
2014-05-01
This study examined external factors affecting policy and program decision-making in a specific public health policy context: injury prevention and rehabilitation compensation in the Australian state of Victoria. The aim was twofold: identify external factors that affect policy and program decision-making in this specific context; use this evidence to inform targeting of interventions aimed at increasing research use in this context. Qualitative interviews were undertaken from June 2011 to January 2012 with 33 employees from two state government agencies. Key factors identified were stakeholder feedback and action, government and ministerial input, legal feedback and action, injured persons and the media. The identified external factors were able to significantly influence policy and program decision-making processes: acting as both barriers and facilitators, depending on the particular issue at hand. The factors with the most influence were the Minister and government, lawyers, and agency stakeholders, particularly health providers, trade unions and employer groups. This research revealed that interventions aimed at increasing use of research in this context must target and harness the influence of these groups. This research provides critical insights for researchers seeking to design interventions to increase use of research in policy environments and influence decision-making in Victorian injury prevention and rehabilitation compensation. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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McCaffrey, Sarah; Wilson, Robyn; Konar, Avishek
2017-11-23
As climate change has contributed to longer fire seasons and populations living in fire-prone ecosystems increase, wildfires have begun to affect a growing number of people. As a result, interest in understanding the wildfire evacuation decision process has increased. Of particular interest is understanding why some people leave early, some choose to stay and defend their homes, and others wait to assess conditions before making a final decision. Individuals who tend to wait and see are of particular concern given the dangers of late evacuation. To understand what factors might influence different decisions, we surveyed homeowners in three areas in the United States that recently experienced a wildfire. The Protective Action Decision Model was used to identify a suite of factors previously identified as potentially relevant to evacuation decisions. Our results indicate that different beliefs about the efficacy of a particular response or action (evacuating or staying to defend), differences in risk attitudes, and emphasis on different cues to act (e.g., official warnings, environmental cues) are key factors underlying different responses. Further, latent class analysis indicates there are two general classes of individuals: those inclined to evacuate and those inclined to stay, and that a substantial portion of each class falls into the wait and see category. © 2017 Society for Risk Analysis.
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Project risk and appeals in U.S. Forest Service planning
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Stern, Marc J., E-mail: mjstern@vt.edu; Predmore, S. Andrew, E-mail: spred2@uis.edu; Morse, Wayde C., E-mail: morsewc@auburn.edu
2013-09-15
The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires U.S. Forest Service planning processes to be conducted by interdisciplinary teams of resource specialists to analyze and disclose the likely environmental impacts of proposed natural resource management actions on Forest Service lands. Multiple challenges associated with these processes have been a source of frustration for the agency. One of these challenges involves administrative appeals through which public entities can challenge a Forest Service decision following a NEPA process. These appeals instigate an internal review process and can result in an affirmation of the Forest Service decision, a reversal of that decision, or additionalmore » work that re-initiates all or part of the NEPA process. We examine the best predictors of appeals and their outcomes on a representative sample of 489 Forest Service NEPA processes that were decided between 2007 and 2009. While certain factors associated with pre-existing social contexts (such as a history of controversy) or pre-determined elements of a proposed action (such as the extraction of forest products) predispose certain processes to a higher risk of appeals, other practices and process-related strategies within the control of the agency also appear to bear meaningful influence on the occurrence of appeals and their outcomes. Appeals and their outcomes were most strongly related to programmatic, structural (turnover of personnel in particular), and relationship risks (both internal and external) within the processes, suggesting the need for greater focus within the agency on cultivating positive internal and external relationships to manage the risk of appeals. -- Highlights: ► We examined appeals and their outcomes on 489 U.S. Forest Service NEPA processes. ► Project type, context, team turnover, and personal relationships predicted appeals. ► External relationship management and staff turnover best predicted appeal outcomes. ► Positive internal and external relationships appear to reduce appeal risks.« less
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DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Matthews, Patrick
