Safety-related decision making at a nuclear power plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vaurio, J.K.

1998-01-01

The decision making environment of an operating nuclear power plant is presented. The organizations involved, their roles and interactions as well as the main influencing factors and decision criteria are described. The focus is on safety-related decisions, and the framework is based on the situation at Loviisa power station. The role of probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) is illustrated with decisions concerning plant modifications, optimization, acceptance of temporary configurations and extended repair times. Suggestions are made for rational and flexible risk-based control of allowed times to operate the plant with some components out of service. (orig.)

Application of Mixed Group Decision Making to Safety Evaluation of Agricultural Products

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

2012-01-01

In view of the gravity of issues concerning safety of agricultural products and urgency of resolving these issues,after analyzing the problems existing in safety of agricultural products,this article offers a method for evaluating safety of agricultural products on the basis of mixed group decision making.First of all,it introduces the factors influencing safety evaluation of agricultural products;subsequently,given that the judgment matrices offered by the group of experts contain both reciprocal and complementary judgment matrices in the process of jointly participating in evaluation arising from personal preference,it proposes to assemble expert information in order to obtain indicator weight using the OWA operator;finally,the process of evaluating safety of agricultural products is given.

The Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (Dematel) and Analytic Network Process (ANP) for Safety Management System Evaluation Performance

Science.gov (United States)

Rolita, Lisa; Surarso, Bayu; Gernowo, Rahmat

2018-02-01

In order to improve airport safety management system (SMS) performance, an evaluation system is required to improve on current shortcomings and maximize safety. This study suggests the integration of the DEMATEL and ANP methods in decision making processes by analyzing causal relations between the relevant criteria and taking effective analysis-based decision. The DEMATEL method builds on the ANP method in identifying the interdependencies between criteria. The input data consists of questionnaire data obtained online and then stored in an online database. Furthermore, the questionnaire data is processed using DEMATEL and ANP methods to obtain the results of determining the relationship between criteria and criteria that need to be evaluated. The study cases on this evaluation system were Adi Sutjipto International Airport, Yogyakarta (JOG); Ahmad Yani International Airport, Semarang (SRG); and Adi Sumarmo International Airport, Surakarta (SOC). The integration grades SMS performance criterion weights in a descending order as follow: safety and destination policy, safety risk management, healthcare, and safety awareness. Sturges' formula classified the results into nine grades. JOG and SMG airports were in grade 8, while SOG airport was in grade 7.

Communicative processes and decision-making in relation to prostate cancer patients

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Løwe Netsey-Afedo, Mette Margrethe; Birkelund, Regner

BACKGROUND: There are many benefits of involving patients in decision-making, including increased patient safety and improved health. Many patients with prostate cancer wish to be involved when making decisions in the course of their treatment. However, studies show that Patient Involvement and SDM...... of treatment, it is essential to involve patients' preferences, needs and desires when making decisions during the course of their disease. Furthermore, it is important that patients are adequately informed about treatment, side effects, and other specific issues important for the individual patient. The aim...... of this project is to examine the processes of communication between prostate cancer patients and health professionals related to decision-making in the course of the patient’s treatment. Organizational possibilities and constraints related to the involvement will also be examined. METHODS: Data will be collected...

Mothers' process of decision making for gastrostomy placement.

Science.gov (United States)

Brotherton, Ailsa; Abbott, Janice

2012-05-01

In this article we present the findings of an exploration of mothers' discourses on decision making for gastrostomy placement for their child. Exploring in-depth interviews of a purposive sample, we analyzed the mothers' discourses of the decision-making process to understand how their experiences of the process influenced their subsequent constructions of decision making. Mothers negotiated decision making by reflecting on their personal experiences of feeding their child, either orally or via a tube, and interwove their background experiences with the communications from members of the health care team until a decision was reached. Decision making was often fraught with difficulty, resulting in anxiety and guilt. Experiences of decision making ranged from perceived coercion to true choice, which encompasses a truly child-centered decision. The resulting impact of the decision-making process on the mothers was profound. We conclude with an exploration of the implications for clinical practice and describe how health care professionals can support mothers to ensure that decision-making processes for gastrostomy placement in children are significantly improved.

Risk perception, safety goals and regulatory decision-making

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hoegberg, Lars

1998-01-01

Deciding on 'how safe is safe enough?' includes value judgements with implications of an ethical and political nature. As regulators are accountable to governments, parliaments and the general public, regulatory decision-making should be characterized by transparency with respect to how such value judgements are reflected in risk assessments and regulatory decisions. Some approaches in this respect are discussed in the paper, based on more than fifteen years of experience in nuclear regulatory decision-making. Issues discussed include: (1) risk profiles and safety goals associated with severe reactor accidents--individual health risks, societal risks and risk of losing investments; (2) risk profile-based licensing of the Swedish SFR final disposal facility for low and intermediate level radioactive waste

Proposal for an integrated risk informed decision making process for German regulators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Einarsson, Svante; Wielenberg, Andreas

2013-01-01

Regulatory decisions for German nuclear power plants (NPP) have traditionally been based on deterministic safety analyses. However, the IRRS-Mission of IAEA in 2008 proposed, among others, in 'Suggestion 25' to develop a national policy 'on the use of risk insights in the regulatory framework and decision making'. Consequently, the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) launched a project with the goal of developing a proposal for a uniform federal approach on using risk information in decision making. To this end, the state of the application of probabilistic and risk informed methods has been investigated both on an international and a national level. On the international level, the concept of Integrated Risk Informed Decision Making (IRIDM) has been defined in INSAG-25. It is a structured process, in which all knowledge and requirements relevant to the issue in question are to be considered in a decision. Such knowledge and other requirements are e.g. deterministic and probabilistic safety analyses, regulatory requirements and other applicable findings (including cost-benefit analyses). The IRIDM concept according to INSAG-25 is the cornerstone of the proposal for a uniform federal German approach for IRIDM in the regulatory framework for nuclear installations in Germany. (orig.)

Fuzzy multi-objective decision making on a low and intermediate level waste repository safety assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lemos, Francisco Luiz de; Deshpande, Ashok; Guimaraes, Lamartine

2002-01-01

Low and intermediate waste disposal facilities safety assessment is comprised of several steps from site selection , construction and operation to post-closure performance assessment. This is a multidisciplinary and complex task , and can not be analyzed by one expert only. This high complexity can lead to ambiguity and vagueness in information and consequently in the decision making process. In order to make the decision process clear and objective, there is the need to provide the decision makers with a clear and comprehensive picture of the whole process and, at the same time, simple and easily understandable by the public. This paper suggests the development of an inference system based on fuzzy decision making methodology. Fuzzy logic tools are specially suited to deal with ambiguous data by using language expressions. This process would be capable of integrating knowledge from various fields of environmental sciences. It has an advantage of keeping record of reasoning for each intermediate decision that lead to the final results which makes it more dependable and defensible as well. (author)

Rule-based decision making model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sirola, Miki

1998-01-01

A rule-based decision making model is designed in G2 environment. A theoretical and methodological frame for the model is composed and motivated. The rule-based decision making model is based on object-oriented modelling, knowledge engineering and decision theory. The idea of safety objective tree is utilized. Advanced rule-based methodologies are applied. A general decision making model 'decision element' is constructed. The strategy planning of the decision element is based on e.g. value theory and utility theory. A hypothetical process model is built to give input data for the decision element. The basic principle of the object model in decision making is division in tasks. Probability models are used in characterizing component availabilities. Bayes' theorem is used to recalculate the probability figures when new information is got. The model includes simple learning features to save the solution path. A decision analytic interpretation is given to the decision making process. (author)

Risk concepts in UK nuclear safety decision-making

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brighton, P.W.M.

2001-01-01

This paper discusses the concept of risk as understood in the UK, with particular reference to the use of probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) in nuclear safety decision making. The way 'risk' appears in UK fundamental legislation means that the concept cannot be limited to evaluation of numerical probabilities of physical harm. Rather the focus is on doing all that is reasonably practicable to reduce risks: this entails applying relevant good practice and then seeking further safety measures until the money, time and trouble required are grossly disproportionate to the residual risk. PSA is used to inform rather than dictate such decisions. This approach is reinforced by considering how far any practical PSA can be said to measure risk. The behaviour of complex socio-technical systems such as nuclear power stations does not meet the conditions under which probability theory can be applied in an absolutely objective statistical sense. Risk is not an intrinsic real property of such systems. Rather PSA is a synthesis of data and subjective expert judgements, dependent on the extent of detailed knowledge of the plant. There are many other aspects of engineering judgement involved in safety decisions which cannot be so captured. (author)

Conceptual Frameworks for the Workplace Change Adoption Process: Elements Integration from Decision Making and Learning Cycle Process.

Science.gov (United States)

Radin Umar, Radin Zaid; Sommerich, Carolyn M; Lavender, Steve A; Sanders, Elizabeth; Evans, Kevin D

2018-05-14

Sound workplace ergonomics and safety-related interventions may be resisted by employees, and this may be detrimental to multiple stakeholders. Understanding fundamental aspects of decision making, behavioral change, and learning cycles may provide insights into pathways influencing employees' acceptance of interventions. This manuscript reviews published literature on thinking processes and other topics relevant to decision making and incorporates the findings into two new conceptual frameworks of the workplace change adoption process. Such frameworks are useful for thinking about adoption in different ways and testing changes to traditional intervention implementation processes. Moving forward, it is recommended that future research focuses on systematic exploration of implementation process activities that integrate principles from the research literature on sensemaking, decision making, and learning processes. Such exploration may provide the groundwork for development of specific implementation strategies that are theoretically grounded and provide a revised understanding of how successful intervention adoption processes work.

Dual processing model of medical decision-making

Science.gov (United States)

2012-01-01

Background Dual processing theory of human cognition postulates that reasoning and decision-making can be described as a function of both an intuitive, experiential, affective system (system I) and/or an analytical, deliberative (system II) processing system. To date no formal descriptive model of medical decision-making based on dual processing theory has been developed. Here we postulate such a model and apply it to a common clinical situation: whether treatment should be administered to the patient who may or may not have a disease. Methods We developed a mathematical model in which we linked a recently proposed descriptive psychological model of cognition with the threshold model of medical decision-making and show how this approach can be used to better understand decision-making at the bedside and explain the widespread variation in treatments observed in clinical practice. Results We show that physician’s beliefs about whether to treat at higher (lower) probability levels compared to the prescriptive therapeutic thresholds obtained via system II processing is moderated by system I and the ratio of benefit and harms as evaluated by both system I and II. Under some conditions, the system I decision maker’s threshold may dramatically drop below the expected utility threshold derived by system II. This can explain the overtreatment often seen in the contemporary practice. The opposite can also occur as in the situations where empirical evidence is considered unreliable, or when cognitive processes of decision-makers are biased through recent experience: the threshold will increase relative to the normative threshold value derived via system II using expected utility threshold. This inclination for the higher diagnostic certainty may, in turn, explain undertreatment that is also documented in the current medical practice. Conclusions We have developed the first dual processing model of medical decision-making that has potential to enrich the current medical

Dual processing model of medical decision-making.

Science.gov (United States)

Djulbegovic, Benjamin; Hozo, Iztok; Beckstead, Jason; Tsalatsanis, Athanasios; Pauker, Stephen G

2012-09-03

Dual processing theory of human cognition postulates that reasoning and decision-making can be described as a function of both an intuitive, experiential, affective system (system I) and/or an analytical, deliberative (system II) processing system. To date no formal descriptive model of medical decision-making based on dual processing theory has been developed. Here we postulate such a model and apply it to a common clinical situation: whether treatment should be administered to the patient who may or may not have a disease. We developed a mathematical model in which we linked a recently proposed descriptive psychological model of cognition with the threshold model of medical decision-making and show how this approach can be used to better understand decision-making at the bedside and explain the widespread variation in treatments observed in clinical practice. We show that physician's beliefs about whether to treat at higher (lower) probability levels compared to the prescriptive therapeutic thresholds obtained via system II processing is moderated by system I and the ratio of benefit and harms as evaluated by both system I and II. Under some conditions, the system I decision maker's threshold may dramatically drop below the expected utility threshold derived by system II. This can explain the overtreatment often seen in the contemporary practice. The opposite can also occur as in the situations where empirical evidence is considered unreliable, or when cognitive processes of decision-makers are biased through recent experience: the threshold will increase relative to the normative threshold value derived via system II using expected utility threshold. This inclination for the higher diagnostic certainty may, in turn, explain undertreatment that is also documented in the current medical practice. We have developed the first dual processing model of medical decision-making that has potential to enrich the current medical decision-making field, which is still to the

The decision-making process between rationality and emotions

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Alvino, Letizia; Franco, Massimo

2017-01-01

The decision-making process has been analyzed in several disciplines (economics, social sciences, humanities, etc.) with the aim of creating models to help decision-makers in strategy formulation. The Organizational theory takes into account both the decision-making process of individuals and groups

Theoretical aspects of cellular decision-making and information-processing.

Science.gov (United States)

Kobayashi, Tetsuya J; Kamimura, Atsushi

2012-01-01

Microscopic biological processes have extraordinary complexity and variety at the sub-cellular, intra-cellular, and multi-cellular levels. In dealing with such complex phenomena, conceptual and theoretical frameworks are crucial, which enable us to understand seemingly different intra- and inter-cellular phenomena from unified viewpoints. Decision-making is one such concept that has attracted much attention recently. Since a number of cellular behavior can be regarded as processes to make specific actions in response to external stimuli, decision-making can cover and has been used to explain a broad range of different cellular phenomena [Balázsi et al. (Cell 144(6):910, 2011), Zeng et al. (Cell 141(4):682, 2010)]. Decision-making is also closely related to cellular information-processing because appropriate decisions cannot be made without exploiting the information that the external stimuli contain. Efficiency of information transduction and processing by intra-cellular networks determines the amount of information obtained, which in turn limits the efficiency of subsequent decision-making. Furthermore, information-processing itself can serve as another concept that is crucial for understanding of other biological processes than decision-making. In this work, we review recent theoretical developments on cellular decision-making and information-processing by focusing on the relation between these two concepts.

Dual processing model of medical decision-making

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Djulbegovic Benjamin

2012-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Dual processing theory of human cognition postulates that reasoning and decision-making can be described as a function of both an intuitive, experiential, affective system (system I and/or an analytical, deliberative (system II processing system. To date no formal descriptive model of medical decision-making based on dual processing theory has been developed. Here we postulate such a model and apply it to a common clinical situation: whether treatment should be administered to the patient who may or may not have a disease. Methods We developed a mathematical model in which we linked a recently proposed descriptive psychological model of cognition with the threshold model of medical decision-making and show how this approach can be used to better understand decision-making at the bedside and explain the widespread variation in treatments observed in clinical practice. Results We show that physician’s beliefs about whether to treat at higher (lower probability levels compared to the prescriptive therapeutic thresholds obtained via system II processing is moderated by system I and the ratio of benefit and harms as evaluated by both system I and II. Under some conditions, the system I decision maker’s threshold may dramatically drop below the expected utility threshold derived by system II. This can explain the overtreatment often seen in the contemporary practice. The opposite can also occur as in the situations where empirical evidence is considered unreliable, or when cognitive processes of decision-makers are biased through recent experience: the threshold will increase relative to the normative threshold value derived via system II using expected utility threshold. This inclination for the higher diagnostic certainty may, in turn, explain undertreatment that is also documented in the current medical practice. Conclusions We have developed the first dual processing model of medical decision-making that has potential to

Impact of support system failure limitations on probabilistic safety assessment and in regulatory decision making

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bickel, J.H.

1990-01-01

When used as a tool for safety decision making, Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA) is as effective as it realistically characterizes the overall frequency and consequences of various types of system and component failures. If significant support system failure events are omitted from consideration, the PSA process omits the characterization of possible unique contributors to core damage risk, possibly underestimates the frequency of core damage, and reduces the future utility of the PSA as a decision making tool for the omitted support system. This paper is based on a review of several recent US PSA studies and the author's participation in several International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) sponsored peer reviews. 21 refs., 2 figs., 1 tab

Problems of making decisions with account of risk and safety factors

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Larichev, O I

1987-01-01

New trends in making decisions on accidents when using large-scale technologies-NPPs, chemical plants etc., are considered. Three main directions in the investigations in this field are distinguished. One of them consists in risk measuring (its perception by people, ways of its quantitative determination). The second direction consists in increasing the safety of large-scale production systems. Here the following questions are considered: risk assessment (the safety standard statement), site selection for new systems, man-machine interaction problems, development of safer technologies, cost benefit safety analysis. The third direction is connected with the problem of accidents and their analysis. This direction includes considering the reasons and process of the accident development, preparing for the possible accidents, monitoring under extreme conditions, accident effect analysis.

Problems of making decisions with account of risk and safety factors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Larichev, O.I.

1987-01-01

New trends in making decisions on accidents when using large-scale technologies-NPPs, chemical plants etc., are considered. Three main directions in the investigations in this field are distinguished. One of them consists in risk measuring (its perception by people, ways of its quantitative determination). The second direction consists in increasing the safety of large-scale production systems. Here the following questions are considered: risk assessment (the safety standard statement), site selection for new systems, man-machine interaction problems, development of safer technologies, cost benefit safety analysis. The third direction is connected with the problem of accidents and their analysis. This direction includes considering the reasons and process of the accident development, preparing for the possible accidents, monitoring under extreme conditions, accident effect analysis

Shared decision-making during surgical consultation for gallstones at a safety-net hospital.

Science.gov (United States)

Mueck, Krislynn M; Leal, Isabel M; Wan, Charlie C; Goldberg, Braden F; Saunders, Tamara E; Millas, Stefanos G; Liang, Mike K; Ko, Tien C; Kao, Lillian S

2018-04-01

Understanding patient perspectives regarding shared decision-making is crucial to providing informed, patient-centered care. Little is known about perceptions of vulnerable patients regarding shared decision-making during surgical consultation. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether a validated tool reflects perceptions of shared decision-making accurately among patients seeking surgical consultation for gallstones at a safety-net hospital. A mixed methods study was conducted in a sample of adult patients with gallstones evaluated at a safety-net surgery clinic between May to July 2016. Semi-structured interviews were conducted after their initial surgical consultation and analyzed for emerging themes. Patients were administered the Shared Decision-Making Questionnaire and Autonomy Preference Scale. Univariate analyses were performed to identify factors associated with shared decision-making and to compare the results of the surveys to those of the interviews. The majority of patients (N = 30) were female (90%), Hispanic (80%), Spanish-speaking (70%), and middle-aged (45.7 ± 16 years). The proportion of patients who perceived shared decision-making was greater in the Shared Decision-Making Questionnaire versus the interviews (83% vs 27%, P decision for operation was not associated with shared decision-making. Contributory factors to this discordance include patient unfamiliarity with shared decision-making, deference to surgeon authority, lack of discussion about different treatments, and confusion between aligned versus shared decisions. Available questionnaires may overestimate shared decision-making in vulnerable patients suggesting the need for alternative or modifications to existing methods. Furthermore, such metrics should be assessed for correlation with patient-reported outcomes, such as satisfaction with decisions and health status. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Dual processing model of medical decision-making

OpenAIRE

Djulbegovic, Benjamin; Hozo, Iztok; Beckstead, Jason; Tsalatsanis, Athanasios; Pauker, Stephen G

2012-01-01

Abstract Background Dual processing theory of human cognition postulates that reasoning and decision-making can be described as a function of both an intuitive, experiential, affective system (system I) and/or an analytical, deliberative (system II) processing system. To date no formal descriptive model of medical decision-making based on dual processing theory has been developed. Here we postulate such a model and apply it to a common clinical situation: whether treatment should be administe...

Motivated information processing and group decision-making : Effects of process accountability on information processing and decision quality

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Scholten, Lotte; van Knippenberg, Daan; Nijstad, Bernard A.; De Dreu, Carsten K. W.

Integrating dual-process models [Chaiken, S., & Trope, Y. (Eds.). (1999). Dual-process theories in social psychology. NewYork: Guilford Press] with work on information sharing and group decision-making [Stasser, G., & Titus, W. (1985). Pooling of unshared information in group decision making: biased

Visual histories of decision processes for collaborative decision making

OpenAIRE

Kozlova, Karine

2016-01-01

Remembering, understanding and reconstructing past activities is a necessary part of any learning, sense-making or decision making process. It is also essential for any collaborative activity. This dissertation investigates the design and evaluation of systems to support decision remembering, understanding and reconstruction by groups and individuals. By conducting three qualitative case studies of small professional groups, we identify the critical activities where history functionality is n...

A decision-making process on cleanup of contaminated surface soil

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yasuda, Hiroshi

1996-01-01

This study presents principles for determining derived intervention levels (DILs) for surface soil cleanup. The people concerned were divided into major three groups: residents, responsible parties, and cleanup workers; it was considered that each group has different interests. The DILs for soil cleanup were determined from the viewpoints of these three groups: safety of residence, advantages of the countermeasures, and safety of cleanup activities, respectively. An example process for determination of the DILs in accordance with the principles was also presented for a site contaminated by 137 Cs. This decision-making frame is expected to be applicable to other contaminants. (author)

Regulator Loss Functions and Hierarchical Modeling for Safety Decision Making.

Science.gov (United States)

Hatfield, Laura A; Baugh, Christine M; Azzone, Vanessa; Normand, Sharon-Lise T

2017-07-01

Regulators must act to protect the public when evidence indicates safety problems with medical devices. This requires complex tradeoffs among risks and benefits, which conventional safety surveillance methods do not incorporate. To combine explicit regulator loss functions with statistical evidence on medical device safety signals to improve decision making. In the Hospital Cost and Utilization Project National Inpatient Sample, we select pediatric inpatient admissions and identify adverse medical device events (AMDEs). We fit hierarchical Bayesian models to the annual hospital-level AMDE rates, accounting for patient and hospital characteristics. These models produce expected AMDE rates (a safety target), against which we compare the observed rates in a test year to compute a safety signal. We specify a set of loss functions that quantify the costs and benefits of each action as a function of the safety signal. We integrate the loss functions over the posterior distribution of the safety signal to obtain the posterior (Bayes) risk; the preferred action has the smallest Bayes risk. Using simulation and an analysis of AMDE data, we compare our minimum-risk decisions to a conventional Z score approach for classifying safety signals. The 2 rules produced different actions for nearly half of hospitals (45%). In the simulation, decisions that minimize Bayes risk outperform Z score-based decisions, even when the loss functions or hierarchical models are misspecified. Our method is sensitive to the choice of loss functions; eliciting quantitative inputs to the loss functions from regulators is challenging. A decision-theoretic approach to acting on safety signals is potentially promising but requires careful specification of loss functions in consultation with subject matter experts.

Dissolving decision making? : Models and their roles in decision-making processes and policy at large

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zeiss, Ragna; van Egmond, S.

2014-01-01

This article studies the roles three science-based models play in Dutch policy and decision making processes. Key is the interaction between model construction and environment. Their political and scientific environments form contexts that shape the roles of models in policy decision making.

The Markov Latent Effects Approach to Safety and Decision -Making; TOPICAL

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

COOPER, J. ARLIN

2001-01-01

The methodology in this report addresses the safety effects of organizational and operational factors that can be measured through ''inspection.'' The investigation grew out of a preponderance of evidence that the safety ''culture'' (attitude of employees and management toward safety) was frequently one of the major root causes behind accidents or safety-relevant failures. The approach is called ''Markov latent effects'' analysis. Since safety also depends on a multitude of factors that are best measured through well known risk analysis methods (e.g., fault trees, event trees, FMECA, physical response modeling, etc.), the Markov latent effects approach supplements conventional safety assessment and decision analysis methods. A top-down mathematical approach is developed for decomposing systems, for determining the most appropriate items to be measured, and for expressing the measurements as imprecise subjective metrics through possibilistic or fuzzy numbers. A mathematical model is developed that facilitates combining (aggregating) inputs into overall metrics and decision aids, also portraying the inherent uncertainty. A major goal of the modeling is to help convey the top-down system perspective. Metrics are weighted according to significance of the attribute with respect to subsystems and are aggregated nonlinearly. Since the accumulating effect responds less and less to additional contribution, it is termed ''soft'' mathematical aggregation, which is analogous to how humans frequently make decisions. Dependence among the contributing factors is accounted for by incorporating subjective metrics on commonality and by reducing the overall contribution of these combinations to the overall aggregation. Decisions derived from the results are facilitated in several ways. First, information is provided on input ''Importance'' and ''Sensitivity'' (both Primary and Secondary) in order to know where to place emphasis on investigation of root causes and in considering new

Dissociating sensory from decision processes in human perceptual decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Mostert, Pim; Kok, Peter; de Lange, Floris P

2015-12-15

A key question within systems neuroscience is how the brain translates physical stimulation into a behavioral response: perceptual decision making. To answer this question, it is important to dissociate the neural activity underlying the encoding of sensory information from the activity underlying the subsequent temporal integration into a decision variable. Here, we adopted a decoding approach to empirically assess this dissociation in human magnetoencephalography recordings. We used a functional localizer to identify the neural signature that reflects sensory-specific processes, and subsequently traced this signature while subjects were engaged in a perceptual decision making task. Our results revealed a temporal dissociation in which sensory processing was limited to an early time window and consistent with occipital areas, whereas decision-related processing became increasingly pronounced over time, and involved parietal and frontal areas. We found that the sensory processing accurately reflected the physical stimulus, irrespective of the eventual decision. Moreover, the sensory representation was stable and maintained over time when it was required for a subsequent decision, but unstable and variable over time when it was task-irrelevant. In contrast, decision-related activity displayed long-lasting sustained components. Together, our approach dissects neuro-anatomically and functionally distinct contributions to perceptual decisions.

