Use of an Option Generation Paradigm to Investigate Situation Assessment and Response Selection in Law Enforcement

When individuals make decisions in the natural ecology, generation and selection of a course of action is informed by their assessment of the situation. Previous option generation research—largely using complex but static tasks—has examined, separately, the decision strategies employed during the situation assessment and response phases of decision making. This research found that decision makers typically generate a small number of options, and their first option is generally a good one. In dynamic tasks, however, skilled performance involves not only comprehension of the current situation, but the ability to predict impending events. The goal of the current study is to test existing claims about the option generation strategies employed during the situation assessment and response phases of decision making, in the context of a dynamic task.