The purpose of this Corrective Action Decision Document is to identify and provide the rationale for the recommendation of corrective action alternatives (CAAs) for the 14 CASs within CAU 568. Corrective action investigation (CAI) activities were performed from April 2014 through May 2015, as set forth in the Corrective Action Investigation Plan for Corrective Action Unit 568: Area 3 Plutonium Dispersion Sites, Nevada National Security Site, Nevada; and in accordance with the Soils Activity Quality Assurance Plan, which establishes requirements, technical planning, and general quality practices. The purpose of the CAI was to fulfill data needs as defined during themore » DQO process. The CAU 568 dataset of investigation results was evaluated based on a data quality assessment. This assessment demonstrated that the dataset is complete and acceptable for use in fulfilling the DQO data needs. Based on the evaluation of analytical data from the CAI, review of future and current operations at the 14 CASs, and the detailed and comparative analysis of the potential CAAs, the following corrective actions are recommended for CAU 568: • No further action is the preferred corrective action for CASs 03-23-17, 03-23-22, 03-23-26. • Closure in place is the preferred corrective action for CAS 03-23-19; 03-45-01; the SE DCBs at CASs 03-23-20, 03-23-23, 03-23-31, 03-23-32, 03-23-33, and 03-23-34; and the Pascal-BHCA at CAS 03-23-31. • Clean closure is the preferred corrective action for CASs 03-08-04, 03-23-30, and 03-26-04; and the four well head covers at CASs 03-23-20, 03-23-23, 03-23-31, and 03-23-33.« less
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Ofstad, Eirik H; Frich, Jan C; Schei, Edvin; Frankel, Richard M; Gulbrandsen, Pål
2014-11-01
To identify and characterize physicians' statements that contained evidence of clinically relevant decisions in encounters with patients in different hospital settings. Qualitative analysis of 50 videotaped encounters from wards, the emergency room (ER) and outpatient clinics in a department of internal medicine at a Norwegian university hospital. Clinical decisions could be grouped in a temporal order: decisions which had already been made, and were brought into the encounter by the physician (preformed decisions), decisions made in the present (here-and-now decisions), and decisions prescribing future actions given a certain course of events (conditional decisions). Preformed decisions were a hallmark in the ward and conditional decisions a main feature of ER encounters. Clinical decisions related to a patient-physician encounter spanned a time frame exceeding the duration of the encounter. While a distribution of decisions over time and space fosters sharing and dilution of responsibility between providers, it makes the decision making process hard to access for patients. In order to plan when and how to involve patients in decisions, physicians need increased awareness of when clinical decisions are made, who usually makes them, and who should make them. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Moore, Bethany; Bone, Eric A
2017-01-01
The concept of triage in healthcare has been around for centuries and continues to be applied today so that scarce resources are allocated according to need. A business impact analysis (BIA) is a form of triage in that it identifies which processes are most critical, which to address first and how to allocate limited resources. On its own, however, the BIA provides only a roadmap of the impacts and interdependencies of an event. When disaster strikes, organisational decision-makers often face difficult decisions with regard to allocating limited resources between multiple 'mission-critical' functions. Applying the concept of triage to business continuity provides those decision-makers navigating a rapidly evolving and unpredictable event with a path that protects the fundamental priorities of the organisation. A business triage methodology aids decision-makers in times of crisis by providing a simplified framework for decision-making based on objective, evidence-based criteria, which is universally accepted and understood. When disaster strikes, the survival of the organisation depends on critical decision-making and quick actions to stabilise the incident. This paper argues that organisations need to supplement BIA processes with a decision-making triage methodology that can be quickly applied during the chaos of an actual event.
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Errors in Aviation Decision Making: Bad Decisions or Bad Luck?
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Orasanu, Judith; Martin, Lynne; Davison, Jeannie; Null, Cynthia H. (Technical Monitor)
1998-01-01
Despite efforts to design systems and procedures to support 'correct' and safe operations in aviation, errors in human judgment still occur and contribute to accidents. In this paper we examine how an NDM (naturalistic decision making) approach might help us to understand the role of decision processes in negative outcomes. Our strategy was to examine a collection of identified decision errors through the lens of an aviation decision process model and to search for common patterns. The second, and more difficult, task was to determine what might account for those patterns. The corpus we analyzed consisted of tactical decision errors identified by the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) from a set of accidents in which crew behavior contributed to the accident. A common pattern emerged: about three quarters of the errors represented plan-continuation errors, that is, a decision to continue with the original plan despite cues that suggested changing the course of action. Features in the context that might contribute to these errors were identified: (a) ambiguous dynamic conditions and (b) organizational and socially-induced goal conflicts. We hypothesize that 'errors' are mediated by underestimation of risk and failure to analyze the potential consequences of continuing with the initial plan. Stressors may further contribute to these effects. Suggestions for improving performance in these error-inducing contexts are discussed.