Dissociating sensory from decision processes in human perceptual decision making

Science.gov (United States)

Mostert, Pim; Kok, Peter; de Lange, Floris P.

2015-01-01

A key question within systems neuroscience is how the brain translates physical stimulation into a behavioral response: perceptual decision making. To answer this question, it is important to dissociate the neural activity underlying the encoding of sensory information from the activity underlying the subsequent temporal integration into a decision variable. Here, we adopted a decoding approach to empirically assess this dissociation in human magnetoencephalography recordings. We used a functional localizer to identify the neural signature that reflects sensory-specific processes, and subsequently traced this signature while subjects were engaged in a perceptual decision making task. Our results revealed a temporal dissociation in which sensory processing was limited to an early time window and consistent with occipital areas, whereas decision-related processing became increasingly pronounced over time, and involved parietal and frontal areas. We found that the sensory processing accurately reflected the physical stimulus, irrespective of the eventual decision. Moreover, the sensory representation was stable and maintained over time when it was required for a subsequent decision, but unstable and variable over time when it was task-irrelevant. In contrast, decision-related activity displayed long-lasting sustained components. Together, our approach dissects neuro-anatomically and functionally distinct contributions to perceptual decisions. PMID:26666393

Regulatory decision making by decision analyses

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Holmberg, J.; Pulkkinen, U.

1993-11-01

The Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT) has studied with the Finnish Centre for Radiation and Nuclear Safety (STUK) the applicability of decision analytic approach to the treatment of nuclear safety related problems at the regulatory body. The role of probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) in decision making has also been discussed. In the study, inspectors from STUK exercised with a decision analytic approach by reoperationalizing two occurred and solved problems. The research scientist from VTT acted as systems analysts guiding the analysis process. The first case was related to a common cause failure phenomenon in solenoid valves controlling pneumatic valves important to safety of the plant. The problem of the regulatory body was to judge whether to allow continued operation or to require more detailed inspections and in which time chedule the inspections should be done. The latter problem was to evaluate design changes of external electrical grid connections after a fire incident had revealed weakness in the separation of electrical system. In both cases, the decision analysis was carried out several sessions in which decision makers, technical experts as well as experts of decision analysis participated. A multi-attribute value function was applied as a decision model so that attributes had to be defined to quantify the levels of achievements of the objectives. The attributes included both indicators related to the level of operational safety of the plant such as core damage frequency given by PSA, and indicators related to the safety culture, i.e., how well the chosen option fits on the regulatory policy. (24 refs., 6 figs., 9 tabs.)

The decision-making process between rationality and emotions

OpenAIRE

Alvino, Letizia; Franco, Massimo

2017-01-01

The decision-making process has been analyzed in several disciplines (economics, social sciences, humanities, etc.) with the aim of creating models to help decision-makers in strategy formulation. The Organizational theory takes into account both the decision-making process of individuals and groups of a company. Numerous models have been built, which include a wide range of psychological, environmental, hierarchical factors, all of which only account the notion of rationality. In time, such ...

implications of decision making process on agricultural employees

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This study was designed to determine the implications of decision making process on employees' turnover in the Institute of ... Involvement in Decision Making and Agricultural Employees' Turnover in Ibadan, Nigeria 37 ..... Lack of motivation.

Exploring the Reshoring and Insourcing Decision Making Process

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bals, Lydia; Kirchoff, Jon F.; Foerstl, Kai

2016-01-01

The topics of reshoring and insourcing have recently become more widely discussed among operations management and international business scholars and managers, as some firms are revoking their offshoring and outsourcing decisions. This research focuses on and clarifies the decision making process...... organizational readiness in addition to decision drivers, improve coverage of the implementation stage and explore further contingency factors such as technological advancement as well as to focus on decision makers as the unit of analysis.......The topics of reshoring and insourcing have recently become more widely discussed among operations management and international business scholars and managers, as some firms are revoking their offshoring and outsourcing decisions. This research focuses on and clarifies the decision making processes...

Handbook on Decision Making Vol 2 Risk Management in Decision Making

CERN Document Server

Lu, Jie; Zhang, Guangquan

2012-01-01

This book presents innovative theories, methodologies, and techniques in the field of risk management and decision making. It introduces new research developments and provides a comprehensive image of their potential applications to readers interested in the area. The collection includes: computational intelligence applications in decision making, multi-criteria decision making under risk, risk modelling,forecasting and evaluation, public security and community safety, risk management in supply chain and other business decision making, political risk management and disaster response systems. The book is directed to academic and applied researchers working on risk management, decision making, and management information systems.

Markov decision processes: a tool for sequential decision making under uncertainty.

Science.gov (United States)

Alagoz, Oguzhan; Hsu, Heather; Schaefer, Andrew J; Roberts, Mark S

2010-01-01

We provide a tutorial on the construction and evaluation of Markov decision processes (MDPs), which are powerful analytical tools used for sequential decision making under uncertainty that have been widely used in many industrial and manufacturing applications but are underutilized in medical decision making (MDM). We demonstrate the use of an MDP to solve a sequential clinical treatment problem under uncertainty. Markov decision processes generalize standard Markov models in that a decision process is embedded in the model and multiple decisions are made over time. Furthermore, they have significant advantages over standard decision analysis. We compare MDPs to standard Markov-based simulation models by solving the problem of the optimal timing of living-donor liver transplantation using both methods. Both models result in the same optimal transplantation policy and the same total life expectancies for the same patient and living donor. The computation time for solving the MDP model is significantly smaller than that for solving the Markov model. We briefly describe the growing literature of MDPs applied to medical decisions.

Modeling as a Decision-Making Process

Science.gov (United States)

Bleiler-Baxter, Sarah K.; Stephens, D. Christopher; Baxter, Wesley A.; Barlow, Angela T.

2017-01-01

The goal in this article is to support teachers in better understanding what it means to model with mathematics by focusing on three key decision-making processes: Simplification, Relationship Mapping, and Situation Analysis. The authors use the Theme Park task to help teachers develop a vision of how students engage in these three decision-making…

Risk-informed decision making a keystone in advanced safety assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reinhart, M.

2007-01-01

Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA) has provided extremely valuable complementary insight, perspective, comprehension, and balance to deterministic nuclear reactor safety assessment. This integrated approach of risk-informed management and decision making has been called Risk-Informed Decision Making (RIDM). RIDM provides enhanced safety, reliability, operational flexibility, reduced radiological exposure, and improved fiscal economy. Applications of RIDM continuously increase. Current applications are in the areas of design, construction, licensing, operations, and security. Operational phase safety applications include the following: technical specifications improvement, risk-monitors and configuration control, maintenance planning, outage planning and management, in-service inspection, inservice testing, graded quality assurance, reactor oversight and inspection, inspection finding significance determination, operational events assessment, and rulemaking. Interestingly there is a significant spectrum of approaches, methods, programs, controls, data bases, and standards. The quest of many is to assimilate the full compliment of PSA and RIDM information and to achieve a balanced international harmony. The goal is to focus the best of the best, so to speak, for the benefit of all. Accordingly, this presentation will address the principles, benefits, and applications of RIDM. It will also address some of the challenges and areas to improve. Finally it will highlight efforts by the IAEA and others to capture the international thinking, experience, successes, challenges, and lessons in RIDM. (authors)

Nonrational Processes in Ethical Decision Making

Science.gov (United States)

Rogerson, Mark D.; Gottlieb, Michael C.; Handelsman, Mitchell M.; Knapp, Samuel; Younggren, Jeffrey

2011-01-01

Most current ethical decision-making models provide a logical and reasoned process for making ethical judgments, but these models are empirically unproven and rely upon assumptions of rational, conscious, and quasi-legal reasoning. Such models predominate despite the fact that many nonrational factors influence ethical thought and behavior,…

How Critical Thinking Shapes the Military Decision Making Process

Science.gov (United States)

2004-05-17

emotional rebuttal. Conversely, people cannot make good rational decisions without at least a twinge of emotion attached to the decision . 2) Our minds... decision they make . If emotions overwhelm reason, then decisions should be postponed.27 Service biases are one of the strongest emotional bias. Any...FINAL 3. DATES COVERED (From - To) 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE How Critical Thinking Shapes the Military Decision Making Process 5a. CONTRACT

Evolution of quantum-like modeling in decision making processes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Khrennikova, Polina [School of Management, University of Leicester, University Road Leicester LE1 7RH (United Kingdom)

2012-12-18

The application of the mathematical formalism of quantum mechanics to model behavioral patterns in social science and economics is a novel and constantly emerging field. The aim of the so called 'quantum like' models is to model the decision making processes in a macroscopic setting, capturing the particular 'context' in which the decisions are taken. Several subsequent empirical findings proved that when making a decision people tend to violate the axioms of expected utility theory and Savage's Sure Thing principle, thus violating the law of total probability. A quantum probability formula was devised to describe more accurately the decision making processes. A next step in the development of QL-modeling in decision making was the application of Schroedinger equation to describe the evolution of people's mental states. A shortcoming of Schroedinger equation is its inability to capture dynamics of an open system; the brain of the decision maker can be regarded as such, actively interacting with the external environment. Recently the master equation, by which quantum physics describes the process of decoherence as the result of interaction of the mental state with the environmental 'bath', was introduced for modeling the human decision making. The external environment and memory can be referred to as a complex 'context' influencing the final decision outcomes. The master equation can be considered as a pioneering and promising apparatus for modeling the dynamics of decision making in different contexts.

Evolution of quantum-like modeling in decision making processes

Science.gov (United States)

Khrennikova, Polina

2012-12-01

The application of the mathematical formalism of quantum mechanics to model behavioral patterns in social science and economics is a novel and constantly emerging field. The aim of the so called 'quantum like' models is to model the decision making processes in a macroscopic setting, capturing the particular 'context' in which the decisions are taken. Several subsequent empirical findings proved that when making a decision people tend to violate the axioms of expected utility theory and Savage's Sure Thing principle, thus violating the law of total probability. A quantum probability formula was devised to describe more accurately the decision making processes. A next step in the development of QL-modeling in decision making was the application of Schrödinger equation to describe the evolution of people's mental states. A shortcoming of Schrödinger equation is its inability to capture dynamics of an open system; the brain of the decision maker can be regarded as such, actively interacting with the external environment. Recently the master equation, by which quantum physics describes the process of decoherence as the result of interaction of the mental state with the environmental 'bath', was introduced for modeling the human decision making. The external environment and memory can be referred to as a complex 'context' influencing the final decision outcomes. The master equation can be considered as a pioneering and promising apparatus for modeling the dynamics of decision making in different contexts.

Evolution of quantum-like modeling in decision making processes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Khrennikova, Polina

2012-01-01

The application of the mathematical formalism of quantum mechanics to model behavioral patterns in social science and economics is a novel and constantly emerging field. The aim of the so called 'quantum like' models is to model the decision making processes in a macroscopic setting, capturing the particular 'context' in which the decisions are taken. Several subsequent empirical findings proved that when making a decision people tend to violate the axioms of expected utility theory and Savage's Sure Thing principle, thus violating the law of total probability. A quantum probability formula was devised to describe more accurately the decision making processes. A next step in the development of QL-modeling in decision making was the application of Schrödinger equation to describe the evolution of people's mental states. A shortcoming of Schrödinger equation is its inability to capture dynamics of an open system; the brain of the decision maker can be regarded as such, actively interacting with the external environment. Recently the master equation, by which quantum physics describes the process of decoherence as the result of interaction of the mental state with the environmental 'bath', was introduced for modeling the human decision making. The external environment and memory can be referred to as a complex 'context' influencing the final decision outcomes. The master equation can be considered as a pioneering and promising apparatus for modeling the dynamics of decision making in different contexts.

Health economics and outcomes methods in risk-based decision-making for blood safety.

Science.gov (United States)

Custer, Brian; Janssen, Mart P

2015-08-01

Analytical methods appropriate for health economic assessments of transfusion safety interventions have not previously been described in ways that facilitate their use. Within the context of risk-based decision-making (RBDM), health economics can be important for optimizing decisions among competing interventions. The objective of this review is to address key considerations and limitations of current methods as they apply to blood safety. Because a voluntary blood supply is an example of a public good, analyses should be conducted from the societal perspective when possible. Two primary study designs are recommended for most blood safety intervention assessments: budget impact analysis (BIA), which measures the cost to implement an intervention both to the blood operator but also in a broader context, and cost-utility analysis (CUA), which measures the ratio between costs and health gain achieved, in terms of reduced morbidity and mortality, by use of an intervention. These analyses often have important limitations because data that reflect specific aspects, for example, blood recipient population characteristics or complication rates, are not available. Sensitivity analyses play an important role. The impact of various uncertain factors can be studied conjointly in probabilistic sensitivity analyses. The use of BIA and CUA together provides a comprehensive assessment of the costs and benefits from implementing (or not) specific interventions. RBDM is multifaceted and impacts a broad spectrum of stakeholders. Gathering and analyzing health economic evidence as part of the RBDM process enhances the quality, completeness, and transparency of decision-making. © 2015 AABB.

On the Decision-Making Process in Music Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Jorgensen, Estelle R.

1985-01-01

Sketches a conceptual framework for the systematic description of decision-making processes in music education. Refers to existing formulations in education, management, marketing, and economics. Lists decision-making phases in music education, each exhibiting the characteristics of a social system. Offers a historical example of each phase. (AYC)

Health economics and outcomes methods in risk-based decision-making for blood safety

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Custer, Brian; Janssen, Mart P.

2015-01-01

Analytical methods appropriate for health economic assessments of transfusion safety interventions have not previously been described in ways that facilitate their use. Within the context of risk-based decision-making (RBDM), health economics can be important for optimizing decisions among competing

Independence in regulatory decision making - INSAG-17. A report by the International Nuclear Safety Advisory Group

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2003-01-01

This report is intended to promote a common understanding among legislators and other political decision makers, nuclear safety regulators and licensees of the concept of independence in regulatory decision making and how to achieve it. Other interest groups, such as non-governmental organizations and members of the public interested in the regulation of nuclear safety, may also find the report useful. The principles concerning the independence of regulatory organizations are developed and discussed in publications in the IAEA's Safety Standards Series. Although the principles relating to protecting the independence of the regulatory body provide the necessary basis for independence in regulatory decision making, there are additional factors and features that require attention to ensure independence in the decision making by the regulatory body. This INSAG report highlights and discusses a number of such factors and features

Decision Making and Ratio Processing in Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment.

Science.gov (United States)

Pertl, Marie-Theres; Benke, Thomas; Zamarian, Laura; Delazer, Margarete

2015-01-01

Making advantageous decisions is important in everyday life. This study aimed at assessing how patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) make decisions under risk. Additionally, it investigated the relationship between decision making, ratio processing, basic numerical abilities, and executive functions. Patients with MCI (n = 22) were compared with healthy controls (n = 29) on a complex task of decision making under risk (Game of Dice Task-Double, GDT-D), on two tasks evaluating basic decision making under risk, on a task of ratio processing, and on several neuropsychological background tests. Patients performed significantly lower than controls on the GDT-D and on ratio processing, whereas groups performed comparably on basic decision tasks. Specifically, in the GDT-D, patients obtained lower net scores and lower mean expected values, which indicate a less advantageous performance relative to that of controls. Performance on the GDT-D correlated significantly with performance in basic decision tasks, ratio processing, and executive-function measures when the analysis was performed on the whole sample. Patients with MCI make sub-optimal decisions in complex risk situations, whereas they perform at the same level as healthy adults in simple decision situations. Ratio processing and executive functions have an impact on the decision-making performance of both patients and healthy older adults. In order to facilitate advantageous decisions in complex everyday situations, information should be presented in an easily comprehensible form and cognitive training programs for patients with MCI should focus--among other abilities--on executive functions and ratio processing.

Decision Making Model for Business Process Outsourcing of Enterprise Content Management

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhuojun Yi

2013-03-01

Full Text Available Business process outsourcing (BPO in enterprise content management (ECM is a growing though immature market. BPO in ECM focuses on pursuing market transactions in the process of managing all types of content being used in organizations. However, inadequate sourcing decisions lead to organizational sensitive content exposure, high transaction cost, poor outsourcer performance, low flexibility. ECM BPO in general is rarely discussed in the literature and no discussion was found on decision making strategies in ECM BPO. In this paper, we present a decision making model for ECM BPO that will fill the literature gap and guide industry practitioners with ECM sourcing decision making strategies. Our proposed decision making model includes two parts. Part one is an ECM functional framework that shows what functionality component or functionality combinations can be outsourced. Part two is a decision making model that provides guidance for decision making in ECM BPO. We apply the model in two case studies, and the results indicate that the model can guide the sourcing decision making process for organizations, and determine the factors when considering sourcing alternatives in ECM.

Societal rationality; towards an understanding of decision making processes in society

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wahlstroem, Bjoern

2001-01-01

In a search for new ways to structure decision making on complex and controversial issues it is necessary to build an understanding of why traditional decision making processes break down. One reason is connected to the issues themselves. They represent steps into the unknown and decisions should therefore be made with prudence. A second reason is connected to a track record according to which new technologies are seen as generating more problems than solutions. A third and more fundamental reason is connected to the decision making processes themselves and a need to find better ways to approach difficult questions in the society. One way to approach societal decision making processes is to investigate their hidden rationality in an attempt to understand causes of observed difficulties. The paper is based mainly on observations from the nuclear industry, but it builds also on controversies experienced in attempts to agree on global efforts towards sustainable approaches to development. It builds on an earlier paper, which discussed the basis of rationality both on an individual and a societal level. Research in societal decision making has to rely on a true multi-disciplinary approach. It is nor enough to understand the technical and scientific models by which outcomes are predicted, but it is also necessary to understand how people make sense of their environment and how they co-operate. Rationality is in this connection one of the key concepts, with an understanding that people always are rational in their own frame of action. The challenge in this connection is to understand how this subjective rationality is formed. Societal rationality has to do with the allocation of resources. There are decisions in which several conflicting views have to be considered. Spending time and resources ex ante may support a consensus ex post, but unfortunately there is no panacea for approaching difficult decisions. Decisions with an uncertain future have to be more robust than

Societal rationality; towards an understanding of decision making processes in society

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wahlstroem, Bjoern [Technical Research Centre of Finland, Espoo (Finland)

2001-07-01

In a search for new ways to structure decision making on complex and controversial issues it is necessary to build an understanding of why traditional decision making processes break down. One reason is connected to the issues themselves. They represent steps into the unknown and decisions should therefore be made with prudence. A second reason is connected to a track record according to which new technologies are seen as generating more problems than solutions. A third and more fundamental reason is connected to the decision making processes themselves and a need to find better ways to approach difficult questions in the society. One way to approach societal decision making processes is to investigate their hidden rationality in an attempt to understand causes of observed difficulties. The paper is based mainly on observations from the nuclear industry, but it builds also on controversies experienced in attempts to agree on global efforts towards sustainable approaches to development. It builds on an earlier paper, which discussed the basis of rationality both on an individual and a societal level. Research in societal decision making has to rely on a true multi-disciplinary approach. It is nor enough to understand the technical and scientific models by which outcomes are predicted, but it is also necessary to understand how people make sense of their environment and how they co-operate. Rationality is in this connection one of the key concepts, with an understanding that people always are rational in their own frame of action. The challenge in this connection is to understand how this subjective rationality is formed. Societal rationality has to do with the allocation of resources. There are decisions in which several conflicting views have to be considered. Spending time and resources ex ante may support a consensus ex post, but unfortunately there is no panacea for approaching difficult decisions. Decisions with an uncertain future have to be more robust than

Consumer recycling: An ethical decision-making process

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Culiberg, Barbara; Bajde, Domen

2013-01-01

Although recycling is often experienced as a moral dilemma, studies that systematically approach this issue from an ethical perspective are scarce. Moreover, previous studies have explored recycling by mainly using single ethical constructs, such as moral norms, values or obligations, rarely...... approaching it as an ethical decision-making process. Our study takes a more holistic approach and integrates the recycling literature with business ethics theory in order to develop a conceptual model of ethical decision making involved in recycling. The model is based on Jones' issue-contingent model...... using structural equation modelling. The results of our study confirmed the relationships between three key facets of ethical decision making: moral recognition, moral judgment and moral intention. Higher levels of moral recognition were found to lead to more positive moral judgments, which in turn...

Clinical intuition in the nursing process and decision-making-A mixed-studies review.

Science.gov (United States)

Melin-Johansson, Christina; Palmqvist, Rebecca; Rönnberg, Linda

2017-12-01

To review what is characteristic of registered nurses' intuition in clinical settings, in relationships and in the nursing process. Intuition is a controversial concept and nurses believe that there are difficulties in how they should explain their nursing actions or decisions based on intuition. Much of the evidence from the body of research indicates that nurses value their intuition in a variety of clinical settings. More information on how nurses integrate intuition as a core element in daily clinical work would contribute to an improved understanding on how they go about this. Intuition deserves a place in evidence-based activities, where intuition is an important component associated with the nursing process. An integrative review strengthened with a mixed-studies review. Literature searches were conducted in the databases CINAHL, PubMed and PsycINFO, and literature published 1985-2016 were included. The findings in the studies were analysed with content analysis, and the synthesis process entailed a reasoning between the authors. After a quality assessment, 16 studies were included. The analysis and synthesis resulted in three categories. The characteristics of intuition in the nurse's daily clinical activities include application, assertiveness and experiences; in the relationships with patients' intuition include unique connections, mental and bodily responses, and personal qualities; and in the nursing process include support and guidance, component and clues in decision-making, and validating decisions. Intuition is more than simply a "gut feeling," and it is a process based on knowledge and care experience and has a place beside research-based evidence. Nurses integrate both analysis and synthesis of intuition alongside objective data when making decisions. They should rely on their intuition and use this knowledge in clinical practice as a support in decision-making, which increases the quality and safety of patient care. We find that intuition plays a

A Probabilistic Decision-Making Scoring System for Quality and Safety Management in Aloreña de Málaga Table Olive Processing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Miguel Á. Ruiz Bellido

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Table olives are one of the most representatives and consumed fermented vegetables in Mediterranean countries. However, there is an evident lack of standardization of production processes and HACCP systems thus implying the need of establishing decision-making tools allowing their commercialization and shelf-life extension. The present work aims at developing a decision-making scoring system by means of a probabilistic assessment to standardize production process of Aloreña de Málaga table olives based on the identification of potential hazards or deficiencies in hygienic processes for the subsequent implementation of corrective measures. A total of 658 microbiological and physico-chemical data were collected over three consecutive olive campaigns (2014–2016 to measure the variability and relative importance of each elaboration step on total hygienic quality and product safety. Three representative companies were visited to collect samples from food-contact surfaces, olive fruits, brines, air environment, olive dressings, water tanks, and finished/packaged products. A probabilistic assessment was done based on the establishment of Performance Hygiene and Safety Scores (PHSS 0–100% through a standardized system for evaluating product acceptability. The mean value of the global PHSS for the Aloreña de Málaga table olives processing (PHHSFTOT was 64.82% (90th CI: 52.78–76.39% indicating the high variability among facilities in the evaluated processing steps on final product quality and safety. Washing and cracking, and selection and addition of olive dressings were detected as the most deficient ones in relation to PHSSFi values (p < 0.05 (mean = 53.02 and 56.62%, respectively. The relative contribution of each processing step was quantified by different experts (n = 25 from the Aloreña de Málaga table olive sector through a weighted PHSS (PHSSw. The mean value of PHSSw was 65.53% (90th CI: 53.12–77.52%. The final processing steps

Use of PRA in Shuttle Decision Making Process

Science.gov (United States)

Boyer, Roger L.; Hamlin, Teri L.

2010-01-01

How do you use PRA to support an operating program? This presentation will explore how the Shuttle Program Management has used the Shuttle PRA in its decision making process. It will reveal how the PRA has evolved from a tool used to evaluate Shuttle upgrades like Electric Auxiliary Power Unit (EAPU) to a tool that supports Flight Readiness Reviews (FRR) and real-time flight decisions. Specific examples of Shuttle Program decisions that have used the Shuttle PRA as input will be provided including how it was used in the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) manifest decision. It will discuss the importance of providing management with a clear presentation of the analysis, applicable assumptions and limitations, along with estimates of the uncertainty. This presentation will show how the use of PRA by the Shuttle Program has evolved overtime and how it has been used in the decision making process providing specific examples.

