ABSTRACT
Many serious accidents in which human error has been involved can be attributed to faulty decision making. In this chapter the cognitive processes that underlie diagnosis and value-based decisions, and the characteristics of the information and choice that can either improve the likelihood of a good outcome, or make the decision more difficult and the choice more likely to produce an unwanted result, are discussed. Decision making is complex and interactive, with different components invoking common cognitive and information processing mechanisms, such as overconfidence in both diagnosis and choice. Human decision making often utilizes mental shortcuts, called heuristics. Decision making links to earlier topics of attention, perception, and memory, as well as the topic of limited resources that we will discuss the multitasking chapter. The chapter explains ways to improve decision making and the design of decision support systems to aid human decision-makers in the real world.