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Probabilistic models in human sensorimotor control
Wolpert, Daniel M.
2009-01-01
Sensory and motor uncertainty form a fundamental constraint on human sensorimotor control. Bayesian decision theory (BDT) has emerged as a unifying framework to understand how the central nervous system performs optimal estimation and control in the face of such uncertainty. BDT has two components: Bayesian statistics and decision theory. Here we review Bayesian statistics and show how it applies to estimating the state of the world and our own body. Recent results suggest that when learning novel tasks we are able to learn the statistical properties of both the world and our own sensory apparatus so as to perform estimation using Bayesian statistics. We review studies which suggest that humans can combine multiple sources of information to form maximum likelihood estimates, can incorporate prior beliefs about possible states of the world so as to generate maximum a posteriori estimates and can use Kalman filter-based processes to estimate time-varying states. Finally, we review Bayesian decision theory in motor control and how the central nervous system processes errors to determine loss functions and optimal actions. We review results that suggest we plan movements based on statistics of our actions that result from signal-dependent noise on our motor outputs. Taken together these studies provide a statistical framework for how the motor system performs in the presence of uncertainty. PMID:17628731
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Personnel References: Balancing Professional Responsibilities against Potential Legal Action.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hernandez, David E.; Bozeman, William C.
1989-01-01
Personnel references, comprising a major component in the employee screening and selection process, are viewed from three perspectives: types of information contributed, use of such information in decision-making, and legal implications of contributing the information. Advice is provided for reducing the probability of a successful suit. Includes…
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Here's Another Nice Mess: Using Video in Reflective Dialogue Research Method
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hepplewhite, K.
2014-01-01
This account discusses "reflective dialogues", a process utilising video to re-examine in-action decision-making with theatre practitioners who operate in community contexts. The reflexive discussions combine with observation, text and digital documentation to offer a sometimes "messy" (from Schön 1987) dynamic to the research…
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Economic analysis of fuel treatments
D. Evan Mercer; Jeffrey P. Prestemon
2012-01-01
The economics of wildfire is complicated because wildfire behavior depends on the spatial and temporal scale at which management decisions made, and because of uncertainties surrounding the results of management actions. Like the wildfire processes they seek to manage, interventions through fire prevention programs, suppression, and fuels management are scale dependent...
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Authentic Leadership: Practical Reflexivity, Self-Awareness, and Self-Authorship
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Eriksen, Matthew
2009-01-01
This assignment provides a process to facilitate student engagement in practical reflexivity and self-authorship through which students develop the self-awareness that is required to be an authentic and effective leader. It facilitates the development of students' personal leadership principles, which help guide their decision making and actions,…
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Evaluating Computer-Based Assessment in a Risk-Based Model
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Zakrzewski, Stan; Steven, Christine; Ricketts, Chris
2009-01-01
There are three purposes for evaluation: evaluation for action to aid the decision making process, evaluation for understanding to further enhance enlightenment and evaluation for control to ensure compliance to standards. This article argues that the primary function of evaluation in the "Catherine Wheel" computer-based assessment (CBA)…
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Evaluation: The Process of Stimulating, Aiding, and Abetting Insightful Action.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Guba, Egon G.; Stufflebeam, Daniel L.
Part 1 of this monograph discusses the status of educational evaluation and describes several problems in carrying out such evaluation: (1) defining the educational setting, (2) defining decision types, (3) designing educational evaluation, (4) designing evaluation systems, and (5) defining criteria for judging evaluation. Part 2 proposes an…
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32 CFR 989.26 - Classified actions (40 CFR 1507.3(c)).
Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-07-01
... relieve the requirement of complying with NEPA. In classified matters, the Air Force must prepare and make available normal NEPA environmental analysis documents to aid in the decision-making process; however, Air... Section 989.26 National Defense Department of Defense (Continued) DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE...
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Semantic Annotation of Ubiquitous Learning Environments
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Weal, M. J.; Michaelides, D. T.; Page, K.; De Roure, D. C.; Monger, E.; Gobbi, M.