Age differences in dual information-processing modes: implications for cancer decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Peters, Ellen; Diefenbach, Michael A; Hess, Thomas M; Västfjäll, Daniel

2008-12-15

Age differences in affective/experiential and deliberative processes have important theoretical implications for cancer decision making, as cancer is often a disease of older adulthood. The authors examined evidence for adult age differences in affective and deliberative information processes, reviewed the sparse evidence about age differences in decision making, and introduced how dual process theories and their findings might be applied to cancer decision making. Age-related declines in the efficiency of deliberative processes predict poorer-quality decisions as we age, particularly when decisions are unfamiliar and the information is numeric. However, age-related adaptive processes, including an increased focus on emotional goals and greater experience, can influence decision making and potentially offset age-related declines. A better understanding of the mechanisms that underlie cancer decision processes in our aging population should ultimately allow us to help older adults to better help themselves.

Housing decision making methods for initiation development phase process

Science.gov (United States)

Zainal, Rozlin; Kasim, Narimah; Sarpin, Norliana; Wee, Seow Ta; Shamsudin, Zarina

2017-10-01

Late delivery and sick housing project problems were attributed to poor decision making. These problems are the string of housing developer that prefers to create their own approach based on their experiences and expertise with the simplest approach by just applying the obtainable standards and rules in decision making. This paper seeks to identify the decision making methods for housing development at the initiation phase in Malaysia. The research involved Delphi method by using questionnaire survey which involved 50 numbers of developers as samples for the primary stage of collect data. However, only 34 developers contributed to the second stage of the information gathering process. At the last stage, only 12 developers were left for the final data collection process. Finding affirms that Malaysian developers prefer to make their investment decisions based on simple interpolation of historical data and using simple statistical or mathematical techniques in producing the required reports. It was suggested that they seemed to skip several important decision-making functions at the primary development stage. These shortcomings were mainly due to time and financial constraints and the lack of statistical or mathematical expertise among the professional and management groups in the developer organisations.

Serotonin and decision making processes.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Homberg, J.R.

2012-01-01

Serotonin (5-HT) is an important player in decision making. Serotonergic antidepressant, anxiolytic and antipsychotic drugs are extensively used in the treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders characterized by impaired decision making, and exert both beneficial and harmful effects in patients.

Safety assessment of dangerous goods transport enterprise based on the relative entropy aggregation in group decision making model.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Jun; Li, Chengbing; Huo, Yueying

2014-01-01

Safety of dangerous goods transport is directly related to the operation safety of dangerous goods transport enterprise. Aiming at the problem of the high accident rate and large harm in dangerous goods logistics transportation, this paper took the group decision making problem based on integration and coordination thought into a multiagent multiobjective group decision making problem; a secondary decision model was established and applied to the safety assessment of dangerous goods transport enterprise. First of all, we used dynamic multivalue background and entropy theory building the first level multiobjective decision model. Secondly, experts were to empower according to the principle of clustering analysis, and combining with the relative entropy theory to establish a secondary rally optimization model based on relative entropy in group decision making, and discuss the solution of the model. Then, after investigation and analysis, we establish the dangerous goods transport enterprise safety evaluation index system. Finally, case analysis to five dangerous goods transport enterprises in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region validates the feasibility and effectiveness of this model for dangerous goods transport enterprise recognition, which provides vital decision making basis for recognizing the dangerous goods transport enterprises.

Business making decisions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Enrique Benjamín Franklin Fincowsky

2011-06-01

Full Text Available People and organizations make better or get wrong as consequence of making decisions. Sometimes making decisions is just a trial and error process. Some others, decisions are good and the results profitable with a few of mistakes, most of the time because it’s considered the experience and the control of a specific field or the good intention of who makes them. Actually, all kinds of decisions bring learning. What is important is the intention, the attitude and the values considered in this process. People from different scenes face many facts and circumstances—almost always out of control—that affect the making decisions process. There is not a unique way to make decisions for all companies in many settings. The person who makes a decision should identify the problem, to solve it later using alternatives and solutions. Even though, follow all the steps it’s not easy as it seems. Looking back the conditions related to the decisions, we can mention the followings: uncertainty, risk and certainty. When people identify circumstances and facts, as well as its effects in a possible situation, they will make decisions with certainty. As long as the information decreases and it becomes ambiguous the risk becomes an important factor in the making decisions process because they are connected to probable objectives (clear or subjective (opinion judgment or intuition. To finish, uncertainty, involves people that make a decision with no or little information about circumstances or criteria with basis

Theoretical Aspects of Erroneous Actions During the Process of Decision Making by Air Traffic Control

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andersone Silva

2017-08-01

Full Text Available The Theoretical Aspects of Erroneous Actions During the Process of Decision Making by Air Traffic Control evaluates the factors affecting the operational decision-making of a human air traffic controller, interacting in a dynamic environment with the flight crew, surrounding aircraft traffic and environmental conditions of the airspace. This article reviews the challenges of air traffic control in different conditions, ranging from normal and complex to emergency and catastrophic. Workload factors and operating conditions make an impact on air traffic controllers’ decision-making. The proposed model compares various operating conditions within an assumed air traffic control environment subsequently comparing them against a theoretically “perfect” air traffic control system. A mathematical model of flight safety assessment has been proposed for the quantitative assessment of various hazards arising during the process of Air Traffic Control. The model assumes events of various severity and probability ranging from high frequency and low severity up to less likely and catastrophic ones. Certain limitations of the model have been recognised and further improvements for effective hazard evaluation have been suggested.

Surgical Consultation as Social Process: Implications for Shared Decision Making.

Science.gov (United States)

Clapp, Justin T; Arriaga, Alexander F; Murthy, Sushila; Raper, Steven E; Schwartz, J Sanford; Barg, Frances K; Fleisher, Lee A

2017-12-12

This qualitative study examines surgical consultation as a social process and assesses its alignment with assumptions of the shared decision-making (SDM) model. SDM stresses the importance of patient preferences and rigorous discussion of therapeutic risks/benefits based on these preferences. However, empirical studies have highlighted discrepancies between SDM and realities of surgical decision making. Qualitative research can inform understanding of the decision-making process and allow for granular assessment of the nature and causes of these discrepancies. We observed consultations between 3 general surgeons and 45 patients considering undergoing 1 of 2 preference-sensitive elective operations: (1) hernia repair, or (2) cholecystectomy. These patients and surgeons also participated in semi-structured interviews. By the time of the consultation, patients and surgeons were predisposed toward certain decisions by preceding events occurring elsewhere. During the visit, surgeons had differential ability to arbitrate surgical intervention and construct the severity of patients' conditions. These upstream dynamics frequently displaced the centrality of the risk/benefit-based consent discussion. The influence of events preceding consultation suggests that decision-making models should account for broader spatiotemporal spans. Given surgeons' authority to define patients' conditions and control service provision, SDM may be premised on an overestimation of patients' power to alter the course of decision making once in a specialist's office. Considering the subordinate role of the risk/benefit discussion in many surgical decisions, it will be important to study if and how the social process of decision making is altered by SDM-oriented decision aids that foreground this discussion.

Age Differences in Dual Information-Processing Modes: Implications for Cancer Decision Making

Science.gov (United States)

Peters, Ellen; Diefenbach, Michael A.; Hess, Thomas M.; Västfjäll, Daniel

2008-01-01

Age differences in affective/experiential and deliberative processes have important theoretical implications for cancer decision making as cancer is often a disease of older adulthood. We examine evidence for adult age differences in affective and deliberative information processes, review the sparse evidence about age differences in decision making and introduce how dual process theories and their findings might be applied to cancer decision making. Age-related declines in the efficiency of deliberative processes predict poorer-quality decisions as we age, particularly when decisions are unfamiliar and the information is numeric. However, age-related adaptive processes, including an increased focus on emotional goals and greater experience, can influence decision making and potentially offset age-related declines. A better understanding of the mechanisms that underlie cancer decision processes in our aging population should ultimately allow us to help older adults to better help themselves. PMID:19058148

Decision Making

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pier Luigi Baldi

2006-06-01

Full Text Available This article points out some conditions which significantly exert an influence upon decision and compares decision making and problem solving as interconnected processes. Some strategies of decision making are also examined.

Analysis of the decision-making process of nurse managers: a collective reflection.

Science.gov (United States)

Eduardo, Elizabete Araujo; Peres, Aida Maris; de Almeida, Maria de Lourdes; Roglio, Karina de Dea; Bernardino, Elizabeth

2015-01-01

to analyze the decision-making model adopted by nurses from the perspective of some decision-making process theories. qualitative approach, based on action research. Semi-structured questionnaires and seminars were conducted from April to June 2012 in order to understand the nature of decisions and the decision-making process of nine nurses in position of managers at a public hospital in Southern Brazil. Data were subjected to content analysis. data were classified in two categories: the current situation of decision-making, which showed a lack of systematization; the construction and collective decision-making, which emphasizes the need to develop a decision-making model. the decision-making model used by nurses is limited because it does not consider two important factors: the limits of human rationality, and the external and internal organizational environments that influence and determine right decisions.

Multiple attribute decision making model and application to food safety risk evaluation.

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Lihua; Chen, Hong; Yan, Huizhe; Yang, Lifeng; Wu, Lifeng

2017-01-01

Decision making for supermarket food purchase decisions are characterized by network relationships. This paper analyzed factors that influence supermarket food selection and proposes a supplier evaluation index system based on the whole process of food production. The author established the intuitive interval value fuzzy set evaluation model based on characteristics of the network relationship among decision makers, and validated for a multiple attribute decision making case study. Thus, the proposed model provides a reliable, accurate method for multiple attribute decision making.

Theoretical Background for the Decision-Making Process Modelling under Controlled Intervention Conditions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bakanauskienė Irena

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This article is intended to theoretically justify the decision-making process model for the cases, when active participation of investing entities in controlling the activities of an organisation and their results is noticeable. Based on scientific literature analysis, a concept of controlled conditions is formulated, and using a rational approach to the decision-making process, a model of the 11-steps decision-making process under controlled intervention is presented. Also, there have been unified conditions, describing the case of controlled interventions thus providing preconditions to ensure the adequacy of the proposed decision-making process model.

Sexual picture processing interferes with decision-making under ambiguity.

Science.gov (United States)

Laier, Christian; Pawlikowski, Mirko; Brand, Matthias

2014-04-01

Many people watch sexually arousing material on the Internet in order to receive sexual arousal and gratification. When browsing for sexual stimuli, individuals have to make several decisions, all possibly leading to positive or negative consequences. Decision-making research has shown that decisions under ambiguity are influenced by consequences received following earlier decisions. Sexual arousal might interfere with the decision-making process and should therefore lead to disadvantageous decision-making in the long run. In the current study, 82 heterosexual, male participants watched sexual pictures, rated them with respect to sexual arousal, and were asked to indicate their current level of sexual arousal before and following the sexual picture presentation. Afterwards, subjects performed one of two modified versions of the Iowa Gambling Task in which sexual pictures were displayed on the advantageous and neutral pictures on the disadvantageous card decks or vice versa (n = 41/n = 41). Results demonstrated an increase of sexual arousal following the sexual picture presentation. Decision-making performance was worse when sexual pictures were associated with disadvantageous card decks compared to performance when the sexual pictures were linked to the advantageous decks. Subjective sexual arousal moderated the relationship between task condition and decision-making performance. This study emphasized that sexual arousal interfered with decision-making, which may explain why some individuals experience negative consequences in the context of cybersex use.

Decision making in urological surgery.

Science.gov (United States)

Abboudi, Hamid; Ahmed, Kamran; Normahani, Pasha; Abboudi, May; Kirby, Roger; Challacombe, Ben; Khan, Mohammed Shamim; Dasgupta, Prokar

2012-06-01

Non-technical skills are important behavioural aspects that a urologist must be fully competent at to minimise harm to patients. The majority of surgical errors are now known to be due to errors in judgment and decision making as opposed to the technical aspects of the craft. The authors reviewed the published literature regarding decision-making theory and in practice related to urology as well as the current tools available to assess decision-making skills. Limitations include limited number of studies, and the available studies are of low quality. Decision making is the psychological process of choosing between alternative courses of action. In the surgical environment, this can often be a complex balance of benefit and risk within a variable time frame and dynamic setting. In recent years, the emphasis of new surgical curriculums has shifted towards non-technical surgical skills; however, the assessment tools in place are far from objective, reliable and valid. Surgical simulators and video-assisted questionnaires are useful methods for appraisal of trainees. Well-designed, robust and validated tools need to be implemented in training and assessment of decision-making skills in urology. Patient safety can only be ensured when safe and effective decisions are made.

The decision-making process during accidents or incidents in the operational nuclear area

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Martins, Maria da Penha Sanches; Vanni, Silvia Regina Vanni; Andrade, Delvonei Alves de

2009-01-01

This study reflects on one of the human behavior mediating factors that face nuclear facility operators during their decision-making process. It includes some mental processes used to determine the best course of action, based on intuitive and creative decisions, within a specific set of rational conditions which depend much more on perception about threats than on theoretical knowledge. A fast and efficient decision, in an unstable and ongoing changing scenario/environment, is extremely complex. The decision-making process goes beyond the purely rational level and many times is influenced by intuition. The importance of the decision-making process leads the study to also review human factors. The methodology used in this paper is based on cognitive aspects which are focused essentially on studies such as: decision process models, decision types and human rationality limits (time) versus individual decisions. Lastly, it makes assessments on how reason, emotion and being under stress relate to the decision-making process (author)

The decision-making process during accidents or incidents in the operational nuclear area

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Martins, Maria da Penha Sanches; Vanni, Silvia Regina Vanni [Centro Tecnologico da Marinha em Sao Paulo (CTMSP), SP (Brazil); Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares (IPEN), Sao Paulo, SP (Brazil)], email: penhamartins@yahoo.com.br, e-mail: sjcvanni@yahoo.com.br; Andrade, Delvonei Alves de [Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares (IPEN), Sao Paulo, SP (Brazil)], e-mail: delvonei@ipen.br

2009-07-01

This study reflects on one of the human behavior mediating factors that face nuclear facility operators during their decision-making process. It includes some mental processes used to determine the best course of action, based on intuitive and creative decisions, within a specific set of rational conditions which depend much more on perception about threats than on theoretical knowledge. A fast and efficient decision, in an unstable and ongoing changing scenario/environment, is extremely complex. The decision-making process goes beyond the purely rational level and many times is influenced by intuition. The importance of the decision-making process leads the study to also review human factors. The methodology used in this paper is based on cognitive aspects which are focused essentially on studies such as: decision process models, decision types and human rationality limits (time) versus individual decisions. Lastly, it makes assessments on how reason, emotion and being under stress relate to the decision-making process (author)

[Clinical decision making and critical thinking in the nursing diagnostic process].

Science.gov (United States)

Müller-Staub, Maria

2006-10-01

The daily routine requires complex thinking processes of nurses, but clinical decision making and critical thinking are underestimated in nursing. A great demand for educational measures in clinical judgement related with the diagnostic process was found in nurses. The German literature hardly describes nursing diagnoses as clinical judgements about human reactions on health problems / life processes. Critical thinking is described as an intellectual, disciplined process of active conceptualisation, application and synthesis of information. It is gained through observation, experience, reflection and communication and leads thinking and action. Critical thinking influences the aspects of clinical decision making a) diagnostic judgement, b) therapeutic reasoning and c) ethical decision making. Human reactions are complex processes and in their course, human behavior is interpreted in the focus of health. Therefore, more attention should be given to the nursing diagnostic process. This article presents the theoretical framework of the paper "Clinical decision making: Fostering critical thinking in the nursing diagnostic process through case studies".

Integrated Risk-Informed Decision-Making for an ALMR PRISM

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Muhlheim, Michael David [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Belles, Randy [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Denning, Richard S. [Self Employed

2016-05-01

Decision-making is the process of identifying decision alternatives, assessing those alternatives based on predefined metrics, selecting an alternative (i.e., making a decision), and then implementing that alternative. The generation of decisions requires a structured, coherent process, or a decision-making process. The overall objective for this work is that the generalized framework is adopted into an autonomous decision-making framework and tailored to specific requirements for various applications. In this context, automation is the use of computing resources to make decisions and implement a structured decision-making process with limited or no human intervention. The overriding goal of automation is to replace or supplement human decision makers with reconfigurable decision-making modules that can perform a given set of tasks rationally, consistently, and reliably. Risk-informed decision-making requires a probabilistic assessment of the likelihood of success given the status of the plant/systems and component health, and a deterministic assessment between plant operating parameters and reactor protection parameters to prevent unnecessary trips and challenges to plant safety systems. The probabilistic portion of the decision-making engine of the supervisory control system is based on the control actions associated with an ALMR PRISM. Newly incorporated into the probabilistic models are the prognostic/diagnostic models developed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. These allow decisions to incorporate the health of components into the decision–making process. Once the control options are identified and ranked based on the likelihood of success, the supervisory control system transmits the options to the deterministic portion of the platform. The deterministic portion of the decision-making engine uses thermal-hydraulic modeling and components for an advanced liquid-metal reactor Power Reactor Inherently Safe Module. The deterministic multi

Multiple attribute decision making model and application to food safety risk evaluation.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lihua Ma

Full Text Available Decision making for supermarket food purchase decisions are characterized by network relationships. This paper analyzed factors that influence supermarket food selection and proposes a supplier evaluation index system based on the whole process of food production. The author established the intuitive interval value fuzzy set evaluation model based on characteristics of the network relationship among decision makers, and validated for a multiple attribute decision making case study. Thus, the proposed model provides a reliable, accurate method for multiple attribute decision making.

Decision-making process of prenatal screening described by pregnant women and their partners.

Science.gov (United States)

Wätterbjörk, Inger; Blomberg, Karin; Nilsson, Kerstin; Sahlberg-Blom, Eva

2015-10-01

Pregnant women are often faced with having to decide about prenatal screening for Down's syndrome. However, the decision to participate in or refrain from prenatal screening can be seen as an important decision not only for the pregnant woman but also for both the partners. The aim of this study was to explore the couples' processes of decision making about prenatal screening. A total of 37 semi-structured interviews conducted at two time points were analysed using the interpretive description. The study was carried out in Maternal health-care centres, Örebro County Council, Sweden. Fifteen couples of different ages and with different experiences of pregnancy and childbirth were interviewed. Three different patterns of decision making were identified. For the couples in 'The open and communicative decision-making process', the process was straightforward and rational, and the couples discussed the decision with each other. 'The closed and personal decision-making process' showed an immediate and non-communicative decision making where the couples decided each for themselves. The couples showing 'The searching and communicative decision-making process' followed an arduous road in deciding whether to participate or not in prenatal screening and how to cope with the result. The decision-making process was for some couples a fairly straightforward decision, while for others it was a more complex process that required a great deal of consideration. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The features of decision making process in international companies. Are companies in control of their own decisions?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anastasia JELEVA

2017-06-01

Full Text Available The following article deals with the main causes of irrational decision making process in companies and with respective solutions to make decisions more rational and effective. With the aid of relevant literature, the ways managers, groups and leaders make decisions in reality will be clarified. Besides, the solutions to rational decisions examined through the perspective of managers, leaders and groups. Thus, the background of this article is the question “Are companies in control of their own decisions?” In addition, this paper includes relevant information about the features of decision making process, basic types of decisions, describes the most essential approach in management regarding to decision making and presents the top worst and best business decisions of all time.

Risk-Informed Decision Making: Application to Technology Development Alternative Selection

Science.gov (United States)

Dezfuli, Homayoon; Maggio, Gaspare; Everett, Christopher

2010-01-01

NASA NPR 8000.4A, Agency Risk Management Procedural Requirements, defines risk management in terms of two complementary processes: Risk-informed Decision Making (RIDM) and Continuous Risk Management (CRM). The RIDM process is used to inform decision making by emphasizing proper use of risk analysis to make decisions that impact all mission execution domains (e.g., safety, technical, cost, and schedule) for program/projects and mission support organizations. The RIDM process supports the selection of an alternative prior to program commitment. The CRM process is used to manage risk associated with the implementation of the selected alternative. The two processes work together to foster proactive risk management at NASA. The Office of Safety and Mission Assurance at NASA Headquarters has developed a technical handbook to provide guidance for implementing the RIDM process in the context of NASA risk management and systems engineering. This paper summarizes the key concepts and procedures of the RIDM process as presented in the handbook, and also illustrates how the RIDM process can be applied to the selection of technology investments as NASA's new technology development programs are initiated.

HOSPITAL SITE SELECTION USING TWO-STAGE FUZZY MULTI-CRITERIA DECISION MAKING PROCESS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ali Soltani

2011-06-01

Full Text Available Site selection for sitting of urban activities/facilities is one of the crucial policy-related decisions taken by urban planners and policy makers. The process of site selection is inherently complicated. A careless site imposes exorbitant costs on city budget and damages the environment inevitably. Nowadays, multi-attributes decision making approaches are suggested to use to improve precision of decision making and reduce surplus side effects. Two well-known techniques, analytical hierarchal process and analytical network process are among multi-criteria decision making systems which can easily be consistent with both quantitative and qualitative criteria. These are also developed to be fuzzy analytical hierarchal process and fuzzy analytical network process systems which are capable of accommodating inherent uncertainty and vagueness in multi-criteria decision-making. This paper reports the process and results of a hospital site selection within the Region 5 of Shiraz metropolitan area, Iran using integrated fuzzy analytical network process systems with Geographic Information System (GIS. The weights of the alternatives were calculated using fuzzy analytical network process. Then a sensitivity analysis was conducted to measure the elasticity of a decision in regards to different criteria. This study contributes to planning practice by suggesting a more comprehensive decision making tool for site selection.

HOSPITAL SITE SELECTION USING TWO-STAGE FUZZY MULTI-CRITERIA DECISION MAKING PROCESS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ali Soltani

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Site selection for sitting of urban activities/facilities is one of the crucial policy-related decisions taken by urban planners and policy makers. The process of site selection is inherently complicated. A careless site imposes exorbitant costs on city budget and damages the environment inevitably. Nowadays, multi-attributes decision making approaches are suggested to use to improve precision of decision making and reduce surplus side effects. Two well-known techniques, analytical hierarchal process and analytical network process are among multi-criteria decision making systems which can easily be consistent with both quantitative and qualitative criteria. These are also developed to be fuzzy analytical hierarchal process and fuzzy analytical network process systems which are capable of accommodating inherent uncertainty and vagueness in multi-criteria decision-making. This paper reports the process and results of a hospital site selection within the Region 5 of Shiraz metropolitan area, Iran using integrated fuzzy analytical network process systems with Geographic Information System (GIS. The weights of the alternatives were calculated using fuzzy analytical network process. Then a sensitivity analysis was conducted to measure the elasticity of a decision in regards to different criteria. This study contributes to planning practice by suggesting a more comprehensive decision making tool for site selection.

Introduction of new vaccines: decision-making process in Bangladesh.

Science.gov (United States)

Uddin, Jasim; Sarma, Haribondhu; Bari, Tajul I; Koehlmoos, Tracey P

2013-06-01

The understanding of the decision-making process in the introduction of new vaccines helps establish why vaccines are adopted or not. It also contributes to building a sustainable demand for vaccines in a country. The purpose of the study was to map and analyze the formal decision-making process in relation to the introduction of new vaccines within the context of health policy and health systems and identify the ways of making decisions to introduce new vaccines in Bangladesh. During February-April 2011, a qualitative assessment was made at the national level to evaluate the decision-making process around the adoption of new vaccines in Bangladesh. The study population included: policy-level people, programme heads or associates, and key decision-makers of the Government, private sector, non-governmental organizations, and international agencies at the national level. In total, 13 key informants were purposively selected. Data were collected by interviewing key informants and reviewing documents. Data were analyzed thematically. The findings revealed that the actors from different sectors at the policy level were involved in the decision-making process in the introduction of new vaccines. They included policy-makers from the ministries of health and family welfare, finance, and local government and rural development; academicians; researchers; representatives from professional associations; development partners; and members of different committees on EPI. They contributed to the introduction of new vaccines in their own capacity. The burden of disease, research findings on vaccine-preventable diseases, political issues relating to outbreaks of certain diseases, initiatives of international and local stakeholders, pressure of development partners, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) support, and financial matters were the key factors in the introduction of new vaccines in Bangladesh. The slow introduction and uptake of new vaccines is a concern

Nurse manager cognitive decision-making amidst stress and work complexity.

Science.gov (United States)

Shirey, Maria R; Ebright, Patricia R; McDaniel, Anna M

2013-01-01

  The present study provides insight into nurse manager cognitive decision-making amidst stress and work complexity.   Little is known about nurse manager decision-making amidst stress and work complexity. Because nurse manager decisions have the potential to impact patient care quality and safety, understanding their decision-making processes is useful for designing supportive interventions.   This qualitative descriptive study interviewed 21 nurse managers from three hospitals to answer the research question: What decision-making processes do nurse managers utilize to address stressful situations in their nurse manager role? Face-to-face interviews incorporating components of the Critical Decision Method illuminated expert-novice practice differences. Content analysis identified one major theme and three sub-themes.   The present study produced a cognitive model that guides nurse manager decision-making related to stressful situations. Experience in the role, organizational context and situation factors influenced nurse manager cognitive decision-making processes.   Study findings suggest that chronic exposure to stress and work complexity negatively affects nurse manager health and their decision-making processes potentially threatening individual, patient and organizational outcomes.   Cognitive decision-making varies based on nurse manager experience and these differences have coaching and mentoring implications. This present study contributes a current understanding of nurse manager decision-making amidst stress and work complexity. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Selection of tolerable risk criteria for dam safety decision making

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nielsen, N.M.; Hartford, D.N.D.; MacDonald, T.F.

