ABSTRACT
The short answer to the question of where we are now is: We are in very exciting times. If you are engaged in research or applications concerning Naturalistic Decision Making (NDM), you are already aware of this. If you are not an NDM researcher, you may not know about this emerging movement and the interest it is generating. For a start, over the last decade, informal estimates of funding from the U.S. Department of Defense for NDM research range from $25 million to $35 million. A multitude of projects have been funded in hopes that an NDM research perspective can improve decision support systems installed in military command-and-control suites in various aircraft, naval vessels, and land-based platforms. The U.S. Marine Corps began applying NDM research findings to improve its command and control procedures. On the civilian side, several leading companies in the nuclear power industry are beginning to realign their procedures, training, and decision support systems through the use of NDM research methods such as cognitive task analysis, and through the use of NDM-derived training methods. The aviation industry is sponsoring programs on situation awareness to improve decision making. And this is just a sampling. We are, indeed, in exciting times with NDM research.
