Training decision making using serious games

Abstract

Decision making is central to all military operations both in terms of mission success and also the safety of personnel and equipment. The importance of training decision making in the military cannot be underestimated, whether it be for those undertaking the highest levels of command and control through to personnel on the ground engaged in combat and peacekeeping operations.

Decision making has been researched from a number of paradigms, including the classical decision making approach which advocates a logical, rational, analytical approach to decision making suited to military planning, and naturalistic decision making which reflects decision making in uncertain and dynamic military operational environments. Decision making is not a single entity. Six decision event types have been identified which vary according to how well a decision making problem is defined, and whether options exist or need to be created.

Decision making may be improved through training or structuring decision making. Whilst it is not possible to provide generic decision making training, a number of trainable decision making skills have been identified including situation awareness, metacognition and resource management, in addition to specific skills which can be trained according to the different decision event types.

Well developed serious games which leverage the properties of games, digital games, and simulation appear to present exciting opportunities for creating immersive experiential learning environments for decision making training, enabling students to become active learners in a safe benign environment, but one which encourages them to take risks and explore the solution space, with the benefit of immediate feedback, and subsequent review of performance.

Whilst there are a number of serious games designed for the military which train decision making in specific contexts, there are currently no serious games designed specifically to train decision making skills to enhance performance of the six decision making strategies identified by Orasanu (1993). It is recommended that a serious game to train decision making skills to enhance the performance of the six decision making strategies identified by Orasanu (1993) be developed. Work has already commenced with an initial evaluation of the suitability of different commercial games for re-purposing as serious decision making training game. It is recommended that this is now developed into a more extensive study using proficient computer games players as subject matter experts.

There have been a number studies which have demonstrated that serious games accelerate learning and support the development of higher level cognitive skills. However, there is a paucity of empirical evidence demonstrating the learning benefits of serious games and demonstrating behavioural change in the operational environment. It is recommended that every opportunity be taken to evaluate serious games.

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