2012-01-01
Skills-based learning environments are used to promote the acquisition of practical skills as well as decision making, communication, and problem solving. It is important to provide feedback to the students from these sessions and observations of their actions may inform the assessment process and help researchers to better understand the learning…
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Science-management collaborations: Developing adaptation options for National Forests
Forest Service U.S. Department of Agriculture
2010-01-01
Climate is constantly changing, prompting natural and managed ecosystems to adjust. As a natural process, adaptation refers to the reactive changes that species and ecosystems make in response to environmental changes. With human intervention, adaptation refers to management actions and decisions that help ecological, social, and economic systems accommodate challenges...
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Combat Orders: An Analysis of the Tactical Orders Process
1990-06-01
119 How Each System was Adapted to Doctrine .................. 120 T im e, the Critical Factor...Order ............................. 127 Decision Sequencing ... .......................... .............. ........................ 134 Adapting Tactical...overcentralization slows action and leads to inertia." 15 Agility Is the ability of friendly forces to act faster than the enemy. Initiative stresses the ability
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Student Participation in Higher Education Institutions in Turkey
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kuruuzum, Ayse; Asilkan, Ozcan; Cizel, Rabia Bato
2005-01-01
After the 2001 meeting of the European Ministers of Education held in Prague, higher education institutions in Turkey took serious actions in order to implement the goals of the Bologna Declaration (1999). Arrangements made for the democratization of universities and student participation in the decision-making process formed one of the…
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Management of contaminated marine marketable resources after oil and HNS spills in Europe.
Cunha, Isabel; Neuparth, Teresa; Moreira, Susana; Santos, Miguel M; Reis-Henriques, Maria Armanda
2014-03-15
Different risk evaluation approaches have been used to face oil and hazardous and noxious substances (HNS) spills all over the world. To minimize health risks and mitigate economic losses due to a long term ban on the sale of sea products after a spill, it is essential to preemptively set risk evaluation criteria and standard methodologies based on previous experience and appropriate scientifically sound criteria. Standard methodologies are analyzed and proposed in order to improve the definition of criteria for reintegrating previously contaminated marine marketable resources into the commercialization chain in Europe. The criteria used in former spills for the closing of and lifting of bans on fisheries and harvesting are analyzed. European legislation was identified regarding food sampling, food chemical analysis and maximum levels of contaminants allowed in seafood, which ought to be incorporated in the standard methodologies for the evaluation of the decision criteria defined for oil and HNS spills in Europe. A decision flowchart is proposed that opens the current decision criteria to new material that may be incorporated in the decision process. Decision criteria are discussed and compared among countries and incidents. An a priori definition of risk criteria and an elaboration of action plans are proposed to speed up actions that will lead to prompt final decisions. These decisions, based on the best available scientific data and conducing to lift or ban economic activity, will tend to be better understood and respected by citizens. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Fischer, Louis
1987-01-01
Presents the United States Supreme Court's decisions in Wygant v. the Jackson Board of Education and in International Association of Firefighters v. City of Cleveland. Explores the decisions' more general applications to voluntary affirmative action plans. (PS)
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Evaluating trade-offs in bull trout reintroduction strategies using structured decision making
Brignon, William R.; Peterson, James T.; Dunham, Jason B.; Schaller, Howard A.; Schreck, Carl B.
2018-01-01
Structured decision making allows reintroduction decisions to be made despite uncertainty by linking reintroduction goals with alternative management actions through predictive models of ecological processes. We developed a decision model to evaluate the trade-offs between six bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus) reintroduction decisions with the goal of maximizing the number of adults in the recipient population without reducing the donor population to an unacceptable level. Sensitivity analyses suggested that the decision identity and outcome were most influenced by survival parameters that result in increased adult abundance in the recipient population, increased juvenile survival in the donor and recipient populations, adult fecundity rates, and sex ratio. The decision was least sensitive to survival parameters associated with the captive-reared population, the effect of naivety on released individuals, and juvenile carrying capacity of the reintroduced population. The model and sensitivity analyses can serve as the foundation for formal adaptive management and improved effectiveness, efficiency, and transparency of bull trout reintroduction decisions.
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Distributed collaborative environments for predictive battlespace awareness
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
McQuay, William K.
