Applying insights on categorisation, communication, and dynamic decision-making: a case study of a ‘simple’ maritime military decision

Abstract

A complete understanding of decision-making in military domains requires gathering insights from several fields of study. To make the task tractable, here we consider a specific example of short-term tactical decisions under uncertainty made by the military at sea. Through this lens, we sketch out relevant literature from three psychological tasks each underpinned by decision-making processes: categorisation, communication, and choice. From the literature, we note two general cognitive tendencies that emerge across all three stages: the effect of cognitive load and individual differences. Drawing on these tendencies, we recommend strategies, tools and future research that could improve performance in military domains—but, by extension, would also generalise to other high-stakes contexts. In so doing, we show the extent to which domain general properties of high order cognition are sufficient in explaining behaviours in domain specific contexts.