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A Method for Investigating Change Blindness in Pigeons Columba Livia

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Choice Blindness in a Military Setting.

Robert E Patterson¹, Barbara Acker-Mills², Mary E Frame²

¹Human Effectiveness Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson AFB, OH, USA.

|April 27, 2026

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Choice blindness, where individuals don't notice changed preferences, affects both novices and experts in military intelligence tasks. This cognitive bias can dangerously reduce decision-making efficacy in critical situations.

Keywords:

decision making expert-novice differences human error analysis information processing metacognition

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Decision Science
Military Psychology

Background:

Choice blindness is a cognitive bias where individuals fail to detect changes to their chosen options.
This phenomenon involves confabulation, where a false justification is provided for the non-chosen option.
Previous research indicates that 67-75% of individuals exhibit choice blindness when tested.

Purpose of the Study:

To examine the impact of choice blindness in applied military contexts.
To investigate choice blindness in simulated intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) scenarios.
To compare the susceptibility of novices and experts to choice blindness.

Main Methods:

Two experiments were conducted using simulated military tasks.
Participants (novices and experts) engaged in an ISR scenario, selecting critical intelligence sources.
The chosen intelligence source was covertly switched during the task, and participants were asked to explain their choices.

Main Results:

In Experiment 1, 76% of novices failed to detect the switch, with choice blindness observed in 20-25% of the sample.
Approximately 50% of participants across both experiments failed to detect any switched intelligence sources without confabulating.
This included ISR Subject Matter Experts, indicating similar propensities for choice blindness in experts and novices.

Conclusions:

Both military novices and experts demonstrate a similar susceptibility to choice blindness.
Choice blindness in military operators can pose significant risks, potentially leading to communication errors and reduced decision-making effectiveness.
Understanding and mitigating choice blindness is crucial for enhancing operational safety and efficacy in military contexts.