2003-09-01
The past decade has produced significant changes in the conduct of military operations: asymmetric warfare, the reliance on dynamic coalitions, stringent rules of engagement, increased concern about collateral damage, and the need for sustained air operations. Mission commanders need to assimilate a tremendous amount of information, make quick-response decisions, and quantify the effects of those decisions in the face of uncertainty. Situational assessment is crucial in understanding the battlespace. Decision support tools in a distributed collaborative environment offer the capability of decomposing complex multitask processes and distributing them over a dynamic set of execution assets that include modeling, simulations, and analysis tools. Decision support technologies can semi-automate activities, such as analysis and planning, that have a reasonably well-defined process and provide machine-level interfaces to refine the myriad of information that the commander must fused. Collaborative environments provide the framework and integrate models, simulations, and domain specific decision support tools for the sharing and exchanging of data, information, knowledge, and actions. This paper describes ongoing AFRL research efforts in applying distributed collaborative environments to predictive battlespace awareness.
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Naturalistic decision-making in expert badminton players.
Macquet, A C; Fleurance, P
2007-09-01
This paper reports on a study of naturalistic decision-making in expert badminton players. These decisions are frequently taken under time-pressured conditions, yet normally lead to successful performance. Two male badminton teams participated in this study. Self-confrontation interviews were used to collect data. Inductive data analysis revealed three types of intentions during a rally: to maintain the rally; to take the advantage; and to finish the point. It also revealed eight types of decision taken in this situation: to ensure an action; to observe the opponent's response to an action; to realize a limited choice; to influence the opponent's decision; to put pressure on an opponent; to surprise the opponent; to reproduce an efficient action; and to play wide. A frequent decision was to put pressure on the opponent. Different information and knowledge was linked to specific decisions. The results are discussed in relation to research that has considered naturalistic decision-making.
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Barenfeld, Emmelie; Gustafsson, Susanne; Wallin, Lars; Dahlin-Ivanoff, Synneve
2017-01-01
ABSTRACT This study is part of the Promoting Aging Migrants’ Capabilities programme that applied person-centred group meetings and one individual home visit to prolong independence in daily activities among people ≥70 years who had migrated to Sweden from Finland or the Western Balkan region. With the purpose to understand programme outcomes, the study aimed to explore the participants’ everyday experiences of using health-promoting messages exchanged during the programme. Using a grounded theory approach, 12 persons aged 70–83 years were interviewed six months to one year after their participation in the programme. The participants experienced how using health-promoting messages was a dynamic process of how to make decisions on taking action to satisfy health-related needs of oneself or others immediately or deferring action. Five sub-processes were also identified: gaining inner strength, meeting challenges in available resources, being attentive to what is worth knowing, approaching health risks, and identifying opportunities to advocate for others. The results suggest that the programme could develop personal skills to support older people who have migrated to overcome health-related challenges. They further demonstrate the importance of supporting their health literacy before personal resources hinder action, and call for research on programmes to overcome environmental barriers to health. PMID:28639481
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A social identity model of pro-environmental action (SIMPEA).
Fritsche, Immo; Barth, Markus; Jugert, Philipp; Masson, Torsten; Reese, Gerhard
2018-03-01
Large-scale environmental crises are genuinely collective phenomena: they usually result from collective, rather than personal, behavior and how they are cognitively represented and appraised is determined by collectively shared interpretations (e.g., differing across ideological groups) and based on concern for collectives (e.g., humankind, future generations) rather than for individuals. Nevertheless, pro-environmental action has been primarily investigated as a personal decision-making process. We complement this research with a social identity perspective on pro-environmental action. Social identity is the human capacity to define the self in terms of "We" instead of "I," enabling people to think and act as collectives, which should be crucial given personal insufficiency to appraise and effectively respond to environmental crises. We propose a Social Identity Model of Pro-Environmental Action (SIMPEA) of how social identity processes affect both appraisal of and behavioral responses to large-scale environmental crises. We review related and pertinent research providing initial evidence for the role of 4 social identity processes hypothesized in SIMPEA. Specifically, we propose that ingroup identification, ingroup norms and goals, and collective efficacy determine environmental appraisals as well as both private and public sphere environmental action. These processes are driven by personal and collective emotions and motivations that arise from environmental appraisal and operate on both a deliberate and automatic processing level. Finally, we discuss SIMPEA's implications for the research agenda in environmental and social psychology and for interventions fostering pro-environmental action. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).
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Analysis and Management of Animal Populations: Modeling, Estimation and Decision Making
Williams, B.K.; Nichols, J.D.; Conroy, M.J.