1994-01-01

Risk assessment has received increasing attention in recent years as a means of aiding decision making on dams by providing systematic and rational methods for dealing with risk and uncertainty. Risk assessment is controversial and decisions affecting risk to life are the most controversial. Tolerable criteria, based on the risks that society is prepared to accept in order to avoid excessive costs, set bounds within which risk-based decisions may be made. The components of risk associated with dam safety are addressed on an individual basis and criteria established for each component, thereby permitting flexibility in the balance between component risk and avoiding the problems of placing a monetary value on life. The guiding principle of individual risk is that dams do not impose intolerable risks on any individual. A risk to life of 1 in 10 4 per annum is generally considered the maximum tolerable risk. When considering societal risk, the safety of a dam should be proportional to the consequences of its failure. Risks of financial losses beyond the corporation's ability to finance should be so low as to be considered negligible. 17 refs., 3 figs

Evacuation decision-making: process and uncertainty

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mileti, D.; Sorensen, J.; Bogard, W.

1985-09-01

The purpose was to describe the processes of evacuation decision-making, identify and document uncertainties in that process and discuss implications for federal assumption of liability for precautionary evacuations at nuclear facilities under the Price-Anderson Act. Four major categories of uncertainty are identified concerning the interpretation of hazard, communication problems, perceived impacts of evacuation decisions and exogenous influences. Over 40 historical accounts are reviewed and cases of these uncertainties are documented. The major findings are that all levels of government, including federal agencies experience uncertainties in some evacuation situations. Second, private sector organizations are subject to uncertainties at a variety of decision points. Third, uncertainties documented in the historical record have provided the grounds for liability although few legal actions have ensued. Finally it is concluded that if liability for evacuations is assumed by the federal government, the concept of a ''precautionary'' evacuation is not useful in establishing criteria for that assumption. 55 refs., 1 fig., 4 tabs.

Evacuation decision-making: process and uncertainty

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mileti, D.; Sorensen, J.; Bogard, W.

1985-09-01

The purpose was to describe the processes of evacuation decision-making, identify and document uncertainties in that process and discuss implications for federal assumption of liability for precautionary evacuations at nuclear facilities under the Price-Anderson Act. Four major categories of uncertainty are identified concerning the interpretation of hazard, communication problems, perceived impacts of evacuation decisions and exogenous influences. Over 40 historical accounts are reviewed and cases of these uncertainties are documented. The major findings are that all levels of government, including federal agencies experience uncertainties in some evacuation situations. Second, private sector organizations are subject to uncertainties at a variety of decision points. Third, uncertainties documented in the historical record have provided the grounds for liability although few legal actions have ensued. Finally it is concluded that if liability for evacuations is assumed by the federal government, the concept of a ''precautionary'' evacuation is not useful in establishing criteria for that assumption. 55 refs., 1 fig., 4 tabs

Risk-Based Decision Making for Deterioration Processes Using POMDP

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Jannie Sønderkær; Sørensen, John Dalsgaard

2015-01-01

This paper proposes a method for risk-based decision making for maintenance of deteriorating components, based on the partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP). Unlike most methods, the decision polices do not need to be stationary and can vary according to seasons and near the end...

Characteristics of the postcounseling reproductive decision-making process: an explorative study.

Science.gov (United States)

Frets, P G; Verhage, F; Niermeijer, M F

1991-09-01

An in-depth, recorded interview of 30 couples 2-3 years after genetic counseling explored the characteristics of the postcounseling decision-making process, including the role of guilt feelings towards the proband. The study concerned couples with an affected child, sib, or spouse. Results were evaluated by 2 to 4 judges. In contrast to other studies, a generally unstructured decision-making process was found whereby guilt feelings played a significant role in more than half the couples. Guilt feelings were more predominant in couples with an affected sib than in those with an affected spouse. Lack of structure did not seem to complicate the decision-making process. Therefore, authors do not advocate promotion of structuring the decision-making process. Genetic counselors might focus on understanding counselees' feelings concerning the reproductive decision. Acceptance of apparently irrational considerations is particularly important, because these feelings indicate the influence of unconscious motives. Another important aspect of supporting counselees is to understand the role played by guilt feelings toward parents or an affected sib.

Theoretical Background for the Decision-Making Process Modelling under Controlled Intervention Conditions

OpenAIRE

Bakanauskienė Irena; Baronienė Laura

2017-01-01

This article is intended to theoretically justify the decision-making process model for the cases, when active participation of investing entities in controlling the activities of an organisation and their results is noticeable. Based on scientific literature analysis, a concept of controlled conditions is formulated, and using a rational approach to the decision-making process, a model of the 11-steps decision-making process under controlled intervention is presented. Also, there have been u...

Career Decision-Making Processes of Young Adults With First-Episode Psychosis.

Science.gov (United States)

Boychuk, Christa; Lysaght, Rosemary; Stuart, Heather

2018-05-01

The first episode of psychosis often emerges during young adulthood, when individuals are pursuing important educational and career goals that can become derailed because of the development of major impairments. Past research has neglected the developmental nature of employment and education decisions that young adults with first-episode psychosis make within the context of their lives. The purpose of this grounded theory study was to advance a model of the career decision-making processes of young adults with first-episode psychosis, and the influences that affect their career decision-making. The career decision-making of young adults with first-episode psychosis emerged as a multistaged, iterative process that unfolded over three phases of illness, and was affected by several internal and environmental influences. These findings suggest the phase of illness and career decision-making stage should be considered in future vocational programming for young adults with first-episode psychosis.

Site selection process for new nuclear power plants - a method to support decision making and improving public participation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Martins, Vivian B.; Cunha, Tatiana S. da; Simoes Filho, Francisco Fernando Lamego; Lapa, Celso Marcelo F.

2011-01-01

The Brazilian Energy Plan (PNE 2030) that guides the Government in formulating its strategy for expanding energy supply by 2030 highlights the need for the Brazilian electrical system have more than 4,000 MW from nuclear sources by 2025. Therefore, the Government presented a proposal to build four more nuclear power plants with capacity of 1,000 MW each, at first, two in the Northeast and two in Southeast. The selection and site assessment are key parts of the installation process of a nuclear plant and may significantly affect the cost, public acceptance and safety of the facility during its entire life cycle. The result of this initial stage, it can even seriously affect program success. Wrong decisions in the process of site selection may also require a financial commitment to higher planned in a later phase of the project, besides causing extensive and expensive downtime. Select the location where these units will be built is not a trivial process, because involves the consideration of multiple criteria and judgments in addition to obtaining, organizing and managing a diverse range of data, both qualitative and quantitative, to assist in decision making and ensure that the site selected is the most appropriate in relation to safety and technical, economic and environmental feasibility. This paper presents an overview of the site selection process and its stages, the criteria involved in each step, the tools to support decision making that can be used and the difficulties in applying a formal process of decision making. Also discussed are ways to make the process more transparent and democratic, increasing public involvement as a way to improve acceptance and reduce opposition from various sectors of society, trying to minimize the expense and time involved in the implementation of undertakings of this kind. (author)

Health technology funding decision-making processes around the world: the same, yet different.

Science.gov (United States)

Stafinski, Tania; Menon, Devidas; Philippon, Donald J; McCabe, Christopher

2011-06-01

All healthcare systems routinely make resource allocation decisions that trade off potential health gains to different patient populations. However, when such trade-offs relate to the introduction of new, promising health technologies, perceived 'winners' and 'losers' are more apparent. In recent years, public scrutiny over such decisions has intensified, raising the need to better understand how they are currently made and how they might be improved. The objective of this paper is to critically review and compare current processes for making health technology funding decisions at the regional, state/provincial and national level in 20 countries. A comprehensive search for published, peer-reviewed and grey literature describing actual national, state/provincial and regional/institutional technology decision-making processes was conducted. Information was extracted by two independent reviewers and tabulated to facilitate qualitative comparative analyses. To identify strengths and weaknesses of processes identified, websites of corresponding organizations were searched for commissioned reviews/evaluations, which were subsequently analysed using standard qualitative methods. A total of 21 national, four provincial/state and six regional/institutional-level processes were found. Although information on each one varied, they could be grouped into four sequential categories: (i) identification of the decision problem; (ii) information inputs; (iii) elements of the decision-making process; and (iv) public accountability and decision implementation. While information requirements of all processes appeared substantial and decision-making factors comprehensive, the way in which they were utilized was often unclear, as were approaches used to incorporate social values or equity arguments into decisions. A comprehensive inventory of approaches to implementing the four main components of all technology funding decision-making processes was compiled, from which areas for future

Fuzzy methods in decision making process - A particular approach in manufacturing systems

Science.gov (United States)

Coroiu, A. M.

2015-11-01

We are living in a competitive environment, so we can see and understand that the most of manufacturing firms do the best in order to accomplish meeting demand, increasing quality, decreasing costs, and delivery rate. In present a stake point of interest is represented by the development of fuzzy technology. A particular approach for this is represented through the development of methodologies to enhance the ability to managed complicated optimization and decision making aspects involving non-probabilistic uncertainty with the reason to understand, development, and practice the fuzzy technologies to be used in fields such as economic, engineering, management, and societal problems. Fuzzy analysis represents a method for solving problems which are related to uncertainty and vagueness; it is used in multiple areas, such as engineering and has applications in decision making problems, planning and production. As a definition for decision making process we can use the next one: result of mental processes based upon cognitive process with a main role in the selection of a course of action among several alternatives. Every process of decision making can be represented as a result of a final choice and the output can be represented as an action or as an opinion of choice. Different types of uncertainty can be discovered in a wide variety of optimization and decision making problems related to planning and operation of power systems and subsystems. The mixture of the uncertainty factor in the construction of different models serves for increasing their adequacy and, as a result, the reliability and factual efficiency of decisions based on their analysis. Another definition of decision making process which came to illustrate and sustain the necessity of using fuzzy method: the decision making is an approach of choosing a strategy among many different projects in order to achieve some purposes and is formulated as three different models: high risk decision, usual risk

Non-technical factors impacting on the decision making processes in environmental remediation. Influences on the decision making process such as cost, planned land use and public perception

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2002-04-01

The IAEA attaches great importance to the dissemination of information that can assist Member States with the development, implementation, maintenance and continuous improvement of systems, programmes and activities that support the nuclear fuel cycle and nuclear applications, including the legacy of past practices and accidents. In response to this, the IAEA has initiated a comprehensive programme of work covering all aspects of environmental remediation: factors important for formulating a strategy for environmental remediation; site characterisation techniques and strategies; assessment of remediation technologies; assessment of technical options for cleanup of contaminated media; post-restoration compliance monitoring; assessment of the costs of remediation measures; remediation of low-level disperse radioactive contaminations in the environment. While this project mainly focus on technological aspects, non-technical factors will be influencing the decision making process in remediation decisively. Often their influence is only tacitly accepted and not explicitly acknowledged by the responsible decision makers. This makes it difficult to trace the decision making process in the event that it has to be revisited. The present publication attempts to make these factors explicit and to present methods to include them consciously into the decision making process

The application of reduced-processing decision support systems to facilitate the acquisition of decision-making skills.

Science.gov (United States)

Perry, Nathan C; Wiggins, Mark W; Childs, Merilyn; Fogarty, Gerard

2013-06-01

The study was designed to examine whether the availability of reduced-processing decision support system interfaces could improve the decision making of inexperienced personnel in the context of Although research into reduced-processing decision support systems has demonstrated benefits in minimizing cognitive load, these benefits have not typically translated into direct improvements in decision accuracy because of the tendency for inexperienced personnel to focus on less-critical information. The authors investigated whether reduced-processing interfaces that direct users' attention toward the most critical cues for decision making can produce improvements in decision-making performance. Novice participants made incident command-related decisions in experimental conditions that differed according to the amount of information that was available within the interface, the level of control that they could exert over the presentation of information, and whether they had received decision training. The results revealed that despite receiving training, participants improved in decision accuracy only when they were provided with an interface that restricted information access to the most critical cues. It was concluded that an interface that restricts information access to only the most critical cues in the scenario can facilitate improvements in decision performance. Decision support system interfaces that encourage the processing of the most critical cues have the potential to improve the accuracy and timeliness of decisions made by inexperienced personnel.

Caregiving decision making by older mothers and adult children: process and expected outcome.

Science.gov (United States)

Cicirelli, Victor G

2006-06-01

Dyadic caregiving decision making was studied in 30 mother-son and 29 mother-daughter pairs (mother's age=65-94 years) who responded to a vignette depicting a caregiving decision situation. The observed decision-making process of mother-child pairs was largely naturalistic, with few alternatives proposed and quick convergence to a decision followed by a postdecision justification; a degree of more rational decision making was seen in some pairs. Among significant findings, adult children, especially sons, dominated the decision process, doing more talking and introducing more alternatives than did their mothers, who played a more subordinate role. Mother-son pairs expected more negative outcomes and greater regrets regarding their decisions than mother-daughter pairs. Closeness of the parent-child relationship influenced the decision-making process, expected outcomes, and regrets. Copyright (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved.

Beyond dual-process models: A categorisation of processes underlying intuitive judgement and decision making

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Glöckner, A.; Witteman, C.L.M.

2010-01-01

Intuitive-automatic processes are crucial for making judgements and decisions. The fascinating complexity of these processes has attracted many decision researchers, prompting them to start investigating intuition empirically and to develop numerous models. Dual-process models assume a clear

Process of making decisions on loan currency: Influence of representativeness on information processing and coherence with consumption motives

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anđelković Dragan

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Rationality of decision maker is often reduced by heuristics and biases, and also by different types of external stimuli. In decision-making process individuals simplify phases of information selection and information processing by using heuristics, simple rules which are focused on one aspect of complex problem and ignore other aspects, and in that way 'speed up' decision-making process. This method of making decisions, although efficient in making simple decisions, can lead to mistakes in probability assessment and diminish rationality of decision maker. In that way it can influence drastically on transaction outcome for which decision is being made. The subject of this study is influence of representativeness heuristic on making financial decisions by individuals, and influence of consumption motives on stereotypical elements in information processing phase. Study was conducted by determining attitudes of respondents toward currencies, and then by conducting experiments with aim of analyzing method of making decisions on loan currency. Aim of study was determining whether and to what extent representativeness influence choice of currency in process of making loan decisions. Results of conducted behavioral experiments show that respondents, opposite to rational model, do not asses probability by processing available information and in accordance with their preferences, but by comparing decision objects with other objects which have same attributes, showing in that way moderate positive correlation between stereotypical attitudes and choice of loan currency. Experiments have shown that instrumental motive significantly influence representativeness heuristics, that is, individuals are prone to process information with diminished influence of stereotypical attitudes caused by external stimuli, in situations where there is no so called 'hedonistic decision-making'. Respondents have been making more efficient decisions if they had motive which does

Procurement in the Nuclear Industry, Quality, Safety and Decision Making; Upphandling inom kaernkraftsindustrin, kvalitet, saekerhet och beslutsfattande

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jakobsson, Marianne; Svenson, Ola; Salo, Ilkka (PSA Psykologi och beslutsfattande, Stockholm (Sweden))

2010-03-15

The major purpose of the present study is partly to map and partly to make an analysis of the decision processes in the procurement routines in the nuclear industry in order to provide a basis for: 1. further development of safety inspections about procurements for Swedish Radiation Safety Authority 2. improvements of safety management in connection with procurement within a nuclear-power plant, 3 improvements of procurement routines in general in a nuclear power plant. The procurement processes at a nuclear power plant were analyzed from a decision theoretic perspective. Key staff at the plant was interviewed and written instructions as well as digitalized processes were used in the analysis. The results illustrate the most important moments during the procurement process with descriptions from interviews and documents. The staff at the nuclear power plant used a multi-attribute utility decision theory MAUT-inspired model in evaluation of alternatives and both compensatory (in which negative aspects can be compensated by positive aspects) and non-compensatory (in which certain 'pass' levels of attributes have to be exceeded for a choice) decision rules were used in the procurement process. Not surprising, nuclear safety was evaluated in a non-compensatory manner following regulatory criteria while costs were evaluated in trade-off compensatory rules, which means that a weakness in one consideration might be compensated by strength in another consideration. Thus, nuclear safety above the regulator's and law requirements are not integrated in a compensatory manner when procurement alternatives are evaluated. The nuclear plant assessed an organization's safety culture at an early stage of the purchasing process. A successful and a less successful procurement case were reported with the lessons learned from them. We find that the existing written instructions for purchase were well elaborated and adequate. There is a lack of personal resources when

Strategic environmental assessment and the limits to rationality in decision making processes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kørnøv, Lone

The paper focueses on the subject of rationality in decision making processes and the implications for the integration of SEA.......The paper focueses on the subject of rationality in decision making processes and the implications for the integration of SEA....

Organizational decision making

OpenAIRE

Grandori, Anna

2015-01-01

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited This thesis develops a heuristic approach to organizational decision-making by synthesizing the classical, neo-classical and contingency approaches to organization theory. The conceptual framework developed also integrates the rational and cybernetic approaches with cognitive processes underlying the decision-making process. The components of the approach address the role of environment in organizational decision-maki...

Stepwise decision making for the long-term management of radioactive waste

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pescatore, C.; Vari, A.

2005-01-01

The context of long-term radioactive waste management is being shaped by changes in modern society. Values such as health, environmental protection and safety are increasingly important, as are trends towards improved forms of participatory democracy that demand new forms of risk governance in dealing with hazardous activities. These changes in turn necessitate new forms of dialogue and decision-making processes that include a large number of stakeholders. The new dynamic of dialogue and decision-making process has been characterised as a shift from a more traditional 'decide, announce and defend' model, focused on technical assurance, to one of 'engage, interact and cooperate', for which both technical assurance and quality of the process are of comparable importance to a constructive outcome. Consequently, the scientific and engineering aspects of waste management safety are no longer of exclusive importance. Organisational ability to communicate and to adapt to the new context has emerged as a critical contributor to public confidence. In the new decision-making context it is clear that (a) any significant decisions regarding the long-term management of radioactive waste will be accompanied by a comprehensive public review with involvement of a diverse range of stakeholders; (b) the public, and especially the local public, are not willing to commit irreversibly to technical choices on which they have insufficient familiarity and understanding; and (c) any management options will take decades to be developed and implemented, which will involve stakeholders who have not yet been born. Thus, a 'decision' no longer means opting for, in one go and for all time, a complete package solution. Instead, a decision is one step in an overall, cautious process of examining and making choices that preserve the safety and well-being of the present generation and the coming ones while not needlessly depriving the latter of their right of choice. Consideration is thus

Shared decision making and patient choice for growth hormone therapy: current perspectives

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

George B

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Belinda George, Vageesh Ayyar Department of Endocrinology, St. John’s Medical College Hospital, Bangalore, Karnataka, India Abstract: Growth hormone has now been available in medical practice for close to 50 years. Its use has provided dramatic results in patients with growth hormone deficiency and it is associated with an overall favorable safety profile. Over the years, the utility of growth hormone has expanded to include treatment for short stature associated with conditions other than growth hormone deficiency, and this situation warrants greater involvement of the child and parents in the shared decision-making process. Shared decision making is in good conformance to the principle of informed consent, and it also improves the compliance and adherence to therapy as the patient fully understands the benefit and safety of the treatment. In the pediatric-care setting, the decision-making interactions usually occur between the health care provider, patient, and parents. The process may range from an autonomous decision-making pattern, where the patient or parents are fully responsible for the decision taken, to the paternalistic decision-making pattern, where the health care provider assumes full responsibility for the decision taken. However, the ideal situation is one where a truly shared decision-making process happens, in which the doctor and patient/parents work together to choose an evidence-based option, in line with the patient’s preferences and wishes. The limited data available on shared decision making with regard to growth hormone replacement, however, is not very encouraging and suggests that the actual involvement of the parents as perceived by them is less than optimal. Introduction of a simple structured model for a shared decision-making process that can be easily incorporated into clinical practice and familiarization of health care providers with the same is essential to improve our shared decision-making practices

Categorization = Decision Making + Generalization

Science.gov (United States)

Seger, Carol A; Peterson, Erik J.

2013-01-01

We rarely, if ever, repeatedly encounter exactly the same situation. This makes generalization crucial for real world decision making. We argue that categorization, the study of generalizable representations, is a type of decision making, and that categorization learning research would benefit from approaches developed to study the neuroscience of decision making. Similarly, methods developed to examine generalization and learning within the field of categorization may enhance decision making research. We first discuss perceptual information processing and integration, with an emphasis on accumulator models. We then examine learning the value of different decision making choices via experience, emphasizing reinforcement learning modeling approaches. Next we discuss how value is combined with other factors in decision making, emphasizing the effects of uncertainty. Finally, we describe how a final decision is selected via thresholding processes implemented by the basal ganglia and related regions. We also consider how memory related functions in the hippocampus may be integrated with decision making mechanisms and contribute to categorization. PMID:23548891

Articulating the differences between safety and resilience: the decision-making process of professional sea-fishing skippers.

Science.gov (United States)

Mörel, Gaël; Amalberti, René; Chauvin, Christine

2008-02-01

As the world's most dangerous profession, sea fishing enables discussion of the concept of resilience and its articulation to the notion of safety in complex systems. In the small, emerging community working on this concept, the prevailing idea to improve safety is that resilience must be reinjected into the know-how of complex systems. Thirty-four male skippers, divided into two groups, took part in an interactive simulation of a fishing campaign. They had to make decisions in situations of trade-off between safety and production goals. From the time they left the harbor, the fishermen never gave up on fishing, even in extreme conditions, and regardless of whether or not the catch was good. Not being suicidal, however, they used multiple expert strategies to reduce risk without giving up on their fishing activity. Systems run by craftspeople are very resilient because they rely on a high level of adaptability, based on the actors' expertise, linked to an exposure to frequent and considerable risk. Each actor is responsible for his or her own safety. The final discussion bears on the question of knowing whether or not it is possible to design a safe system while preserving its craftsmanship and therefore its native resilience. The results of these studies suggest potential adverse effects of classic safety interventions in complex sociotechnical systems either in terms of professional reluctance to accept new recommendations or through the emergence of new sources of risk.

Who decides? The decision-making process of juvenile judges concerning minors with mental disorders.

Science.gov (United States)

Cappon, Leen

2016-01-01

Previous research on juvenile judges' decision-making process has neglected the role of the different actors involved in judicial procedures. The decision can be considered as a result of information exchange between the different actors involved. The process of making a decision is equally important as the decision itself, especially when the decision considers minors with mental disorders. The presence and the type of interaction determine the information available to the juvenile judges to make their final decision. The overall aim of this study is to gain insight into the role of all actors, including the juvenile judge, in the juvenile judge's decision-making process in cases relating to minors with mental disorders. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with professional actors (n=32), minors (n=31) and parents (n=17). The findings indicated that the judge's decision is overall the result of an interaction between the juvenile judge, the social services investigator and the youth psychiatrist. The other professional actors, the minors and the parents had only a limited role in the decision-making process. The research concludes that the judge's decision-making process should be based on dialogue, and requires enhanced collaboration between the juvenile court and youth psychiatrists from mental health services. Future decision-making research should pay more attention to the interactions of the actors that guide a juvenile judge's decision. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The WIPP decision plan: Charting the course for openness in the decision making process

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hagers, J.

1992-01-01

In June of 1989, the Secretary of Energy requested that a plan be developed that would clearly outline the prerequisites to opening the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). It was to provide the basis for a decision making process that was not only visible to the public, but one which included public participation. It must also be dynamic enough to effectively deal with the changing legislative, regulatory, and technical environments. Based on a recognized need for openness, the Secretary's Draft Decision Plan was developed. The plan charted the course for ultimately making the decision to declare WIPP ready to receive waste for the start of test phase operations. It outlined to critics and supporters alike the rigorous and thorough process by which the internal decisions were made. The plan identified all internal prerequisites to the decision; charted the review cycles, and targeted the completion dates. It also outlined the processes outside the control of the Department, institutional issues, such as legislative land withdrawal, issuance of permits, and designation of transportation routes

The household decision making process in replacement of durable goods

OpenAIRE

Marell Molander, Agneta

1998-01-01

As durables are essential in many households, the level of ownership is high and, due to the high degree of penetration, a vast proportion of the current sales are replacement purchases. Even though a lot of research attention has been paid to decision making and decision processes many models are oriented towards non-durable goods and although a majority of purchases of many durable goods are replacements, few studies seem to make a distinction between a replacement purchase decision and a d...

