Training Decision Makers for Complex Environments: Implications of the Naturalistic Decision Making Perspective *

Perhaps the most significant contribution of the Naturalistic Decision Making (NDM) perspective is that it has forced researchers to reevaluate the assumptions they hold about how people make decisions in "real" environments (Orasanu & Connolly, 1993). A logical extension is to examine the practical implications of this theoretical perspective on decision making. In particular, it is of interest to determine how conclusions drawn from the NDM perspective affect the manner in which decision making might be optimized, or at least improved. Therefore, the purpose of this chapter is to examine NDM-related theorizing from the standpoint of what it implies for how we train decision makers. It is based largely on the panel discussion devoted to this topic; panelists included the authors, John Schmitt, Hugh Wood, Raanan Lipshitz, and Jon Fallesen.