2002-01-01
This book deals with the processes involved in making informed decisions about the management of animal populations. It covers the modeling of population responses to management actions, the estimation of quantities needed in the modeling effort, and the application of these estimates and models to the development of sound management decisions. The book synthesizes and integrates in a single volume the methods associated with these themes, as they apply to ecological assessment and conservation of animal populations. KEY FEATURES * Integrates population modeling, parameter estimation and * decision-theoretic approaches to management in a single, cohesive framework * Provides authoritative, state-of-the-art descriptions of quantitative * approaches to modeling, estimation and decision-making * Emphasizes the role of mathematical modeling in the conduct of science * and management * Utilizes a unifying biological context, consistent mathematical notation, * and numerous biological examples
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Langhout, Regina Day; Kohfeldt, Danielle M; Ellison, Erin Rose
2011-12-01
The current study examines 16 Latina/o fifth grade children's desires for a decision-making structure within a youth participatory action research (yPAR) program. When given the choices of consensus, majority rule, authoritarian rule, delegation, and random choice models, children chose random choice. Procedural, distributive and emotional justice were heavily weighted in their reasoning around fairness and decision making. Many thought random choice offered the best alternative because it flattened power hierarchies so that each child would, at some point, have the power to make a decision. Additionally, children argued that the neutrality of random choice allowed them to sidestep interpersonal tensions. Implications include how social identities inform definitions of fairness and how yPAR programs should work with youth around how they will make decisions.
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49 CFR 1115.3 - Board actions other than initial decisions.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR
2011-10-01
... action on its own motion or on petition. A petition to stay may be filed in advance of the petition for... 49 Transportation 8 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Board actions other than initial decisions. 1115.3... TRANSPORTATION BOARD, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION RULES OF PRACTICE APPELLATE PROCEDURES § 1115.3 Board actions...
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Technical Guidance for Assessing Environmental Justice in ...
The Technical Guidance for Assessing Environmental Justice in Regulatory Analysis (also referred to as the Environmental Justice Technical Guidance or EJTG) is intended for use by Agency analysts, including risk assessors, economists, and other analytic staff that conduct analyses to evaluate EJ concerns in the context of regulatory actions. Senior EPA managers and decision makers also may find this document useful to understand analytic expectations and to ensure that EJ concerns are appropriately considered in the development of analyses to support regulatory actions under EPA’s action development process. Specifically, the document outlines approaches and methods to help Agency analysts evaluate EJ concerns. The document provides overarching direction to analysts by outlining a series of questions that will ensure the decision maker has appropriate information about baseline risks across population groups, and how those risks are distributed under the options being considered. In addition, the document provides a set of recommendations and requirements as well as best practices for use in analyzing and reporting results from consideration of EJ concerns. These principles will help ensure consistency, quality, and transparency across regulatory actions, while allowing for flexibility needed across different regulatory actions. The purpose of the EJTG is ensure consistency, quality, and transparency in considering environmental justice, while allowing f
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Muraskin, Jordan; Sherwin, Jason; Sajda, Paul
2015-12-01
Given a decision that requires less than half a second for evaluating the characteristics of the incoming pitch and generating a motor response, hitting a baseball potentially requires unique perception-action coupling to achieve high performance. We designed a rapid perceptual decision-making experiment modeled as a Go/No-Go task yet tailored to reflect a real scenario confronted by a baseball hitter. For groups of experts (Division I baseball players) and novices (non-players), we recorded electroencephalography (EEG) while they performed the task. We analyzed evoked EEG single-trial variability, contingent negative variation (CNV), and pre-stimulus alpha power with respect to the expert vs. novice groups. We found strong evidence for differences in inhibitory processes between the two groups, specifically differential activity in supplementary motor areas (SMA), indicative of enhanced inhibitory control in the expert (baseball player) group. We also found selective activity in the fusiform gyrus (FG) and orbital gyrus in the expert group, suggesting an enhanced perception-action coupling in baseball players that differentiates them from matched controls. In sum, our results show that EEG correlates of decision formation can be used to identify neural markers of high-performance athletes. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Cohen-Hatton, Sabrina R; Honey, R C
2015-12-01
Decisions made by operational commanders at emergency incidents have been characterized as involving a period of information gathering followed by courses of action that are often generated without explicit plan formulation. We examined the efficacy of goal-oriented training in engendering explicit planning that would enable better communication at emergency incidents. While standard training mirrored current operational guidance, goal-oriented training incorporated "decision controls" that highlighted the importance of evaluating goals, anticipated consequences, and risk/benefit analyses once a potential course of action has been identified. In Experiment 1, 3 scenarios (a house fire, road traffic collision, and skip fire) were presented in a virtual environment, and in Experiment 2 they were recreated on the fireground. In Experiment 3, the house fire was recreated as a "live burn," and incident commanders and their crews responded to this scenario as an emergency incident. In all experiments, groups given standard training showed the reported tendency to move directly from information gathering to action, whereas those given goal-oriented training were more likely to develop explicit plans and show anticipatory situational awareness. These results indicate that training can be readily modified to promote explicit plan formulation that could facilitate plan sharing between incident commanders and their teams. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).