Ethical implications and decision making in care education process

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Layse Kelle Silva

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Objective. To determine ethical implications for nursing practice at the point of decision making by nursing professors in practice area. Methodology. A qualitative method was adopted, with use of semistructured interviews with sixteen nursing professors who delivered care at a teaching hospital in Salvador, Bahia, from May to June 2011. The methodological reference used was the discourse of the collective subject (DCS by Lefévre and Lefévre. Results. In response to DCSs, the following subjects appeared: "Ethics is fundamental and of vital importance in the decision making process," "searching for knowledge and research to identify problems and solutions, including alternatives and support for decisions," and "to act in the best way." Conclusion. Professors who provide education about patient care also delivered care. They have the responsibility to consider the ethical implications of decision making because they stimulate fundamental reflection and could positively influence future nursing professionals.

Multi-criteria decision making in product-driven process synthesis

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ridder, de K.; Almeida-Rivera, C.; Bongers, P.M.M.; Bruin, S.; Flapper, S.D.P.; Braunschweig, B.; Joulia, X.

2008-01-01

Current efforts in the development of a Product-driven Process Synthesis methodology have been focusing on broadening the design scope to consumer preferences, product attributes, process variables and supply chain considerations. The methodology embraces a decision making activity to be performed

Durable decision-making is central to the control of risks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zebroski, E.L.

1990-01-01

In several capacities the author has promoted the importance of risk analysis techniques as a rational path to the improved assurance of safety. The interest in decisions arose from the persistent observation of only moderate or minor impacts or benefits to practical operations from the availability of wall documented risk analysis studies for many nuclear units. The complexity and number of variables in decisions on matters of safety of large scale operations defies ordinary intuitive decision making. The structured decision process is not a panacea, but is often the practical tool of choise for managing complexity in an orderly way. Typical basic sources for decision techniques are listed in references. (orig.)

Decision making, procedural compliance, and outcomes definition in U.S. forest service planning processes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stern, Marc J.; Predmore, S. Andrew

2011-01-01

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) dictates a process of analyzing and disclosing the likely impacts of proposed agency actions on the human environment. This study addresses two key questions related to NEPA implementation in the U.S. Forest Service: 1) how do Interdisciplinary (ID) team leaders and decision makers conceptualize the outcomes of NEPA processes? And 2), how does NEPA relate to agency decision making? We address these questions through two separate online surveys that posed questions about recently completed NEPA processes - the first with the ID team leaders tasked with carrying out the processes, and the second with the line officers responsible for making the processes' final decisions. Outcomes of NEPA processes include impacts on public relations, on employee morale and team functioning, on the achievement of agency goals, and on the achievement of NEPA's procedural requirements (disclosure) and substantive intent (minimizing negative environmental impacts). Although both tended to view public relations outcomes as important, decision makers' perceptions of favorable outcomes were more closely linked to the achievement of agency goals and process efficiency than was the case for ID team leaders. While ID team leaders' responses suggest that they see decision making closely integrated with the NEPA process, decision makers more commonly decoupled decision making from the NEPA process. These findings suggest a philosophical difference between ID team leaders and decision makers that may pose challenges for both the implementation and the evaluation of agency NEPA. We discuss the pros and cons of integrating NEPA with decision making or separating the two. We conclude that detaching NEPA from decision making poses greater risks than integrating them.

Safety margins of operating reactors. Analysis of uncertainties and implications for decision making

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2003-01-01

current report presents the results of a Technical Committee Meeting on Safety Margins of Operating Reactors and Implications for Decision Making including Considerations of Uncertainties of Analyses, held in Vienna, 15-19 October 2001. In this meeting specific topics related to the safety margins and their implications for decision making were presented and discussed

The Computational Complexity of Valuation and Motivational Forces in Decision-Making Processes.

Science.gov (United States)

Redish, A David; Schultheiss, Nathan W; Carter, Evan C

2016-01-01

The concept of value is fundamental to most theories of motivation and decision making. However, value has to be measured experimentally. Different methods of measuring value produce incompatible valuation hierarchies. Taking the agent's perspective (rather than the experimenter's), we interpret the different valuation measurement methods as accessing different decision-making systems and show how these different systems depend on different information processing algorithms. This identifies the translation from these multiple decision-making systems into a single action taken by a given agent as one of the most important open questions in decision making today. We conclude by looking at how these different valuation measures accessing different decision-making systems can be used to understand and treat decision dysfunction such as in addiction.

Supporting decision-making processes for evidence-based mental health promotion.

Science.gov (United States)

Jané-Llopis, Eva; Katschnig, Heinz; McDaid, David; Wahlbeck, Kristian

2011-12-01

The use of evidence is critical in guiding decision-making, but evidence from effect studies will be only one of a number of factors that will need to be taken into account in the decision-making processes. Equally important for policymakers will be the use of different types of evidence including implementation essentials and other decision-making principles such as social justice, political, ethical, equity issues, reflecting public attitudes and the level of resources available, rather than be based on health outcomes alone. This paper, aimed to support decision-makers, highlights the importance of commissioning high-quality evaluations, the key aspects to assess levels of evidence, the importance of supporting evidence-based implementation and what to look out for before, during and after implementation of mental health promotion and mental disorder prevention programmes.

[The role of epidemiology in the process of decision-making].

Science.gov (United States)

Prost, A

1997-01-01

Epidemiology is the method of choice for quantifying and interpreting health phenomena, placing them into perspective to allow trend analysis and projections. It is a tool for analysis, evaluation and forecasting and is thus indispensable in the decision-making process. However, this comprehensive technique has its limitations since health is the result of complex interactions: individual requirements do not always correspond to the overall needs of the community; consideration has to be given to solidarity and the necessity for cost-sharing; and the decision process is strongly influenced by social, cultural, religious and political factors which defy quantification and, on occasion, any rational course of action. Each indicator only takes into account one aspect of the situation and the pertinent indicator should therefore be carefully selected. At the same time, any choice implicitly signifies value judgements-often unnoticed-which need to be balanced and validated in relation to the ethical values of the community in order to be of any assistance to decision-making. Decision-making is a qualitative political process which, although based on the quantitative analysis supplied by epidemiology, cannot be limited to it. Each approach enhance the other, but they should not be confused if freedom to act is to be preserved from being locked into some kind of mechanical process that is unacceptable both to man and to society.

Information processing as a paradigm for decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Oppenheimer, Daniel M; Kelso, Evan

2015-01-03

For decades, the dominant paradigm for studying decision making--the expected utility framework--has been burdened by an increasing number of empirical findings that question its validity as a model of human cognition and behavior. However, as Kuhn (1962) argued in his seminal discussion of paradigm shifts, an old paradigm cannot be abandoned until a new paradigm emerges to replace it. In this article, we argue that the recent shift in researcher attention toward basic cognitive processes that give rise to decision phenomena constitutes the beginning of that replacement paradigm. Models grounded in basic perceptual, attentional, memory, and aggregation processes have begun to proliferate. The development of this new approach closely aligns with Kuhn's notion of paradigm shift, suggesting that this is a particularly generative and revolutionary time to be studying decision science.

Factors Affecting Youth Voice in Decision-Making Processes within Youth Development Programs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Todd Tarifa

2009-12-01

Full Text Available Results of a study aimed at determining the factors affecting the level of inclusiveness of youth voice in the decision-making process of the 4-H youth development program are discussed in this paper. State and field level 4-H professionals identified potential factors which affect youth voice in the decision-making process. The information gathered was utilized to identify the degree to which youth voice was incorporated in the decision-making process, to better understand how to suit youth’s needs, identify promising practices, and diagnose barriers towards fostering youth voice within the 4-H youth development program. This feature article presents the findings of the study, and discusses potential ramifications and remedies.

Regulatory approach to risk informed decision making in India

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chande, S.K.; Koley, J.

2001-01-01

Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB), the authority for licensing and monitoring safety in Indian Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs), makes use of insights gained from PSA together with the results of the other deterministic analyses in taking decisions regarding the acceptability of the safety of the NPPs. PSA provides an estimation of risks; it also gives information on a balanced design by revealing interaction between engineered features and weak areas in a design. For regulatory use, PSA needs to be carried out using standardized methodology and state of the art technology. PSA helps regulators in taking faster and consistent decisions. Keeping in mind the limitations associated with PSA study, AERB has decided to adopt risk-informed decision making in regulatory licensing process. This paper describes the AERB policy regarding PSA and gives an overview of the experience in this area. (author)

Advancing in the Career Decision-Making Process: The Role of Coping Strategies and Career Decision-Making Profiles

Science.gov (United States)

Perez, Maya; Gati, Itamar

2017-01-01

We tested the associations among the career decision-making difficulties, the career decision status, and either (a) the career decision-making profiles of 575 young adults, or (b) the coping strategies of 379 young adults. As hypothesized, a more advanced decision status was negatively associated with both career decision-making difficulties…

Collective Decision Making as the Actualization of Decision Potential

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrej Ule

2009-12-01

Full Text Available This paper presents some characteristics and dilemmas of collective decision making. Collective decision making could be presented as the process of successive crystallization of dominant alternatives under the influence of different decision contexts from primary given decision potentials. This process is presented as the many-phased process of the acting of contextually dependent “energizing factors” of the collective decision making on the “attractiveness matrix” of outcomes of collective decisions. The attractiveness matrix determines the attractiveness for each alternative of decision, and the most attractive alternative in the given situation presents the rational decision in the given situation. In the final phase of decision making holds a context which gets a simplified attractiveness matrix. It corresponds to the common decision for one of the alternatives.

Information processing in decision-making systems.

Science.gov (United States)

van der Meer, Matthijs; Kurth-Nelson, Zeb; Redish, A David

2012-08-01

Decisions result from an interaction between multiple functional systems acting in parallel to process information in very different ways, each with strengths and weaknesses. In this review, the authors address three action-selection components of decision-making: The Pavlovian system releases an action from a limited repertoire of potential actions, such as approaching learned stimuli. Like the Pavlovian system, the habit system is computationally fast but, unlike the Pavlovian system permits arbitrary stimulus-action pairings. These associations are a "forward'' mechanism; when a situation is recognized, the action is released. In contrast, the deliberative system is flexible but takes time to process. The deliberative system uses knowledge of the causal structure of the world to search into the future, planning actions to maximize expected rewards. Deliberation depends on the ability to imagine future possibilities, including novel situations, and it allows decisions to be taken without having previously experienced the options. Various anatomical structures have been identified that carry out the information processing of each of these systems: hippocampus constitutes a map of the world that can be used for searching/imagining the future; dorsal striatal neurons represent situation-action associations; and ventral striatum maintains value representations for all three systems. Each system presents vulnerabilities to pathologies that can manifest as psychiatric disorders. Understanding these systems and their relation to neuroanatomy opens up a deeper way to treat the structural problems underlying various disorders.

A dynamic dual process model of risky decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Diederich, Adele; Trueblood, Jennifer S

2018-03-01

Many phenomena in judgment and decision making are often attributed to the interaction of 2 systems of reasoning. Although these so-called dual process theories can explain many types of behavior, they are rarely formalized as mathematical or computational models. Rather, dual process models are typically verbal theories, which are difficult to conclusively evaluate or test. In the cases in which formal (i.e., mathematical) dual process models have been proposed, they have not been quantitatively fit to experimental data and are often silent when it comes to the timing of the 2 systems. In the current article, we present a dynamic dual process model framework of risky decision making that provides an account of the timing and interaction of the 2 systems and can explain both choice and response-time data. We outline several predictions of the model, including how changes in the timing of the 2 systems as well as time pressure can influence behavior. The framework also allows us to explore different assumptions about how preferences are constructed by the 2 systems as well as the dynamic interaction of the 2 systems. In particular, we examine 3 different possible functional forms of the 2 systems and 2 possible ways the systems can interact (simultaneously or serially). We compare these dual process models with 2 single process models using risky decision making data from Guo, Trueblood, and Diederich (2017). Using this data, we find that 1 of the dual process models significantly outperforms the other models in accounting for both choices and response times. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

From Career Decision-Making Styles to Career Decision-Making Profiles: A Multidimensional Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Gati, Itamar; Landman, Shiri; Davidovitch, Shlomit; Asulin-Peretz, Lisa; Gadassi, Reuma

2010-01-01

Previous research on individual differences in career decision-making processes has often focused on classifying individuals into a few types of decision-making "styles" based on the most dominant trait or characteristic of their approach to the decision process (e.g., rational, intuitive, dependent; Harren, 1979). In this research, an…

Expectations Do Not Alter Early Sensory Processing during Perceptual Decision-Making.

Science.gov (United States)

Rungratsameetaweemana, Nuttida; Itthipuripat, Sirawaj; Salazar, Annalisa; Serences, John T

2018-06-13

Two factors play important roles in shaping perception: the allocation of selective attention to behaviorally relevant sensory features, and prior expectations about regularities in the environment. Signal detection theory proposes distinct roles of attention and expectation on decision-making such that attention modulates early sensory processing, whereas expectation influences the selection and execution of motor responses. Challenging this classic framework, recent studies suggest that expectations about sensory regularities enhance the encoding and accumulation of sensory evidence during decision-making. However, it is possible, that these findings reflect well documented attentional modulations in visual cortex. Here, we tested this framework in a group of male and female human participants by examining how expectations about stimulus features (orientation and color) and expectations about motor responses impacted electroencephalography (EEG) markers of early sensory processing and the accumulation of sensory evidence during decision-making (the early visual negative potential and the centro-parietal positive potential, respectively). We first demonstrate that these markers are sensitive to changes in the amount of sensory evidence in the display. Then we show, counter to recent findings, that neither marker is modulated by either feature or motor expectations, despite a robust effect of expectations on behavior. Instead, violating expectations about likely sensory features and motor responses impacts posterior alpha and frontal theta oscillations, signals thought to index overall processing time and cognitive conflict. These findings are inconsistent with recent theoretical accounts and suggest instead that expectations primarily influence decisions by modulating post-perceptual stages of information processing. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Expectations about likely features or motor responses play an important role in shaping behavior. Classic theoretical

Stepwise decision making for the long-term management of radioactive waste

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pescatore, C.; Vari, A.

2003-01-01

The context of long-term radioactive waste management is being shaped by changes in modern society. Values such as health, environmental protection and safety are increasingly important. This changes in turn necessitate new forms of dialogue and decision-making processes that include a large number of stakeholders. This paper deals with the new features of a stepwise decision-making approach, taking into account the public involvement and social learning processes, and showing the complexity of the new situation. (A.L.B.)

The Effect of Decision-Making Skill Training Programs on Self-Esteem and Decision-Making Styles

Science.gov (United States)

Colakkadioglu, Oguzhan; Celik, D. Billur

2016-01-01

Problem Statement: Decision making is a critical cognitive process in every area of human life. In this process, the individuals play an active role and obtain outputs with their functional use of decision-making skills. Therefore, the decision-making process can affect the course of life, life satisfaction, and the social relations of an…

Registered nurses' decision-making regarding documentation in patients' progress notes.

Science.gov (United States)

Tower, Marion; Chaboyer, Wendy; Green, Quentine; Dyer, Kirsten; Wallis, Marianne

2012-10-01

To examine registered nurses' decision-making when documenting care in patients' progress notes. What constitutes effective nursing documentation is supported by available guidelines. However, ineffective documentation continues to be cited as a major cause of adverse events for patients. Decision-making in clinical practice is a complex process. To make an effective decision, the decision-maker must be situationally aware. The concept of situation awareness and its implications for making safe decisions has been examined extensively in air safety and more recently is being applied to health. The study was situated in a naturalistic paradigm. Purposive sampling was used to recruit 17 registered nurses who used think-aloud research methods when making decisions about documenting information in patients' progress notes. Follow-up interviews were conducted to validate interpretations. Data were analysed systematically for evidence of cues that demonstrated situation awareness as nurses made decisions about documentation. Three distinct decision-making scenarios were illuminated from the analysis: the newly admitted patient, the patient whose condition was as expected and the discharging patient. Nurses used mental models for decision-making in documenting in progress notes, and the cues nurses used to direct their assessment of patients' needs demonstrated situation awareness at different levels. Nurses demonstrate situation awareness at different levels in their decision-making processes. While situation awareness is important, it is also important to use an appropriate decision-making framework. Cognitive continuum theory is suggested as a decision-making model that could support situation awareness when nurses made decisions about documenting patient care. Because nurses are key decision-makers, it is imperative that effective decisions are made that translate into safe clinical care. Including situation awareness training, combined with employing cognitive

The consequences of introducing IT systems for decision-making processes in healthcare institutions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marzena Furtak-Niczyporuk

2017-03-01

  Aim: The aim of the study was the diagnosis of management decision-making in the therapeutic entity, for possible implementation tools in the form of an information system, which could accelerate and support the rational process of making those decisions. In addition, work was to evaluate the role of management decisions and the implications of the information system on the process of rational decision-making in the management entity therapeutic.   Material and Methods: The case study method allowed us to show the practical applications and benefits resulting from the application system to support rational decision-making management, in particular in terms of reducing costs and improving the organization of health services offered.   The results and conclusions: Presented system generates a database to support rational decision-making process in the field of management, minimize their costs while improving the organization of health services. Ability to use various functions of the system allows for multi-segment analysis, thanks to the specially chosen and condensed information, both in the form of text and graphics over any time horizon. Benefits of the implications of the system is the speed and efficiency of the whole process of treatment, as well as the reduction of administrative tasks of medical staff, which increases the time for the patient.

Tactical decision making under stress (TADMUS) decision support system

OpenAIRE

Morrison, Jeffrey G.; Kelly, Richard T.; Moore, Ronald A.; Hutchins, Susan G.

1996-01-01

A prototype decision support system (DSS) was developed to enhance Navy tactical decision making based on naturalistic decision processes. Displays were developed to support critical decision making tasks through recognition-primed and explanation-based reasoning processes and cognitive analysis of the decision making problems faced by Navy tactical officers in a shipboard Combat Information Center. Baseline testing in high intensity, peace keeping, littoral scenarios indicated...

Viewpoint: Decision-making in committees

OpenAIRE

Li Hao; Wing Suen

2009-01-01

This article reviews recent developments in the theory of committee decision-making. A committee consists of self-interested members who make a public decision by aggregating imperfect information dispersed among them according to a pre-specified decision rule. We focus on costly information acquisition, strategic information aggregation, and rules and processes that enhance the quality of the committee decision. Seeming inefficiencies of the committee decision-making process such as over-cau...

Tools for collaborative decision-making

CERN Document Server

Zaraté, Pascale

2013-01-01

Decision-making has evolved recently thanks to the introduction of information and communication technologies in many organizations, which has led to new kinds of decision-making processes, called "collaborative decision-making", at the organizational and cognitive levels. This book looks at the development of the decision-making process in organizations. Decision-aiding and its paradigm of problem solving are defined, showing how decision-makers now need to work in a cooperative way. Definitions of cooperation and associated concepts such as collaboration and coordination are given and a framework of cooperative decision support systems is presented, including intelligent DSS, cooperative knowledge-based systems, workflow, group support systems, collaborative engineering, integrating with a collaborative decision-making model in part or being part of global projects. Several models and experimental studies are also included showing that these new processes have to be supported by new types of tools, several ...

Innovation and decision-making process in reverse logistics: a bibliometric analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fernando Antonio Guimarães Tenório

2014-05-01

Full Text Available This work aimed to make a bibliometric analysis on empirical studies that focus on the reverse logistics process. Papers published in two major events of management and a production engineering were collected during the years 2007-2012. To perform the analysis assumptions were adopted as the concepts of innovation and decision-making. 43 articles were analyzed and it was found that, in most cases, organizations choose to deploy reverse logistics as a means to solving problems related to environmental laws and regulations and after its implementation, the decision-making process related to the network of companies that perform reverse logistics remains restricted to the adopter company, thus becoming a centralized decision-making process. It was also found that reverse logistics is, in most cases, an innovation in the supply chain, it provides a new way to manage and operate the return and recycling of waste products and generating competitive advantages in the form of increased net income and better picture of the organization to its partners and customers.

Developing Holocaust Curricula: The Content Decision-Making Process

Science.gov (United States)

Lindquist, David H.

2008-01-01

The content decision-making process involved in developing Holocaust curricula is unusually complex and problematic. Educators must consider factors such as historical accuracy, selection of topics covered, potential teaching materials (such as textbooks and literary texts), and graphic materials (such as films and photographs) as they plan their…

Implications of Decision Making Research for Decision Support and Displays

OpenAIRE

Morrison, Jeffrey G.; Kelly, Richard T.; Moore, Ronald A.; Hutchins, Susan G.

1998-01-01

To appear in J. A. Cannon-Bowers & E. Salas (Eds.), Decision Making Under Stress: Implications for Training and Simulation. A prototype decision support system (DSS) was developed to enhance Navy tactical decision making based on naturalistic decision processes. Displays were developed to support critical decision making tasks through recognition-primed and explanation-based reasoning processes, and cognitive analysis was conducted of the decision making problems faced by Navy ...

Comparison of safety measures with a multicriteria decision aiding technique

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lombard, J.

1985-01-01

Attributes such as political, social and psychological factors have to be taken into account for the decision-making process. Multiattribute decision-aiding techniques are used to cope with this multidimensionality of the risk management process. A simple example will be given to illustrate how such method can be helpful for the selection of proper safety measures in a rational way. (orig./HP) [de

Credible decision-making regarding the management of spent nuclear fuel -four key questions concerning the decision-making process

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kaaberger, T. [Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (Sweden)

1995-12-01

The author starts by questioning the need for an EIA, since he sees a common attitude that the EIA is a tool for getting the community to accept the implementation of decisions that have already been made, and not a rational, organized way of achieving a basis for decision-making. A question of decisive importance for the relevancy of an EIA is whether (or not) the decisions already have been made, and the author points at indications which he believes support this view. Finally, arguments for delegating the EIA process to an external body are given.

Credible decision-making regarding the management of spent nuclear fuel -four key questions concerning the decision-making process

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kaaberger, T.

1995-01-01

The author starts by questioning the need for an EIA, since he sees a common attitude that the EIA is a tool for getting the community to accept the implementation of decisions that have already been made, and not a rational, organized way of achieving a basis for decision-making. A question of decisive importance for the relevancy of an EIA is whether (or not) the decisions already have been made, and the author points at indications which he believes support this view. Finally, arguments for delegating the EIA process to an external body are given

Nuclear regulatory decision making

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2005-01-01

The fundamental objective of all nuclear safety regulatory bodies is to ensure that nuclear utilities operate their plants at all times in an acceptably safe manner. In meeting this objective, the regulatory body should strive to ensure that its regulatory decisions are technically sound, consistent from case to case, and timely. In addition, the regulator must be aware that its decisions and the circumstances surrounding those decisions can affect how its stakeholders, such as government policy makers, the industry it regulates, and the public, view it as an effective and credible regulator. In order to maintain the confidence of those stakeholders, the regulator should make sure that its decisions are transparent, have a clear basis in law and regulations, and are seen by impartial observers to be fair to all parties. Based on the work of a Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) expert group, this report discusses some of the basic principles and criteria that a regulatory body should consider in making decisions and describes the elements of an integrated framework for regulatory decision making. (author)

Development of an instrument to understand the child protective services decision-making process, with a focus on placement decisions.

Science.gov (United States)

Dettlaff, Alan J; Christopher Graham, J; Holzman, Jesse; Baumann, Donald J; Fluke, John D

2015-11-01

When children come to the attention of the child welfare system, they become involved in a decision-making process in which decisions are made that have a significant effect on their future and well-being. The decision to remove children from their families is particularly complex; yet surprisingly little is understood about this decision-making process. This paper presents the results of a study to develop an instrument to explore, at the caseworker level, the context of the removal decision, with the objective of understanding the influence of the individual and organizational factors on this decision, drawing from the Decision Making Ecology as the underlying rationale for obtaining the measures. The instrument was based on the development of decision-making scales used in prior decision-making studies and administered to child protection caseworkers in several states. Analyses included reliability analyses, principal components analyses, and inter-correlations among the resulting scales. For one scale regarding removal decisions, a principal components analysis resulted in the extraction of two components, jointly identified as caseworkers' decision-making orientation, described as (1) an internal reference to decision-making and (2) an external reference to decision-making. Reliability analyses demonstrated acceptable to high internal consistency for 9 of the 11 scales. Full details of the reliability analyses, principal components analyses, and inter-correlations among the seven scales are discussed, along with implications for practice and the utility of this instrument to support the understanding of decision-making in child welfare. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Decision Making in Action

Science.gov (United States)

Orasanu, Judith; Statler, Irving C. (Technical Monitor)

1994-01-01

The importance of decision-making to safety in complex, dynamic environments like mission control centers and offshore installations has been well established. NASA-ARC has a program of research dedicated to fostering safe and effective decision-making in the manned spaceflight environment. Because access to spaceflight is limited, environments with similar characteristics, including aviation and nuclear power plants, serve as analogs from which space-relevant data can be gathered and theories developed. Analyses of aviation accidents cite crew judgement and decision making as causes or contributing factors in over half of all accidents. A similar observation has been made in nuclear power plants. Yet laboratory research on decision making has not proven especially helpful in improving the quality of decisions in these kinds of environments. One reason is that the traditional, analytic decision models are inappropriate to multidimensional, high-risk environments, and do not accurately describe what expert human decision makers do when they make decisions that have consequences. A new model of dynamic, naturalistic decision making is offered that may prove useful for improving decision making in complex, isolated, confined and high-risk environments. Based on analyses of crew performance in full-mission simulators and accident reports, features that define effective decision strategies in abnormal or emergency situations have been identified. These include accurate situation assessment (including time and risk assessment), appreciation of the complexity of the problem, sensitivity to constraints on the decision, timeliness of the response, and use of adequate information. More effective crews also manage their workload to provide themselves with time and resources to make good decisions. In brief, good decisions are appropriate to the demands of the situation. Effective crew decision making and overall performance are mediated by crew communication. Communication

Contingency Management and deliberative decision-making processes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paul S. Regier

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Contingency Management is an effective treatment for drug addiction. The current explanation for its success is rooted in alternative reinforcement theory. We suggest that alternative reinforcement theory is inadequate to explain the success of Contingency Management and produce a model based on demand curves that show how little the monetary rewards offered in this treatment would affect drug use. Instead, we offer an explanation of its success based on the concept that it accesses deliberative decision-making processes. We suggest that Contingency Management is effective because it offers a concrete and immediate alternative to using drugs, which engages deliberative processes, improves the ability of those deliberative processes to attend to non-drug options, and offsets more automatic action-selection systems. This theory makes explicit predictions that can be tested, suggests which users will be most helped by Contingency Management, and suggests improvements in its implementation.

