Controlling uncertainty: a review of human behavior in complex dynamic environments

Area of Science:

• Cognitive psychology
• Human-computer interaction
• Systems engineering

Background:

• Complex dynamic control (CDC) tasks are widely used to study cognitive functions such as attention, decision-making, and problem-solving.
• Research on CDC tasks spans multiple disciplines but findings remain fragmented.
• Existing research lacks a unifying theoretical framework for understanding performance in CDC tasks.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review theoretical and empirical work on complex dynamic control (CDC) tasks.
• To introduce a novel monitoring and control framework for integrating diverse findings.
• To provide new insights into ongoing debates and future research directions in CDC task research.

Main Methods:

• Literature review of theoretical developments and empirical studies on CDC tasks.
• Introduction and explanation of the monitoring and control framework.
• Discussion of implications for current research debates and future directions.

Main Results:

• CDC tasks are characterized by inherent uncertainty.
• Subjective judgments of uncertainty are key drivers of monitoring and control behaviors.
• The proposed framework offers a unified perspective on diverse CDC task findings.

Conclusions:

• The monitoring and control framework effectively integrates disparate research on CDC tasks.
• Understanding subjective uncertainty is crucial for explaining behavior in complex dynamic control environments.
• This framework opens new avenues for research on cognitive activities within CDC tasks.