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75 FR 68783 - Clean Water Act Section 303(d): Availability of List Decisions
Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014
2010-11-09
... ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY [FRL-9223-5] Clean Water Act Section 303(d): Availability of List Decisions AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). ACTION: Notice of availability. SUMMARY: This action announces the availability of EPA decisions identifying water quality limited segments and...
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5 CFR 511.701 - Effective dates generally.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-01-01
...) Except as provided in § 511.703, classification actions may not be made retroactive. (b) Office of Personnel Management's classification decision. (1) The effective date of a classification decision made by... CLASSIFICATION UNDER THE GENERAL SCHEDULE Effective Dates of Position Classification Actions or Decisions § 511...
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5 CFR 511.701 - Effective dates generally.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR
2011-01-01
...) Except as provided in § 511.703, classification actions may not be made retroactive. (b) Office of Personnel Management's classification decision. (1) The effective date of a classification decision made by... CLASSIFICATION UNDER THE GENERAL SCHEDULE Effective Dates of Position Classification Actions or Decisions § 511...
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24 CFR 58.4 - Assumption authority.
Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-04-01
..., decision-making, and action that would otherwise apply to HUD under NEPA and other provisions of law that... environmental review, decision-making and action for programs authorized by the Native American Housing... separate decision regarding assumption of responsibilities for each of these Acts and communicate that...
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Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR
2010-04-01
... 17 Commodity and Securities Exchanges 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Final decision. 8.28 Section 8.28 Commodity and Securities Exchanges COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING COMMISSION EXCHANGE PROCEDURES FOR DISCIPLINARY, SUMMARY, AND MEMBERSHIP DENIAL ACTIONS Summary Actions § 8.28 Final decision. Each exchange shall...
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Decision support tool for diagnosing the source of variation
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Masood, Ibrahim; Azrul Azhad Haizan, Mohamad; Norbaya Jumali, Siti; Ghazali, Farah Najihah Mohd; Razali, Hazlin Syafinaz Md; Shahir Yahya, Mohd; Azlan, Mohd Azwir bin
2017-08-01
Identifying the source of unnatural variation (SOV) in manufacturing process is essential for quality control. The Shewhart control chart patterns (CCPs) are commonly used to monitor the SOV. However, a proper interpretation of CCPs associated to its SOV requires a high skill industrial practitioner. Lack of knowledge in process engineering will lead to erroneous corrective action. The objective of this study is to design the operating procedures of computerized decision support tool (DST) for process diagnosis. The DST is an embedded tool in CCPs recognition scheme. Design methodology involves analysis of relationship between geometrical features, manufacturing process and CCPs. The DST contents information about CCPs and its possible root cause error and description on SOV phenomenon such as process deterioration in tool bluntness, offsetting tool, loading error, and changes in materials hardness. The DST will be useful for an industrial practitioner in making effective troubleshooting.
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Bornstein, Aaron M.; Daw, Nathaniel D.