Contingency Management and Deliberative Decision-Making Processes.

Science.gov (United States)

Regier, Paul S; Redish, A David

2015-01-01

Contingency management is an effective treatment for drug addiction. The current explanation for its success is rooted in alternative reinforcement theory. We suggest that alternative reinforcement theory is inadequate to explain the success of contingency management and produce a model based on demand curves that show how little the monetary rewards offered in this treatment would affect drug use. Instead, we offer an explanation of its success based on the concept that it accesses deliberative decision-making processes. We suggest that contingency management is effective because it offers a concrete and immediate alternative to using drugs, which engages deliberative processes, improves the ability of those deliberative processes to attend to non-drug options, and offsets more automatic action-selection systems. This theory makes explicit predictions that can be tested, suggests which users will be most helped by contingency management, and suggests improvements in its implementation.

Culinary Decision Making.

Science.gov (United States)

Curtis, Rob

1987-01-01

Advises directors of ways to include day care workers in the decision-making process. Enumerates benefits of using staff to help focus and direct changes in the day care center and discusses possible pitfalls in implementation of a collective decision-making approach to management. (NH)

Using the Situated Clinical Decision-Making framework to guide analysis of nurses' clinical decision-making.

Science.gov (United States)

Gillespie, Mary

2010-11-01

Nurses' clinical decision-making is a complex process that holds potential to influence the quality of care provided and patient outcomes. The evolution of nurses' decision-making that occurs with experience has been well documented. In addition, literature includes numerous strategies and approaches purported to support development of nurses' clinical decision-making. There has been, however, significantly less attention given to the process of assessing nurses' clinical decision-making and novice clinical educators are often challenged with knowing how to best support nurses and nursing students in developing their clinical decision-making capacity. The Situated Clinical Decision-Making framework is presented for use by clinical educators: it provides a structured approach to analyzing nursing students' and novice nurses' decision-making in clinical nursing practice, assists educators in identifying specific issues within nurses' clinical decision-making, and guides selection of relevant strategies to support development of clinical decision-making. A series of questions is offered as a guide for clinical educators when assessing nurses' clinical decision-making. The discussion presents key considerations related to analysis of various decision-making components, including common sources of challenge and errors that may occur within nurses' clinical decision-making. An exemplar illustrates use of the framework and guiding questions. Implications of this approach for selection of strategies that support development of clinical decision-making are highlighted. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Review of decision methodologies for evaluating regulatory actions affecting public health and safety

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hendrickson, P.L.; McDonald, C.L.; Schilling, A.H.

1976-12-01

This report examines several aspects of the problems and choices facing the governmental decision maker who must take regulatory actions with multiple decision objectives and attributes. Particular attention is given to the problems facing the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and to the decision attribute of chief concern to NRC, the protection of human health and safety, with emphasis on nuclear power plants. The study was undertaken to provide background information for NRC to use in refining its process of value/impact assessment of proposed regulatory actions. The principal conclusion is that approaches to rationally consider the value and impact of proposed regulatory actions are available. These approaches can potentially improve the decision-making process and enable the agency to better explain and defend its decisions. They also permit consistent examination of the impacts, effects of uncertainty and sensitivity to various assumptions of the alternatives being considered. Finally, these approaches can help to assure that affected parties are heard and that technical information is used appropriately and to the extent possible. The principal aspects of the regulatory decision problem covered in the report are: the legal setting for regulatory decisions which affect human health and safety, elements of the decision-making process, conceptual approaches to decision making, current approaches to decision making in several Federal agencies, and the determination of acceptable risk levels

The participation of the German Länder in the EU decision-making process

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carlo Panara

2012-09-01

Full Text Available This article sketches out the main features of the German system of regional participation in the EU decision-making process with the aim of identifying the key strengths and weaknesses of that system. The author will be examining whether the model currently in place allows for a sufficiently rapid and effective response to the EU decision-making process, and whether there is a sufficiently balanced representation of regional and federal interests at the EU level. The article will also contain a proposal as to how the German model of regional participation in the EU decision-making process could be further improved.

Evidence of different underlying processes in pattern recall and decision-making.

Science.gov (United States)

Gorman, Adam D; Abernethy, Bruce; Farrow, Damian

2015-01-01

The visual search characteristics of expert and novice basketball players were recorded during pattern recall and decision-making tasks to determine whether the two tasks shared common visual-perceptual processing strategies. The order in which participants entered the pattern elements in the recall task was also analysed to further examine the nature of the visual-perceptual strategies and the relative emphasis placed upon particular pattern features. The experts demonstrated superior performance across the recall and decision-making tasks [see also Gorman, A. D., Abernethy, B., & Farrow, D. (2012). Classical pattern recall tests and the prospective nature of expert performance. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 65, 1151-1160; Gorman, A. D., Abernethy, B., & Farrow, D. (2013a). Is the relationship between pattern recall and decision-making influenced by anticipatory recall? The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 66, 2219-2236)] but a number of significant differences in the visual search data highlighted disparities in the processing strategies, suggesting that recall skill may utilize different underlying visual-perceptual processes than those required for accurate decision-making performance in the natural setting. Performance on the recall task was characterized by a proximal-to-distal order of entry of the pattern elements with participants tending to enter the players located closest to the ball carrier earlier than those located more distal to the ball carrier. The results provide further evidence of the underlying perceptual processes employed by experts when extracting visual information from complex and dynamic patterns.

Making the case for evidence-based design in healthcare: a descriptive case study of organizational decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Shoemaker, Lorie K; Kazley, Abby Swanson; White, Andrea

2010-01-01

The aim of this study was to describe the organizational decision-making process used in the selection of evidence-based design (EBD) concepts, the criteria used to make these decisions, and the extent to which leadership style may have influenced the decision-making process. Five research questions were formulated to frame the direction of this study, including: (1) How did healthcare leaders learn of innovations in design? (2) How did healthcare leaders make decisions in the selection of healthcare design concepts? (3) What criteria did healthcare leaders use in the decision-making process? (4) How did healthcare leaders consider input from the staff in design decisions? and (5) To what extent did the leadership style of administrators affect the outcomes of the decision-making process? Current issues affecting healthcare in the community led the principal investigator's organization to undertake an ambitious facilities expansion project. As part of its planning process, the organization learned of EBD principles that seemingly had a positive impact on patient care and safety and staff working conditions. Although promising, a paucity of empirical research addressed the cost/benefit of incorporating many EBD concepts into one hospital setting, and there was no research that articulated the organizational decision-making process used by healthcare administrators when considering the use of EBD in expansion projects. A mixed-method, descriptive, qualitative, single-case study and quantitative design were used to address the five research questions. The Systems Research Organizing Model provided the theoretical framework. A variety of data collection methods was used, including interviews of key respondents, the review of documentary evidence, and the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire. A participatory process was used throughout the design decision phases, involving staff at all levels of the organization. The Internet and architects facilitated learning about

Analyzing the decision making process of certifying digital control systems of nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yih, Swu; Fan, Chin-Feng

2012-01-01

Highlights: ► We have performed basic research in analyzing certification process and developed a regulatory decision making model for nuclear digital control system certification. The model views certification as an evidence–confidence conversion process. ► We have applied this model to analyze previous nuclear digital I and C certification experiences and obtained valuable insights. ► Furthermore, a prototype of a computer-aided licensing support system based on the model has been developed to enhance regulatory review efficiency. - Abstract: Safety-critical computing systems need regulators’ approval before operation. Such a permit issue process is called “certification”. Digital instrumentation and Control (I and C) certification in the nuclear domain has always been problematic and lengthy. Thus, the certification efficiency has always been a crucial concern to the applicant whose business depends on the regulatory decision. However, to our knowledge, there is little basic research on this topic. This study presents a Regulatory Decision-Making Model aiming at analyzing the characteristics and efficiency influence factors in a generic certification process. This model is developed from a dynamic operational perspective by viewing the certification process as an evidence–confidence conversion process. The proposed model is then applied to previous nuclear digital I and C certification experiences to successfully explain why some cases were successful and some were troublesome. Lessons learned from these cases provide invaluable insights regarding to the regulatory review activity. Furthermore, to utilize the insights obtained from the model, a prototype of a computer-aided licensing support system has been developed to speed up review evidence preparation and manipulation; thus, regulatory review efficiency can be further improved.

Human factors influencing decision making

OpenAIRE

Jacobs, Patricia A.

1998-01-01

This report supplies references and comments on literature that identifies human factors influencing decision making, particularly military decision making. The literature has been classified as follows (the classes are not mutually exclusive): features of human information processing; decision making models which are not mathematical models but rather are descriptive; non- personality factors influencing decision making; national characteristics influencing decision makin...

Bangkok's mass rapid transit system's commuter decision-making process in using integrated smartcards

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Peerakan Kaewwongwattana

2016-05-01

Full Text Available This paper studied the decision-making process to use an integrated smartcard ticketing system by Bangkok metropolitan transit commuters. A second-order Confirmatory Factor Analysis using LISREL 9.10 was undertaken on Bangkok commuter's decision-making process on the use of an integrated smartcard system. The sample consisted of 300 Bangkok commuters obtained by accidental sampling using questionnaires with a 5-point Likert scale. The tools in the research questionnaires used scale estimation that achieved a confidence value of 0.84. The research instruments used rating scales measuring information search, alternative choices, and use decision on the 15 variables in the decision-making process which had factor loadings between 0.49 and 0.89 weight elements when sorted in descending order and overall had a high level. Use decision, alternative choices and information search had a factor of 0.89, 0.65 and 0.49, respectively. There was a good fit of the decision-making model to the empirical data (chi-square = 34.55, probability (p = 0.94, df = 49, RMSEA = 0.00, GFI = 0.98, AGFI = 0.96, SRMR = 0.04.

Patients' preferences for involvement in the decision-making process for treating diabetic retinopathy.

Science.gov (United States)

Marahrens, Lydia; Kern, Raimar; Ziemssen, Tjalf; Fritsche, Andreas; Martus, Peter; Ziemssen, Focke; Roeck, Daniel

2017-08-09

To assess factors associated with the preferred role of the attending ophthalmologist in the decision-making processes before treating diabetic retinopathy (DR). Cross-sectional study of 810 adults attending secondary diabetes care centers (NCT02311504). Diabetes patients were classified using a validated questionnaire in an ophthalmologist-dominant decision-making (ODM), shared decision-making (SDM) and patient-dominant decision-making (PDM) style. Multivariate logistic regression was performed to determine factors associated with the decision-making process. A majority of 74.3% patients preferred SDM between ophthalmologist and patient, 17.4% patients wanted ODM, delegating the decision-making process to the ophthalmologist, 8.3% preferred the autonomous style of PDM. Patients wanting ODM were older (OR = 1.2 per decade, p = 0.013), had a lower level of education (OR = 1.4, p = 0.001) and had a higher frequency of consultations per year (OR = 1.3, p = 0.022). Patients with better basic knowledge in DR and memorizing their HbA 1 c level showed a higher propensity for SDM (OR = 1.1, p = 0.037). Patients wanting PDM had a significantly higher education (OR = 1.3, p = 0.036) and a greater desire for receiving information from self-help groups (OR = 1.3, p = 0.015). The first evaluation of the general patient wishes for the treatment of DR confirmed the concept of SDM, which was favored by three quarters. In particular, older patients with low educational attainment wanted to delegate the decision-making process to the ophthalmologist. Amelioration of ophthalmologic education in diabetic programs might take up patients' propensity for SDM. Regardless of the decision-making group, nearly all patients wanted the medical and scientific information to be transferred by and shared with the ophthalmologist. The study was registered on www.clinicaltrials.gov (identifier: NCT02311504) on December 4th 2014.

Using the ACT-R architecture to specify 39 quantitative process models of decision making

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Julian N. Marewski

2011-08-01

Full Text Available Hypotheses about decision processes are often formulated qualitatively and remain silent about the interplay of decision, memorial, and other cognitive processes. At the same time, existing decision models are specified at varying levels of detail, making it difficult to compare them. We provide a methodological primer on how detailed cognitive architectures such as ACT-R allow remedying these problems. To make our point, we address a controversy, namely, whether noncompensatory or compensatory processes better describe how people make decisions from the accessibility of memories. We specify 39 models of accessibility-based decision processes in ACT-R, including the noncompensatory recognition heuristic and various other popular noncompensatory and compensatory decision models. Additionally, to illustrate how such models can be tested, we conduct a model comparison, fitting the models to one experiment and letting them generalize to another. Behavioral data are best accounted for by race models. These race models embody the noncompensatory recognition heuristic and compensatory models as a race between competing processes, dissolving the dichotomy between existing decision models.

A qualitative study on community pharmacists' decision-making process when making a diagnosis.

Science.gov (United States)

Sinopoulou, Vassiliki; Summerfield, Paul; Rutter, Paul

2017-12-01

Self-care policies are increasingly directing patients to seek advice from community pharmacists. This means pharmacists need to have sound diagnostic decision-making skills to enable them to recognise a variety of conditions. The aim of this study was to investigate the process by which pharmacists manage patient signs and symptoms and to explore their use of decision-making for diagnostic purposes. Data were collected through semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with community pharmacists working in England, between August 2013 and November 2014. Pharmacists were asked to share their experiences on how they performed patient consultations, and more specifically how they would approach a hypothetical headache scenario. As part of the interview, their sources of knowledge and experience were also explored. Framework analysis was used to identify themes and subthemes. Eight interviews were conducted with pharmacists who had a wide range of working practice, from 1 year through to 40 years of experience. The pharmacists' main motivations during consultations were product selection and risk minimisation. Their questioning approach and decision-making relied heavily on mnemonic methods. This led to poor quality information gathering-although pharmacists acknowledged they needed to "delve deeper" but were often unable to articulate how or why. Some pharmacists exhibited elements of clinical reasoning in their consultations, but this seemed, mostly, to be unconscious and subsequently applied inappropriately. Overall, pharmacists exhibited poor decision-making ability, and often decisions were based on personal belief and experiences rather than evidence. Community pharmacists relied heavily on mnemonic methods to manage patients' signs and symptoms with diagnosis-based decision-making being seldom employed. These findings suggest practicing pharmacists should receive more diagnostic training. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Breaking the sound barrier: exploring parents' decision-making process of cochlear implants for their children.

Science.gov (United States)

Chang, Pamara F

2017-08-01

To understand the dynamic experiences of parents undergoing the decision-making process regarding cochlear implants for their child(ren). Thirty-three parents of d/Deaf children participated in semi-structured interviews. Interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed, and coded using iterative and thematic coding. The results from this study reveal four salient topics related to parents' decision-making process regarding cochlear implantation: 1) factors parents considered when making the decision to get the cochlear implant for their child (e.g., desire to acculturate child into one community), 2) the extent to which parents' communities influence their decision-making (e.g., norms), 3) information sources parents seek and value when decision-making (e.g., parents value other parent's experiences the most compared to medical or online sources), and 4) personal experiences with stigma affecting their decision to not get the cochlear implant for their child. This study provides insights into values and perspectives that can be utilized to improve informed decision-making, when making risky medical decisions with long-term implications. With thorough information provisions, delineation of addressing parents' concerns and encompassing all aspects of the decision (i.e., medical, social and cultural), health professional teams could reduce the uncertainty and anxiety for parents in this decision-making process for cochlear implantation. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Participation in decision-making process, incentives and training as ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Participation in decision-making process, incentives and training as predictors of organizational commitment among industrial workers. ... African Journal for the Psychological Study of Social Issues ... Results indicated that the three motivational factors jointly and significantly predicted organizational commitment. Also, each ...

THE CONTRIBUTION OF PHILOSOPHY AND PSYCHOLOGY IN THE ETHICAL DECISION MAKING PROCESS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

DANIELA LIVIA DOLTU

2010-11-01

Full Text Available This article aims to explore the relationship between morality and organizational culture with reference to the process of ethical decision making and to the cooperation between philosopher and psychologist for the improvement of ethical climate within a public institution. Firstly, we introduce the notion of organizational culture emphasizing the importance of moral values and their role in building a true ethical climate. Secondly, we focus on the study of ethical decision making. The process is examined from the perspective of the interaction between human personality and different elements of organizational culture. Philosophy and psychology differently approach this problem. Our intention is to bridge the gap between the two perspectives, by demonstrating their belonging to the same continuum as well as the need for knowledge from both fields in order to have a complete overview of its internal mechanisms. Deontological and utilitarian theories fail to explain by themselves the decision making process and so psychology does: moral development theories, the leadership type, and emotions have on their basis a personal moral philosophy. We will also consider the influence of social groups on individual decision making.

Theory of mind and decision-making processes are impaired in Parkinson's disease.

Science.gov (United States)

Xi, Chunhua; Zhu, Youling; Mu, Yanfang; Chen, Bing; Dong, Bin; Cheng, Huaidong; Hu, Panpan; Zhu, Chunyan; Wang, Kai

2015-02-15

Prefrontal cortex plays a vital role in the theory of mind (ToM) and decision making, as shown in functional brain imaging and lesion studies. Considering the primary neuropathology of Parkinson's disease (PD) involving the frontal lobe system, patients with PD are expected to exhibit deficits in ToM and social decision making. The aim of this study was to investigate affective ToM and decision making in patients with PD and healthy controls (HC) in a task assessing affective ToM (Reading the Mind in the Eyes, RME) and two decision-making tasks (Iowa Gambling Task, IGT; Game of Dice Task, GDT). Consistent with previous findings, patients with PD were impaired in the affective ToM task, and when making decisions under ambiguity and in risk situations. The score of emotion recognition in the RME task was negatively correlated with the severity of the disease and positively correlated with the total number of advantageous cards chosen in the IGT. However, the final capital in the GDT was correlated with memory impairment. The present study implies that affective ToM and decision making under ambiguity may share similar neural mechanisms, while decision making under ambiguity and decision making under risk may involve processing within different neural networks. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Aircraft accident investigation: the decision-making in initial action scenario.

Science.gov (United States)

Barreto, Marcia M; Ribeiro, Selma L O

2012-01-01

In the complex aeronautical environment, the efforts in terms of operational safety involve the adoption of proactive and reactive measures. The process of investigation begins right after the occurrence of the aeronautical accident, through the initial action. Thus, it is in the crisis scenario, that the person responsible for the initial action makes decisions and gathers the necessary information for the subsequent phases of the investigation process. Within this scenario, which is a natural environment, researches have shown the fragility of rational models of decision making. The theoretical perspective of naturalistic decision making constitutes a breakthrough in the understanding of decision problems demanded by real world. The proposal of this study was to verify if the initial action, after the occurrence of an accident, and the decision-making strategies, used by the investigators responsible for this activity, are characteristic of the naturalistic decision making theoretical approach. To attend the proposed objective a descriptive research was undertaken with a sample of professionals that work in this activity. The data collected through individual interviews were analyzed and the results demonstrated that the initial action environment, which includes restricted time, dynamic conditions, the presence of multiple actors, stress and insufficient information is characteristic of the naturalistic decision making. They also demonstrated that, when the investigators make their decisions, they use their experience and the mental simulation, intuition, improvisation, metaphors and analogues cases, as strategies, all of them related to the naturalistic approach of decision making, in order to satisfy the needs of the situation and reach the objectives of the initial action in the accident scenario.

Examination of Children Decision Making Using Clues during the Logical Reasoning Process

Science.gov (United States)

Çelik, Meryem

2017-01-01

Logical reasoning is the process of thinking about a problem and finding the most effective solution. Children's decision-making skills are part of their cognitive development and are also indicative. The purpose of this study was to examine children's decision-making skills using clues in logical reasoning based on various variables. The study…

Some applications of fuzzy sets and the analytical hierarchy process to decision making

OpenAIRE

Castro, Alberto Rosas

1984-01-01

Approved for public release; distribution unlimited This thesis examines the use of fuzzy set theory and the analytic hierarchy process in decision making. It begins by reviewing the insight of psychologists, social scientists and computer scientists to the decision making process. The Operations Research- Systems Analysis approach is discussed followed by a presentation of the basis of fuzzy set theory and the analytic hierarchy process. Two applications of these meth...

Neural substrates of decision-making.

Science.gov (United States)

Broche-Pérez, Y; Herrera Jiménez, L F; Omar-Martínez, E

2016-06-01

Decision-making is the process of selecting a course of action from among 2 or more alternatives by considering the potential outcomes of selecting each option and estimating its consequences in the short, medium and long term. The prefrontal cortex (PFC) has traditionally been considered the key neural structure in decision-making process. However, new studies support the hypothesis that describes a complex neural network including both cortical and subcortical structures. The aim of this review is to summarise evidence on the anatomical structures underlying the decision-making process, considering new findings that support the existence of a complex neural network that gives rise to this complex neuropsychological process. Current evidence shows that the cortical structures involved in decision-making include the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). This process is assisted by subcortical structures including the amygdala, thalamus, and cerebellum. Findings to date show that both cortical and subcortical brain regions contribute to the decision-making process. The neural basis of decision-making is a complex neural network of cortico-cortical and cortico-subcortical connections which includes subareas of the PFC, limbic structures, and the cerebellum. Copyright © 2014 Sociedad Española de Neurología. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

The Drug Reimbursement Decision-Making System in Iran.

Science.gov (United States)

Ansaripour, Amir; Uyl-de Groot, Carin A; Steenhoek, Adri; Redekop, William K

2014-05-01

Previous studies of health policies in Iran have not focused exclusively on the drug reimbursement process. The aim of this study was to describe the entire drug reimbursement process and the stakeholders, and discuss issues faced by policymakers. Review of documents describing the administrative rules and directives of stakeholders, supplemented by published statistics and interviews with experts and policymakers. Iran has a systematic process for the assessment, appraisal, and judgment of drug reimbursements. The two most important organizations in this process are the Food and Drug Organization, which considers clinical effectiveness, safety, and economic issues, and the Supreme Council of Health Insurance, which considers various criteria, including budget impact and cost-effectiveness. Ultimately, the Iranian Cabinet approves a drug and recommends its use to all health insurance organizations. Reimbursed drugs account for about 53.5% of all available drugs and 77.3% of drug expenditures. Despite its strengths, the system faces various issues, including conflicting stakeholder aims, lengthy decision-making duration, limited access to decision-making details, and rigidity in the assessment process. The Iranian drug reimbursement system uses decision-making criteria and a structured approach similar to those in other countries. Important shortcomings in the system include out-of-pocket contributions due to lengthy decision making, lack of transparency, and conflicting interests among stakeholders. Iranian policymakers should consider a number of ways to remedy these problems, such as case studies of individual drugs and closer examination of experiences in other countries. Copyright © 2014 International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Decision Making in the Airplane

Science.gov (United States)

Orasanu, Judith; Shafto, Michael G. (Technical Monitor)

1995-01-01

The Importance of decision-making to safety in complex, dynamic environments like mission control centers, aviation, and offshore installations has been well established. NASA-ARC has a program of research dedicated to fostering safe and effective decision-making in the manned spaceflight environment. Because access to spaceflight is limited, environments with similar characteristics, including aviation and nuclear power plants, serve as analogs from which space-relevant data can be gathered and theories developed. Analyses of aviation accidents cite crew judgement and decision making as causes or contributing factors in over half of all accidents. Yet laboratory research on decision making has not proven especially helpful In improving the quality of decisions in these kinds of environments. One reason is that the traditional, analytic decision models are inappropriate to multi-dimensional, high-risk environments, and do not accurately describe what expert human decision makers do when they make decisions that have consequences. A new model of dynamic, naturalistic decision making is offered that may prove useful for improving decision making in complex, isolated, confined and high-risk environments. Based on analyses of crew performance in full-mission simulators and accident reports, features that define effective decision strategies in abnormal or emergency situations have been identified. These include accurate situation assessment (including time and risk assessment), appreciation of the complexity of the problem, sensitivity to constraints on the decision, timeliness of the response, and use of adequate information. More effective crews also manage their workload to provide themselves with time and resources to make good decisions. In brief, good decisions are appropriate to the demands of the situation. Effective crew decision making and overall performance are mediated by crew communication. Communication contributes to performance because it assures that

THE FEATURES OF THE PROCESS OF MANAGERIAL DECISION-MAKING IN THE ENTERPRISE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

E. V. Romanovskaya

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The article discusses issues related to the development and acceptance of administrative decisions in the enterprise. The large number of publications in the field of research of the process of managerial decision-making demonstrates its relevance for effective management of the enterprise. The article presents the author's approach to the disclosure of the nature and concepts of the term «management decision», a substantive analysis of the main elements of the theoretical aspect of managerial decision-making. The increased competition associated with market liberalization and globalization of world economy, requires from senior management of an effective control system. The authors revised classification criteria and allocated them accordingly the kinds of management decisions; identifies the main stages of development and adoption of management decisions. The article is devoted to finding new ways of making decisions to improve the efficiency of enterprise management. It is noted that for optimal decision making, it is required to calculate the impact of its implementation on the value of the enterprise as a whole or the size of its economic effect.

