ABSTRACT
In order to develop a sound understanding of the phenomenon of human decisionmaking in complex tasks, it is helpful to briefly talk about the roots of our current understanding of decision-making in complex situations. At the outset of this chapter, we will therefore highlight some key developments that decision-making research underwent in the last decades and centuries in order to derive a clearer understanding of the challenges we currently face and address in the empirical studies presented in this book. Although such a historical review must necessarily remain incomplete due to the complexity and sheer size of the decision-making research field, it helps us understand the main traditions from which our understanding of decision-making in complex tasks stems.