2013-01-01
How do we use our memories of the past to guide decisions we've never had to make before? Although extensive work describes how the brain learns to repeat rewarded actions, decisions can also be influenced by associations between stimuli or events not directly involving reward — such as when planning routes using a cognitive map or chess moves using predicted countermoves — and these sorts of associations are critical when deciding among novel options. This process is known as model-based decision making. While the learning of environmental relations that might support model-based decisions is well studied, and separately this sort of information has been inferred to impact decisions, there is little evidence concerning the full cycle by which such associations are acquired and drive choices. Of particular interest is whether decisions are directly supported by the same mnemonic systems characterized for relational learning more generally, or instead rely on other, specialized representations. Here, building on our previous work, which isolated dual representations underlying sequential predictive learning, we directly demonstrate that one such representation, encoded by the hippocampal memory system and adjacent cortical structures, supports goal-directed decisions. Using interleaved learning and decision tasks, we monitor predictive learning directly and also trace its influence on decisions for reward. We quantitatively compare the learning processes underlying multiple behavioral and fMRI observables using computational model fits. Across both tasks, a quantitatively consistent learning process explains reaction times, choices, and both expectation- and surprise-related neural activity. The same hippocampal and ventral stream regions engaged in anticipating stimuli during learning are also engaged in proportion to the difficulty of decisions. These results support a role for predictive associations learned by the hippocampal memory system to be recalled during choice formation. PMID:24339770
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NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Schwarz, A. M.; Ray, P.; Brown, C.; Wi, S.
2016-12-01
For nearly 2 years the California Department of Water Resources (CDWR) has been working with the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass) to evaluate climate change vulnerabilities to the California State Water Project. Working cooperatively, the team has developed tools and methods to employ a decision scaling approach to CDWR's existing water system model (CalSim-II/CalLite 3.0). This presentation will discuss how and why this partnership came to be, the co-production model the team has developed to share expertise, the new understanding of the system that has been gained through the process, and current and future efforts to influence planning and investments based on the findings of the work. This cooperative decision-maker-with-scientist engagement is unique in that CDWR has not outsourced the application of the science to their systems, and instead has worked directly with UMass researchers to develop the process, produce results, and interpret findings. Further, CDWR staff has worked with UMass researchers to present results in ways that are more useable and actionable for decision-makers. As will be shown, many of these graphics allow the team to use the science differently to improve decision making.
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Effects of intentionality and subliminal information in free-choices to inhibit.
Dall'Acqua, Tommaso; Begliomini, Chiara; Motta, Raffaella; Miotto, Diego; Castiello, Umberto
2018-01-31
Stopping an action at the very last moment is an important feature of human behavioural flexibility. Intentional inhibition has been defined as the ability to inhibit an action on the basis of an internal decision process. Without this ability, actions would be impulsive and would leave little space to correct misguided decisions. Previous research suggests that making a choice between action alternatives activates a specific "choice network" that includes the rostral cingulate zone (RCZ), the anterior insula (AI), the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and the inferior parietal lobe (IPL). The activity of this network has shown to be influenced by non-conscious (subliminal) stimuli. In this study, we tested whether the same regions are recruited by free-choices to inhibit and modulated by unconscious information as reported in the case of free-choices to act. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) we manipulated the degree of 'freedom' of the choice between acting and inhibiting an action by introducing explicit cues or leaving the participants free to choose between action alternatives. We included subliminal masked primes to test whether responses to targets were facilitated and/or obstructed by conditions of congruency and incongruency between primes and targets. Our findings confirmed higher activation of the "choice network" in free-choice trials when compared to cued choices. However subliminal priming failed to significantly influence participants' responses, in free-choice conditions. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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2012-03-01
with inputs from 3M; CEMEX; The Coca - Cola Company; CSX Corporation; Fletcher-Challenge; Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company; Hewlett-Packard Company...customer or market ” (Lambert, Cooper, & Pagh, 1998). In general, the strategic sub- processes comprise the actions and decisions related to...silos such as marketing , research and development, finance, production and purchasing and logistics (Croxton, Garcia-Dastugue, Lambert, and Rogers
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Improving "At-Action" Decision-Making in Team Sports through a Holistic Coaching Approach
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Light, Richard L.; Harvey, Stephen; Mouchet, Alain
2014-01-01
This article draws on Game Sense pedagogy and complex learning theory (CLT) to make suggestions for improving decision-making ability in team sports by adopting a holistic approach to coaching with a focus on decision-making "at-action". It emphasizes the complexity of decision-making and the need to focus on the game as a whole entity,…
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ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Gresch, Helge; Bogeholz, Susanne
2013-01-01
Students are faced with a multitude of decisions as consumers and in societal debates. Because of the scarcity of resources, the destruction of ecosystems and social injustice in a globalized world, it is vital that students are able to identify non-sustainable courses of action when involved in decision-making. The application of decision-making…