Common basis of establishing safety standards and other safety decision-making levels for different sources of health risk

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Demin, V.F.

2002-01-01

Current approaches in establishing safety standards and other decision-making levels for different sources of health risk are critically analysed. To have a common basis for this decision-making a specific risk index R is recommended. In the common sense R is quantitatively defined as LLE caused by the annual exposure to the risk source considered: R = annual exposure, damage (LLE) from the exposure unit. This common definition is also rewritten in specific forms for a set of different risk sources (ionising radiation, chemical pollutants, etc): for different risk sources the exposure can be measured with different quantities (the probability of death, the exposure dose, etc.). R is relative LLE: LLE in years referred to 1 year under the risk. The dimension of this value is [year/year]. In the statistical sense R is conditionally the share of the year, which is lost due to exposure to a risk source during this year. In this sense R can be called as the relative damage. Really lifetime years are lost after the exposure. R can be in some conditional sense considered as a dimensionless quantity. General safety standards R n for the public and occupational workers have been suggested in terms of this index: R n = 0.0007 and 0.01 accordingly. Secondary safety standards are derived for a number of risk sources (ionising radiation, environmental chemical pollutants, etc). Values of R n are chosen in such a way that to have the secondary radiation BSS being equivalent to the current one's. Other general and derived levels for safety decision-making are also proposed including the de-minimus levels. Their possible dependence on the national or regional health-demographic data (HDD) is considered. Such issues as the ways of the integration and averaging of risk indices considered through the national or regional HDD for different risk sources and the use of non-threshold linear exposure - response relationships for ionising radiation and chemical pollutants are analysed

Shared decision-making.

Science.gov (United States)

Godolphin, William

2009-01-01

Shared decision-making has been called the crux of patient-centred care and identified as a key part of change for improved quality and safety in healthcare. However, it rarely happens, is hard to do and is not taught - for many reasons. Talking with patients about options is not embedded in the attitudes or communication skills training of most healthcare professionals. Information tools such as patient decision aids, personal health records and the Internet will help to shift this state, as will policy that drives patient and public involvement in healthcare delivery and training.

The effects of emotion on pilot decision-making: A neuroergonomic approach to aviation safety

OpenAIRE

Causse, Mickaël; Dehais, Frédéric; Péran, Patrice; Sabatini, Umberto; Pastor, Josette

2013-01-01

International audience; Emotion or stress can jeopardize decision-making relevance and cognitive functioning. In this paper we examine plan continuation error (PCE), an erroneous behavior defined as a "failure to revise a flight plan despite emerging evidence that suggests it is no longer safe" (Orasanu, Ames, Martin, & Davison, 2001). Our hypothesis is that negative emotional consequences attached to the go-around decision provoke a temporary impairment of the decision-making process and fav...

DECISION-MAKING ALIGNED WITH RAPID-CYCLE EVALUATION IN HEALTH CARE.

Science.gov (United States)

Schneeweiss, Sebastian; Shrank, William H; Ruhl, Michael; Maclure, Malcolm

2015-01-01

Availability of real-time electronic healthcare data provides new opportunities for rapid-cycle evaluation (RCE) of health technologies, including healthcare delivery and payment programs. We aim to align decision-making processes with stages of RCE to optimize the usefulness and impact of rapid results. Rational decisions about program adoption depend on program effect size in relation to externalities, including implementation cost, sustainability, and likelihood of broad adoption. Drawing on case studies and experience from drug safety monitoring, we examine how decision makers have used scientific evidence on complex interventions in the past. We clarify how RCE alters the nature of policy decisions; develop the RAPID framework for synchronizing decision-maker activities with stages of RCE; and provide guidelines on evidence thresholds for incremental decision-making. In contrast to traditional evaluations, RCE provides early evidence on effectiveness and facilitates a stepped approach to decision making in expectation of future regularly updated evidence. RCE allows for identification of trends in adjusted effect size. It supports adapting a program in midstream in response to interim findings, or adapting the evaluation strategy to identify true improvements earlier. The 5-step RAPID approach that utilizes the cumulating evidence of program effectiveness over time could increase policy-makers' confidence in expediting decisions. RCE enables a step-wise approach to HTA decision-making, based on gradually emerging evidence, reducing delays in decision-making processes after traditional one-time evaluations.

Factors affecting long-term-care residents' decision-making processes as they formulate advance directives.

Science.gov (United States)

Lambert, Heather C; McColl, Mary Ann; Gilbert, Julie; Wong, Jiahui; Murray, Gale; Shortt, Samuel E D

2005-10-01

The purpose of this study was to describe factors contributing to the decision-making processes of elderly persons as they formulate advance directives in long-term care. This study was qualitative, based on grounded theory. Recruitment was purposive and continued until saturation was reached. Nine residents of a long-term-care facility were interviewed by use of a semistructured format. Open and axial coding of interview transcripts were carried out and the factors contributing to the decision process were defined. Elders based their decisions primarily on information gathered from personal experiences with death and illness. They obtained very little information from professionals or the media. Major factors considered by elders as they weighed information included spiritual, emotional, and social considerations. The factors considered during the decision-making process were oriented more toward the individual's experiences and less on contributions from objective sources than anticipated. Decision making for advance directives is a highly personalized process. The approach of health professionals when assisting with end-of-life decision making should be planned with these contributing factors in mind, so that the services offered to the individuals in this population best meet their needs.

Ergonomics and risk management in high risk organizations: nuclear power plant operator decision making

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Carvalho, Paulo Victor Rodrigues de

2003-08-01

Nuclear power plants are high hazard environments where emergency situations can have devastating effects. The operator crew has the ultimate responsibility to control the energy production process with safety. The outcome of a crisis is consequently dependent on the crew's judgement, decision making and situation awareness. In such way we should know how operators make their decisions in order to develop safety strategies. The aim of this thesis is to examine the cognitive processes through which operators make decisions when dealing with micro incidents during their actual work, and to determine whether they use a naturalistic or normative decision making strategy. That is, do they try to recognize the micro incident as familiar and base decisions on condition-action rules (naturalistic), or do they need to concurrently compare and contrast options before selecting the best possible (normative). The method employed for data collection was the Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA) and Ergonomic Work Analysis (EWA). The main findings of this thesis were that decision making is primarily based on naturalistic strategies, such as condition-action rules and recognition. In new situations rules are created ad hoc. These rules appear derived from experience and training rather than from Standard Operating Procedures and contrast normative competence standards used by nuclear industry. (author)

Preferences for political decision-making processes and issue publics

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wojcieszak, M.

2014-01-01

Research on public attitudes toward political decision-making has typically focused on politics in general. This study attends to issue-level as well as individual-level factors that can explain political process preferences. First, drawing on the classic distinction between easy and hard political

Assimilation of public opinions in nuclear decision-making using risk perception

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sohn, K.Y.; Yang, J.W.; Kang, C.S.

2001-01-01

A method of assimilating public opinions in the decision-making process has been developed in this study. The proposed method will resolve the major shortcomings of existing decision-making models, which are deficient in, or missing public participation during the process. In the nuclear-related decision-making process, a particular concern of the public is nuclear safety, which is numerically characterized by risk. In reality, it is the risk that each individual perceives that is very important. Hence, the public perception of risk has been employed as a key decision-making element in representing public opinions. To quantify the public perception of risk, the psychometric model is used. Psychological risk dimensions are first assessed using factor analysis and a set of factors is identified for optimized computation. Expert opinions formulated by a group of selected professionals and experts are then aggregated with the public opinions. To gather public and expert opinions, separate polls were conducted in this study. In the aggregation, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and multi-attribute utility analysis (MAUA) were employed, and for uncertainty analysis, a fuzzy set based approach was adopted. This method has been applied to analyze six options for spent fuel management in Korea for a case study. As expected, the results of the case study show that public risk perception is an important element in nuclear-related decision-making processes

The analytic hierarchy process as a support for decision making

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Filipović Milanka

2007-01-01

Full Text Available The first part of this text deals with a convention site selection as one of the most lucrative areas in the tourism industry. The second part gives a further description of a method for decision making - the analytic hierarchy process. The basic characteristics: hierarchy constructions and pair wise comparison on the given level of the hierarchy are allured. The third part offers an example of application. This example is solved using the Super - Decision software, which is developed as a computer support for the analytic hierarchy process. This indicates that the AHP approach is a useful tool to help support a decision of convention site selection. .

Nuclear regulatory decision making

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wieland, Patricia; Almeida, Ivan Pedro Salati de

2011-01-01

The scientific considerations upon which the nuclear regulations are based provide objective criteria for decisions on nuclear safety matters. However, the decisions that a regulatory agency takes go far beyond granting or not an operating license based on assessment of compliance. It may involve decisions about hiring experts or research, appeals, responses to other government agencies, international agreements, etc.. In all cases, top management of the regulatory agency should hear and decide the best balance between the benefits of regulatory action and undue risks and other associated impacts that may arise, including issues of credibility and reputation. The establishment of a decision framework based on well established principles and criteria ensures performance stability and consistency, preventing individual subjectivity. This article analyzes the challenges to the decision-making by regulatory agencies to ensure coherence and consistency in decisions, even in situations where there is uncertainty, lack of reliable information and even divergence of opinions among experts. The article explores the basic elements for a framework for regulatory decision-making. (author)

How Are Distributed Groups Affected by an Imposed Structuring of their Decision-Making Process?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lundell, Anders Lorentz; Hertzum, Morten

2011-01-01

Groups often suffer from ineffective communication and decision making. This experimental study compares distributed groups solving a preference task with support from either a communication system or a system providing both communication and a structuring of the decision-making process. Results...... show that groups using the latter system spend more time solving the task, spend more of their time on solution analysis, spend less of their time on disorganized activity, and arrive at task solutions with less extreme preferences. Thus, the type of system affects the decision-making process as well...... as its outcome. Notably, the task solutions arrived at by the groups using the system that imposes a structuring of the decision-making process show limited correlation with the task solutions suggested by the system on the basis of the groups’ explicitly stated criteria. We find no differences in group...

Selective exposure to information: how different modes of decision making affect subsequent confirmatory information processing.

Science.gov (United States)

Fischer, Peter; Fischer, Julia; Weisweiler, Silke; Frey, Dieter

2010-12-01

We investigated whether different modes of decision making (deliberate, intuitive, distracted) affect subsequent confirmatory processing of decision-consistent and inconsistent information. Participants showed higher levels of confirmatory information processing when they made a deliberate or an intuitive decision versus a decision under distraction (Studies 1 and 2). As soon as participants have a cognitive (i.e., deliberate cognitive analysis) or affective (i.e., intuitive and gut feeling) reason for their decision, the subjective confidence in the validity of their decision increases, which results in increased levels of confirmatory information processing (Study 2). In contrast, when participants are distracted during decision making, they are less certain about the validity of their decision and thus are subsequently more balanced in the processing of decision-relevant information.

Linking Effective Project Management to Business Strategy in Oil and Gas Industry through Decision-making Processes

Science.gov (United States)

Adeleke, Adeyinka

The construction project in the oil and gas industry covers the entire spectrum of hydrocarbon production from the wellhead (upstream) to downstream facilities. In each of these establishments, the activities in a construction project include: consulting, studies, front-end engineering, detail engineering, procurement, program management, construction, installation, commissioning and start-up. Efficient management of each of the activities involved in construction projects is one of the driving forces for the successful completion of the project. Optimizing the crucial factors in project management during each phase of a project in an oil and gas industry can assist managers to maximize the use of available resources and drive the project to successful conclusions. One of these factors is the decision-making process in the construction project. Current research effort investigated the relationship between decision-making processes and business strategy in oil and gas industry using employee surveys. I recruited employees of different races, age group, genders, and years of experience in order understand their influence on the implementation of the decision-making process in oil and gas industry through a quantitative survey. Decision-making was assessed using five decision measures: (a) rational, (b) intuitive, (c) dependent, (d) avoidant, and (e) spontaneous. The findings indicated gender, age, years of work experience and job titles as primary variables with a negative relationship with decision-making approach for employees working in a major oil and gas industry. The study results revealed that the two most likely decision-making methods in oil and gas industry include: making a decision in a logical and systematic way and seek assistance from others when making a decision. Additionally, the two leading management approaches to decision-making in the oil and gas industry include: decision analysis is part of organization culture and management is committed to

Increasing a large petrochemical company efficiency by improvement of decision making process

OpenAIRE

Kirin Snežana D.; Nešić Lela G.

2010-01-01

The paper shows the results of a research conducted in a large petrochemical company, in a state under transition, with the aim to "shed light" on the decision making process from the aspect of personal characteristics of the employees, in order to use the results to improve decision making process and increase company efficiency. The research was conducted by a survey, i.e. by filling out a questionnaire specially made for this purpose, in real conditions, during working hours. The sample of...

CapDEM TDP - DND Capability Decision-Making Process: the As-Is

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Harvey, Gaetane; Leclerc, Jocelyn; Dussault, Genevieve

2005-01-01

The purpose of this document is to describe the current DND/CF Acquisition process as well as the associated decision-making process in order to provide the project team with a common understanding...

Decision making and cancer.

Science.gov (United States)

Reyna, Valerie F; Nelson, Wendy L; Han, Paul K; Pignone, Michael P

2015-01-01

We review decision making along the cancer continuum in the contemporary context of informed and shared decision making in which patients are encouraged to take a more active role in their health care. We discuss challenges to achieving informed and shared decision making, including cognitive limitations and emotional factors, but argue that understanding the mechanisms of decision making offers hope for improving decision support. Theoretical approaches to decision making that explain cognition, emotion, and their interaction are described, including classical psychophysical approaches, dual-process approaches that focus on conflicts between emotion versus cognition (or reason), and modern integrative approaches such as fuzzy-trace theory. In contrast to the earlier emphasis on rote use of numerical detail, modern approaches emphasize understanding the bottom-line gist of options (which encompasses emotion and other influences on meaning) and retrieving relevant social and moral values to apply to those gist representations. Finally, research on interventions to support better decision making in clinical settings is reviewed, drawing out implications for future research on decision making and cancer. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved.

Factors influencing the surgical decision for the treatment of degenerative lumbar stenosis in a preference-based shared decision-making process.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Ho-Joong; Park, Jae-Young; Kang, Kyoung-Tak; Chang, Bong-Soon; Lee, Choon-Ki; Yeom, Jin S

2015-02-01

In a preference-based shared decision-making system, several subjective and/or objective factors such as pain severity, degree of disability, and the radiological severity of canal stenosis may influence the final surgical decision for the treatment of lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS). However, our understanding of the shared decision-making process and the significance of each factor remain primitive. In the present study, we aimed to investigate which factors influence the surgical decision for the treatment of LSS when using a preference-based, shared decision-making process. We included 555 patients, aged 45-80 years, who used a preference-based shared decision-making process and were treated conservatively or surgically for chronic leg and/or back pain caused by LSS from April 2012 to December 2012. Univariate and multivariable-adjusted logistic regression analyses were used to assess the association of surgical decision making with age, sex, body mass index, symptom duration, radiologic stenotic grade, Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), visual analog scale (VAS) scores for back and leg pain, Short Form-36 (SF-36) subscales, and motor weakness. In univariate analysis, the following variables were associated with a higher odds of a surgical decision for LSS: male sex; the VAS score for leg pain; ODI; morphological stenotic grades B, C, and D; motor weakness; and the physical function, physical role, bodily pain, social function, and emotional role of the SF-36 subscales. Multivariate analysis revealed that male sex, ODI, morphological stenotic grades C and D, and motor weakness were significantly associated with a higher possibility of a surgical decision. Motor weakness, male sex, morphological stenotic grade, and the amount of disability are critical factors leading to a surgical decision for LSS when using a preference-based shared decision-making process.

[Interoception and decision-making].

Science.gov (United States)

Ohira, Hideki

2015-02-01

We sometimes make decisions relying not necessarily on deliberative thoughts but on intuitive and emotional processes in uncertain situations. The somatic marker hypothesis proposed by Damasio argued that interoception, which means bodily responses such as sympathetic activity, can be represented in the insula and anterior cingulate cortex and can play critical roles in decision-making. Though this hypothesis has been criticized in its theoretical and empirical aspects, recent studies are expanding the hypothesis to elucidate multiple bodily responses including autonomic, endocrine, and immune activities that affect decision-making. In addition, cumulative findings suggest that the anterior insula where the inner model of interoception is represented can act as an interface between the brain and body in decision-making. This article aims to survey recent findings on the brain-body interplays underlying decision-making, and to propose hypotheses on the significance of the body in decision-making.

Challenges to fair decision-making processes in the context of health care services

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Shayo, Elizabeth H.; Norheim, Ole F.; Mboera, Leonard E. G.

2012-01-01

challenges to fair decision-making processes in health care services with a special focus on the potential influence of gender, wealth, ethnicity and education. We draw on the principle of fairness as outlined in the deliberative democratic theory. METHODS: The study was carried out in the Mbarali District......ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Fair processes in decision making need the involvement of stakeholders who can discuss issues and reach an agreement based on reasons that are justifiable and appropriate in meeting people's needs. In Tanzania, the policy of decentralization and the health sector reform place......: The study findings indicate a substantial influence of gender, wealth, ethnicity and education on health care decision-making processes. Men, wealthy individuals, members of strong ethnic groups and highly educated individuals had greater influence. Opinions varied among the study informants as to whether...

The decision making in the nuclear regulations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2005-01-01

This document describes some parameters and fundamental criteria which should be taken into account by the safety authorities in the decision making. Added to these principles, internal procedures, devoted to an integrated framework of decision making, should be implemented. This presentation is based on the study realized by an experts Group of the Nuclear Energy Agency. (A.L.B.)

Aviation System Safety and Pilot Risk Perception: Implications for Enhancing Decision-Making Skills

Science.gov (United States)

Green, Mavis F.

2001-01-01

This research explores risk perception in a defined population of flight instructors and the implications of these views for flight training. Flight instructors and students engaged in collegiate aviation flight training were interviewed for this qualitative study. Thirty-three percent of the instructors interviewed reported that flying is not a risky activity. This is important because research identifies risk perception as one factor influencing instructional choices. These choices can then impact the subsequent decision-making processes of flight students. Facilitating pilot decision-making through the use of an appropriate type of learning that incorporates the modeling of consensually validated cognitive procedures and risk management processes is discussed.

The application of the heuristic-systematic processing model to treatment decision making about prostate cancer.

Science.gov (United States)

Steginga, Suzanne K; Occhipinti, Stefano

2004-01-01

The study investigated the utility of the Heuristic-Systematic Processing Model as a framework for the investigation of patient decision making. A total of 111 men recently diagnosed with localized prostate cancer were assessed using Verbal Protocol Analysis and self-report measures. Study variables included men's use of nonsystematic and systematic information processing, desire for involvement in decision making, and the individual differences of health locus of control, tolerance of ambiguity, and decision-related uncertainty. Most men (68%) preferred that decision making be shared equally between them and their doctor. Men's use of the expert opinion heuristic was related to men's verbal reports of decisional uncertainty and having a positive orientation to their doctor and medical care; a desire for greater involvement in decision making was predicted by a high internal locus of health control. Trends were observed for systematic information processing to increase when the heuristic strategy used was negatively affect laden and when men were uncertain about the probabilities for cure and side effects. There was a trend for decreased systematic processing when the expert opinion heuristic was used. Findings were consistent with the Heuristic-Systematic Processing Model and suggest that this model has utility for future research in applied decision making about health.

Moral and Ethical Decision Making: Literature Review

Science.gov (United States)

2005-08-08

exploration and elaboration of both rational and intuitive decision making processes. In addition, emotions may also play an important role in...More specifically, it suggests that both rational and intuitive decision making processes are likely to play an important role in ethical decision ...and military literature related to ethical decision making more generally. Specifically, it suggests that both rational and intuitive decision making

The Military Decision-Making Process (MDMP): A Prototype Training Product

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Wampler, Richard

1998-01-01

...): A Prototype Training Product. The MDMP product is a computer-based, stand alone training support package to assist individuals and staffs of light infantry brigades in learning to participate in the military decision-making process...

Decision-making in Swiss home-like childbirth: A grounded theory study.

Science.gov (United States)

Meyer, Yvonne; Frank, Franziska; Schläppy Muntwyler, Franziska; Fleming, Valerie; Pehlke-Milde, Jessica

2017-12-01

Decision-making in midwifery, including a claim for shared decision-making between midwives and women, is of major significance for the health of mother and child. Midwives have little information about how to share decision-making responsibilities with women, especially when complications arise during birth. To increase understanding of decision-making in complex home-like birth settings by exploring midwives' and women's perspectives and to develop a dynamic model integrating participatory processes for making shared decisions. The study, based on grounded theory methodology, analysed 20 interviews of midwives and 20 women who had experienced complications in home-like births. The central phenomenon that arose from the data was "defining/redefining decision as a joint commitment to healthy childbirth". The sub-indicators that make up this phenomenon were safety, responsibility, mutual and personal commitments. These sub-indicators were also identified to influence temporal conditions of decision-making and to apply different strategies for shared decision-making. Women adopted strategies such as delegating a decision, making the midwife's decision her own, challenging a decision or taking a decision driven by the dynamics of childbirth. Midwives employed strategies such as remaining indecisive, approving a woman's decision, making an informed decision or taking the necessary decision. To respond to recommendations for shared responsibility for care, midwives need to strengthen their shared decision-making skills. The visual model of decision-making in childbirth derived from the data provides a framework for transferring clinical reasoning into practice. Copyright © 2017 Australian College of Midwives. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

44 CFR Appendix A to Part 9 - Decision-making Process for E.O. 11988

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 44 Emergency Management and Assistance 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Decision-making Process for E.O. 11988 A Appendix A to Part 9 Emergency Management and Assistance FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT..., App. A Appendix A to Part 9—Decision-making Process for E.O. 11988 EC02FE91.074 ...

[The Decision-Making Processes in Taiwanese Women With Repeat Caesarean Deliveries].

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Shu-Wen

2016-10-01

Repeat caesarean delivery (RCD) ranks as the top reason for the high caesarean rates in Taiwan. More than 90% of Taiwanese women who have had a previous caesarean delivery chose RCD following their next pregnancy. To explore the decision-making processes regarding RCD in Taiwanese women. A qualitative approach with grounded theory was used to conduct this research. Participants were recruited from a private medical centre in northern Taiwan. Methods of data collection include in-depth interviews, observation, and field notes. Constant comparative analytical techniques were employed for data analysis. A total of 16 women chose RCD. Ensuring the well-being of mother and fetus was the core theme. Women's decisions were influenced by both internal factors (previous negative experience of birth, concern about uterine rupture, fixing the scar of previous caesarean and current pregnancy situation) and external factors (obstetrician's recommendation, the experience of female significant others, an inaccurate information from internet and the unconditional financial coverage from Health National Insurance). Decision-making processes involved searching information regarding mode of birth, evaluating vaginal birth risk, trusting obstetricians' professional judgment, and a lack of progress during the course of labour. The well-being of mother and fetus is the major concern affecting mothers' decisions regarding RCD. The majority of Taiwanese women participate passively in the decision-making process regarding their options for mode of birth. In the present study, women choices were primarily guided by reducing the risk of uterine rupture. Hospitals should reduce unnecessary induction interventions. Obstetricians should inform women of the risks and benefits of various birth modes. The government could establish a website that provides a clear explanation of the criteria for the government to financially cover the costs of RCD in order to assist women to make optimal birth

Adapting Cognitive Task Analysis to Investigate Clinical Decision Making and Medication Safety Incidents.

Science.gov (United States)

Russ, Alissa L; Militello, Laura G; Glassman, Peter A; Arthur, Karen J; Zillich, Alan J; Weiner, Michael

2017-05-03

Cognitive task analysis (CTA) can yield valuable insights into healthcare professionals' cognition and inform system design to promote safe, quality care. Our objective was to adapt CTA-the critical decision method, specifically-to investigate patient safety incidents, overcome barriers to implementing this method, and facilitate more widespread use of cognitive task analysis in healthcare. We adapted CTA to facilitate recruitment of healthcare professionals and developed a data collection tool to capture incidents as they occurred. We also leveraged the electronic health record (EHR) to expand data capture and used EHR-stimulated recall to aid reconstruction of safety incidents. We investigated 3 categories of medication-related incidents: adverse drug reactions, drug-drug interactions, and drug-disease interactions. Healthcare professionals submitted incidents, and a subset of incidents was selected for CTA. We analyzed several outcomes to characterize incident capture and completed CTA interviews. We captured 101 incidents. Eighty incidents (79%) met eligibility criteria. We completed 60 CTA interviews, 20 for each incident category. Capturing incidents before interviews allowed us to shorten the interview duration and reduced reliance on healthcare professionals' recall. Incorporating the EHR into CTA enriched data collection. The adapted CTA technique was successful in capturing specific categories of safety incidents. Our approach may be especially useful for investigating safety incidents that healthcare professionals "fix and forget." Our innovations to CTA are expected to expand the application of this method in healthcare and inform a wide range of studies on clinical decision making and patient safety.

Decision-Oriented Health Technology Assessment: One Step Forward in Supporting the Decision-Making Process in Hospitals.

Science.gov (United States)

Ritrovato, Matteo; Faggiano, Francesco C; Tedesco, Giorgia; Derrico, Pietro

2015-06-01

This article outlines the Decision-Oriented Health Technology Assessment: a new implementation of the European network for Health Technology Assessment Core Model, integrating the multicriteria decision-making analysis by using the analytic hierarchy process to introduce a standardized methodological approach as a valued and shared tool to support health care decision making within a hospital. Following the Core Model as guidance (European network for Health Technology Assessment. HTA core model for medical and surgical interventions. Available from: http://www.eunethta.eu/outputs/hta-core-model-medical-and-surgical-interventions-10r. [Accessed May 27, 2014]), it is possible to apply the analytic hierarchy process to break down a problem into its constituent parts and identify priorities (i.e., assigning a weight to each part) in a hierarchical structure. Thus, it quantitatively compares the importance of multiple criteria in assessing health technologies and how the alternative technologies perform in satisfying these criteria. The verbal ratings are translated into a quantitative form by using the Saaty scale (Saaty TL. Decision making with the analytic hierarchy process. Int J Serv Sci 2008;1:83-98). An eigenvectors analysis is used for deriving the weights' systems (i.e., local and global weights' system) that reflect the importance assigned to the criteria and the priorities related to the performance of the alternative technologies. Compared with the Core Model, this methodological approach supplies a more timely as well as contextualized evidence for a specific technology, making it possible to obtain data that are more relevant and easier to interpret, and therefore more useful for decision makers to make investment choices with greater awareness. We reached the conclusion that although there may be scope for improvement, this implementation is a step forward toward the goal of building a "solid bridge" between the scientific evidence and the final decision

Emotions in Risk Assessment and Decision Making Processes During Craft Practice

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Camilla Groth

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Traditionally subjective experiences and emotions have been overlooked in the practice of scientific research. In the field of design and craft research too, feelings and emotions have been considered as interfering with the rigour of research. However, as a result of findings in neuroscience, a new understanding has emerged, providing emotions a central role in risk assessment and decision making processes. This has implications also for how we understand craft practice. In this practice-led research, a craft practitioner analysed five video-recordings of herself while throwing clay blindfolded. The researcher-practitioner specifically studied critical incidents in the throwing process and made a detailed analysis of how sensory experiences and emotions guided her in risk assessment, decision making, and problem solving during the clay-throwing sessions. She found that her tactile experience gave her important clues on the condition of the material and its consequent possibilities at different stages. These experiences in turn affected her emotions in either positive or negative ways, affecting her risk assessment, decision making, and problem solving activities. This research has shown that sensory experiences and emotions influence the craft making process and are thus important elements in the expertise of the craftsperson. The role of such emotions remains to be studied further in the expertise of researchers in general.

Probabilistic assessment methods as a tool for developing nations to make safety decisions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gumley, P.; Inamdar, S.V.

1985-01-01

This paper advocates the use of probabilistic safety assessment methods in making safety decisions. It discusses the question of adequate safety - what it means to a country buying a nuclear power plant, and how probabilistic safety assessment studies of the reference plant can be used for ensuring this adequate safety. It is proposed that adequate safety means ensuring that the plant would behave, in accident conditions, in a manner similar to the way it is expected to behave were it in the country of origin. For this one needs to know how the plant responds under somewhat altered conditions. These altered conditions can arise from such factors as varying reliability of electrical grids, different manufacturing technology, local systems design and operator capability. In the design of nuclear power plants, the traditional approach to safety has led to the belief that availability and effectiveness of safety systems alone are all that is required to ensure plant safety. This belief can result in design oversights leading to potential problems arising from the power production systems and the service systems. Participation by the buying country in the design of such systems, and understanding the safety implications thereof, can be facilitated by probabilistic safety assessment methods. This philosophy is illustrated in this paper by examples. (author)

Free-Choice Learning Suited to Women's Participation Needs in Environmental Decision-Making Processes

Science.gov (United States)

Skanavis, Constantina; Sakellari, Maria

2012-01-01

United Nations mandates recognize the need to promote the full participation of women in environmental decision-making processes on the basis of gender equality. But, there remains a profound lack of effective women's participation in some sectors of environmental decision-making. Free-choice environmental learning offers an effective educational…

Integrating risk management and safety culture in a framework for risk informed decision making

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nelson, W.R.

2009-01-01

Operators and regulators of nuclear power plants agree on the importance of maintaining safety and controlling accident risks. Effective safety and risk management requires treatment of both technical and organizational components. Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) provides tools for technical risk management. However, organizational factors are not treated in PRA, but are addressed using different approaches. To bring both components together, a framework of Risk Informed Decision Making (RIDM) is needed. The objective tree structure of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is a promising approach to combine both elements. Effective collaboration involving regulatory and industry groups is needed to accomplish the integration. (author)

Adult Age Differences in Dual Information Processes: Implications for the Role of Affective and Deliberative Processes in Older Adults' Decision Making.

Science.gov (United States)

Peters, Ellen; Hess, Thomas M; Västfjäll, Daniel; Auman, Corinne

2007-03-01

Age differences in affective/experiential and deliberative processes have important theoretical implications for judgment and decision theory and important pragmatic implications for older-adult decision making. Age-related declines in the efficiency of deliberative processes predict poorer-quality decisions as we age. However, age-related adaptive processes, including motivated selectivity in the use of deliberative capacity, an increased focus on emotional goals, and greater experience, predict better or worse decisions for older adults depending on the situation. The aim of the current review is to examine adult age differences in affective and deliberative information processes in order to understand their potential impact on judgments and decisions. We review evidence for the role of these dual processes in judgment and decision making and then review two representative life-span perspectives (based on aging-related changes to cognitive or motivational processes) on the interplay between these processes. We present relevant predictions for older-adult decisions and make note of contradictions and gaps that currently exist in the literature. Finally, we review the sparse evidence about age differences in decision making and how theories and findings regarding dual processes could be applied to decision theory and decision aiding. In particular, we focus on prospect theory (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979) and how prospect theory and theories regarding age differences in information processing can inform one another. © 2007 Association for Psychological Science.

Judgment and decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Fischhoff, Baruch

2010-09-01

The study of judgment and decision making entails three interrelated forms of research: (1) normative analysis, identifying the best courses of action, given decision makers' values; (2) descriptive studies, examining actual behavior in terms comparable to the normative analyses; and (3) prescriptive interventions, helping individuals to make better choices, bridging the gap between the normative ideal and the descriptive reality. The research is grounded in analytical foundations shared by economics, psychology, philosophy, and management science. Those foundations provide a framework for accommodating affective and social factors that shape and complement the cognitive processes of decision making. The decision sciences have grown through applications requiring collaboration with subject matter experts, familiar with the substance of the choices and the opportunities for interventions. Over the past half century, the field has shifted its emphasis from predicting choices, which can be successful without theoretical insight, to understanding the processes shaping them. Those processes are often revealed through biases that suggest non-normative processes. The practical importance of these biases depends on the sensitivity of specific decisions and the support that individuals have in making them. As a result, the field offers no simple summary of individuals' competence as decision makers, but a suite of theories and methods suited to capturing these sensitivities. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Self in Decision Making and Decision Implementation.

Science.gov (United States)

Beach, Lee Roy; Mitchell, Terence R.

Since the early 1950's the principal prescriptive model in the psychological study of decision making has been maximization of Subjective Expected Utility (SEU). This SEU maximization has come to be regarded as a description of how people go about making decisions. However, while observed decision processes sometimes resemble the SEU model,…

Investigating the Decision-Making Process of Standard Setting Participants

Science.gov (United States)

Papageorgiou, Spiros

2010-01-01

Despite the growing interest of the language testing community in standard setting, primarily due to the use of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR-Council of Europe, 2001), the participants' decision-making process in the CEFR standard setting context remains unexplored. This study attempts to fill in this gap by analyzing these…

GROUPS DECISION MAKING WITHIN THE ORGANIZATION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anca Stan

2008-12-01

Full Text Available In a highly global market, organizations that have the ability to analyze and rapidly respond to the constantly changing marketplace will have the greatest chance of remaining competitive and profitable. Group decision making is the process of arriving at a judgment based upon the feedback of multiple individuals. Due to the importance of the group decision making process, decision making models can be used to establish a systematic means of developing effective group decision making. Once a decision has been made, the members of the group should be willing to accept it and support its implementations.

The Production of Green Identities in Garbage Can Decision-making Processes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Backer, Lise

of organisational identities to the model. Within the scientific field of business and the environment the article contributes to a new understanding of the relationship between decision-making, green organisational identities and the process of social construction of business opportunities. This relationship can...... the decision has happened. Thus, in the process of accounting for their decision the corporations are not just accounting for a particular decision, but also in a general sense contributing to socially constructing anew what can be considered a business opportunity - also for other corporations....... In this process of socially constructing new business opportunities the corporations are drawing on cultural sources not just from the field of rhetoric of economics, but also from other cultural sources within the business sector and the society as such....

Multicriteria decision analysis: Overview and implications for environmental decision making

Science.gov (United States)

Hermans, Caroline M.; Erickson, Jon D.; Erickson, Jon D.; Messner, Frank; Ring, Irene

2007-01-01

Environmental decision making involving multiple stakeholders can benefit from the use of a formal process to structure stakeholder interactions, leading to more successful outcomes than traditional discursive decision processes. There are many tools available to handle complex decision making. Here we illustrate the use of a multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) outranking tool (PROMETHEE) to facilitate decision making at the watershed scale, involving multiple stakeholders, multiple criteria, and multiple objectives. We compare various MCDA methods and their theoretical underpinnings, examining methods that most realistically model complex decision problems in ways that are understandable and transparent to stakeholders.

Using the ACT-R architecture to specify 39 quantitative process models of decision making

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Marewski, Julian N.; Mehlhorn, Katja

Hypotheses about decision processes are often formulated qualitatively and remain silent about the interplay of decision, memorial, and other cognitive processes. At the same time, existing decision models are specified at varying levels of detail, making it difficult to compare them. We provide a

Nurses' decision-making process in cases of physical restraint in acute elderly care: a qualitative study.

Science.gov (United States)

Goethals, S; Dierckx de Casterlé, B; Gastmans, C

2013-05-01

The increasing vulnerability of patients in acute elderly care requires constant critical reflection in ethically charged situations such as when employing physical restraint. Qualitative evidence concerning nurses' decision making in cases of physical restraint is limited and fragmented. A thorough understanding of nurses' decision-making process could be useful to understand how nurses reason and make decisions in ethically laden situations. The aims of this study were to explore and describe nurses' decision-making process in cases of physical restraint. We used a qualitative interview design inspired by the Grounded Theory approach. Data analysis was guided by the Qualitative Analysis Guide of Leuven. Twelve hospitals geographically spread throughout the five provinces of Flanders, Belgium. Twenty-one acute geriatric nurses interviewed between October 2009 and April 2011 were purposively and theoretically selected, with the aim of including nurses having a variety of characteristics and experiences concerning decisions on using physical restraint. In cases of physical restraint in acute elderly care, nurses' decision making was never experienced as a fixed decision but rather as a series of decisions. Decision making was mostly reasoned upon and based on rational arguments; however, decisions were also made routinely and intuitively. Some nurses felt very certain about their decisions, while others experienced feelings of uncertainty regarding their decisions. Nurses' decision making is an independent process that requires nurses to obtain a good picture of the patient, to be constantly observant, and to assess and reassess the patient's situation. Coming to thoughtful and individualized decisions requires major commitment and constant critical reflection. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Difficult Decisions: A Qualitative Exploration of the Statistical Decision Making Process from the Perspectives of Psychology Students and Academics.

Science.gov (United States)

Allen, Peter J; Dorozenko, Kate P; Roberts, Lynne D

2016-01-01

Quantitative research methods are essential to the development of professional competence in psychology. They are also an area of weakness for many students. In particular, students are known to struggle with the skill of selecting quantitative analytical strategies appropriate for common research questions, hypotheses and data types. To begin understanding this apparent deficit, we presented nine psychology undergraduates (who had all completed at least one quantitative methods course) with brief research vignettes, and asked them to explicate the process they would follow to identify an appropriate statistical technique for each. Thematic analysis revealed that all participants found this task challenging, and even those who had completed several research methods courses struggled to articulate how they would approach the vignettes on more than a very superficial and intuitive level. While some students recognized that there is a systematic decision making process that can be followed, none could describe it clearly or completely. We then presented the same vignettes to 10 psychology academics with particular expertise in conducting research and/or research methods instruction. Predictably, these "experts" were able to describe a far more systematic, comprehensive, flexible, and nuanced approach to statistical decision making, which begins early in the research process, and pays consideration to multiple contextual factors. They were sensitive to the challenges that students experience when making statistical decisions, which they attributed partially to how research methods and statistics are commonly taught. This sensitivity was reflected in their pedagogic practices. When asked to consider the format and features of an aid that could facilitate the statistical decision making process, both groups expressed a preference for an accessible, comprehensive and reputable resource that follows a basic decision tree logic. For the academics in particular, this aid

The Use of Art in the Medical Decision-Making Process of Oncology Patients

Science.gov (United States)

Czamanski-Cohen, Johanna

2012-01-01

The introduction of written informed consent in the 1970s created expectations of shared decision making between doctors and patients that has led to decisional conflict for some patients. This study utilized a collaborative, intrinsic case study approach to the decision-making process of oncology patients who participated in an open art therapy…

Toward theoretical understanding of the fertility preservation decision-making process: examining information processing among young women with cancer.

Science.gov (United States)

Hershberger, Patricia E; Finnegan, Lorna; Altfeld, Susan; Lake, Sara; Hirshfeld-Cytron, Jennifer

2013-01-01

Young women with cancer now face the complex decision about whether to undergo fertility preservation. Yet little is known about how these women process information involved in making this decision. The purpose of this article is to expand theoretical understanding of the decision-making process by examining aspects of information processing among young women diagnosed with cancer. Using a grounded theory approach, 27 women with cancer participated in individual, semistructured interviews. Data were coded and analyzed using constant-comparison techniques that were guided by 5 dimensions within the Contemplate phase of the decision-making process framework. In the first dimension, young women acquired information primarily from clinicians and Internet sources. Experiential information, often obtained from peers, occurred in the second dimension. Preferences and values were constructed in the third dimension as women acquired factual, moral, and ethical information. Women desired tailored, personalized information that was specific to their situation in the fourth dimension; however, women struggled with communicating these needs to clinicians. In the fifth dimension, women offered detailed descriptions of clinician behaviors that enhance or impede decisional debriefing. Better understanding of theoretical underpinnings surrounding women's information processes can facilitate decision support and improve clinical care.

Application of PSA in risk informed decision making

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hari Prasad, M.; Vinod, Gopika; Saraf, R.K.; Ghosh, A.K.; Kushwaha, H.S.

2006-01-01

Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA) models have been successfully employed during design evaluation to assess weak links and carry out design modifications to improve system reliability and safety. Recently, studies are directed towards applying PSA in various decision making issues concerned with plant operations and safety regulations. This necessitates development of software tools like Living PSA, Risk Monitor etc. Risk Monitor is a PC based tool developed to assess the risk, based on the actual status of systems and components. Such tools find wide application with plant personnel and regulatory authorities since they can provide solutions to various plant issues and regulatory decision making issues respectively. (author)

Treatment decision-making processes in the systemic treatment of ovarian cancer: review of the scientific evidence.

Science.gov (United States)

Luketina, Hrvoje; Fotopoulou, Christina; Luketina, Ruzica-Rosalia; Pilger, Adak; Sehouli, Jalid

2012-09-01

The systemic treatment of epithelial ovarian cancer (OC) is one of the cornerstones in the multimodal management of advanced OC in both primary and recurrent stages of this disease. In most situations various treatment options are available but only few data exists about the treatment decision-making process. Therefore, we conducted a review of the current literature regarding the decision-making process concerning the systemic therapy in patients with advanced ovarian cancer. The electronic database MEDLINE (PubMed) was systematically reviewed for studies that evaluate the treatment decision-making processes in patients with advanced OC. The PubMed database was searched in detail for all titles and abstracts of potentially relevant studies published between 1995 and 2011. An initial search identified 15 potentially relevant studies, but only seven met all inclusion criteria. Factors that influence treatment decisions in patients with OC include not only rational arguments and medical reasons, but also individual attitudes, fears, existential questions, various projections resulting from the physician patient relationship and the social environment. The physician's personal experience with OC treatment seems to be an important factor, followed by previous personal experience with medical issues, and the fear of side-effects and future metastases. Family and self-support organisations also seem to play a significant role in the treatment decision-making process. This review underlines the need for more research activities to explore the treatment decision-making process to enable the best individual support for patients in treatment decision-making. It is a challenge for clinicians to determine the individual information needs of women with OC and to involve them during the decision-making process to the extent they wish.

An Analysis of the Associations among Cognitive Impulsiveness, Reasoning Process, and Rational Decision Making.

Science.gov (United States)

Jelihovschi, Ana P G; Cardoso, Ricardo L; Linhares, Alexandre

2017-01-01

Impulsivity may lead to several unfortunate consequences and maladaptive behaviors for both clinical and nonclinical people. It has a key role in many forms of psychopathology. Although literature has discussed the negative impact of impulsivity, few have emphasized the relationship between cognitive impulsiveness and decision making. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of cognitive impulsiveness on decision making and explore the strategies used by participants to solve problems. For this purpose, we apply two measures of impulsivity: the self-report Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11) and the performance based Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT). Moreover, we evaluate participants' reasoning processes employed to answer CRT questions based on the calculation expressions, data organization, and erasures they made while answering the CRT (note that we utilized the instruments using pen and paper). These reasoning processes are related to the role of executive functions in decision making, and its relationship with impulsiveness. The sample consists of 191 adults, who were either professionals or undergraduate students from the fields of business, management, or accounting. The results show that cognitive impulsiveness may negatively affect decision making, and that those who presented the calculation to answer the CRT questions made better decisions. Moreover, there was no difference in the strategies used by impulsive vs. nonimpulsive participants during decision making. Finally, people who inhibited their immediate answers to CRT questions performed better during decision making.

Modelling decision-making by pilots

Science.gov (United States)

Patrick, Nicholas J. M.

1993-01-01

Our scientific goal is to understand the process of human decision-making. Specifically, a model of human decision-making in piloting modern commercial aircraft which prescribes optimal behavior, and against which we can measure human sub-optimality is sought. This model should help us understand such diverse aspects of piloting as strategic decision-making, and the implicit decisions involved in attention allocation. Our engineering goal is to provide design specifications for (1) better computer-based decision-aids, and (2) better training programs for the human pilot (or human decision-maker, DM).

Decision making under uncertainty: An investigation into the application of formal decision-making methods to safety issue decisions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bohn, M.P.

1992-12-01

As part of the NRC-sponsored program to study the implications of Generic Issue 57, ''Effects of Fire Protection System Actuation on Safety-Related Equipment,'' a subtask was performed to evaluate the applicability of formal decision analysis methods to generic issues cost/benefit-type decisions and to apply these methods to the GI-57 results. In this report, the numerical results obtained from the analysis of three plants (two PWRs and one BWR) as developed in the technical resolution program for GI-57 were studied. For each plant, these results included a calculation of the person-REM averted due to various accident scenarios and various proposed modifications to mitigate the accident scenarios identified. These results were recomputed to break out the benefit in terms of contributions due to random event scenarios, fire event scenarios, and seismic event scenarios. Furthermore, the benefits associated with risk (in terms of person-REM) averted from earthquakes at three different seismic ground motion levels were separately considered. Given this data, formal decision methodologies involving decision trees, value functions, and utility functions were applied to this basic data. It is shown that the formal decision methodology can be applied at several different levels. Examples are given in which the decision between several retrofits is changed from that resulting from a simple cost/benefit-ratio criterion by virtue of the decision-makinger's expressed (and assumed) preferences

Agent-Based Modeling of Consumer Decision making Process Based on Power Distance and Personality

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Roozmand, O.; Ghasem-Aghaee, N.; Hofstede, G.J.; Nematbakhsh, M.A.; Baraani, A.; Verwaart, T.

2011-01-01

Simulating consumer decision making processes involves different disciplines such as: sociology, social psychology, marketing, and computer science. In this paper, we propose an agent-based conceptual and computational model of consumer decision-making based on culture, personality and human needs.

[Cognitive errors in diagnostic decision making].

Science.gov (United States)

Gäbler, Martin

2017-10-01

Approximately 10-15% of our diagnostic decisions are faulty and may lead to unfavorable and dangerous outcomes, which could be avoided. These diagnostic errors are mainly caused by cognitive biases in the diagnostic reasoning process.Our medical diagnostic decision-making is based on intuitive "System 1" and analytical "System 2" diagnostic decision-making and can be deviated by unconscious cognitive biases.These deviations can be positively influenced on a systemic and an individual level. For the individual, metacognition (internal withdrawal from the decision-making process) and debiasing strategies, such as verification, falsification and rule out worst-case scenarios, can lead to improved diagnostic decisions making.

Age Differences in Information Use While Making Decisions: Resource Limitations or Processing Differences?

Science.gov (United States)

Jacobs-Lawson, Joy M; Schumacher, Mitzi M; Wackerbarth, Sarah B

2016-09-20

Recent research on the decision-making abilities of older adults has shown that they use less information than young adults. One explanation ascribes this age difference to reductions in cognitive abilities with age. The article includes three experimental studies that focused on determining the conditions in which older and young adults would display dissimilar information processing characteristics. Findings from Studies 1 and 2 demonstrated that older adults are not necessarily at greater disadvantage than young adults in decision contexts that demand more information processing resources. Findings from Study 3 indicated that older adults when faced with decisions that require greater processing are likely to use a strategy that reduces the amount of information needed, whereas younger adults rely on strategies that utilize more resources. Combined the findings indicate that older adults change their decision-making strategies based on the context and information provided. Furthermore, support is provided for processing difference. © The Author(s) 2016.

Modeling Human Elements of Decision-Making

Science.gov (United States)

2002-06-01

include factors such as personality, emotion , and level of expertise, which vary from individual to individual. The process of decision - making during... rational choice theories such as utility theory, to more descriptive psychological models that focus more on the process of decision - making ...descriptive nature, they provide a more realistic representation of human decision - making than the rationally based models. However these models do

How social cognition can inform social decision making

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Victoria K.; Harris, Lasana T.

2013-01-01

Social decision-making is often complex, requiring the decision-maker to make inferences of others' mental states in addition to engaging traditional decision-making processes like valuation and reward processing. A growing body of research in neuroeconomics has examined decision-making involving social and non-social stimuli to explore activity in brain regions such as the striatum and prefrontal cortex, largely ignoring the power of the social context. Perhaps more complex processes may influence decision-making in social vs. non-social contexts. Years of social psychology and social neuroscience research have documented a multitude of processes (e.g., mental state inferences, impression formation, spontaneous trait inferences) that occur upon viewing another person. These processes rely on a network of brain regions including medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), superior temporal sulcus (STS), temporal parietal junction, and precuneus among others. Undoubtedly, these social cognition processes affect social decision-making since mental state inferences occur spontaneously and automatically. Few studies have looked at how these social inference processes affect decision-making in a social context despite the capability of these inferences to serve as predictions that can guide future decision-making. Here we review and integrate the person perception and decision-making literatures to understand how social cognition can inform the study of social decision-making in a way that is consistent with both literatures. We identify gaps in both literatures—while behavioral economics largely ignores social processes that spontaneously occur upon viewing another person, social psychology has largely failed to talk about the implications of social cognition processes in an economic decision-making context—and examine the benefits of integrating social psychological theory with behavioral economic theory. PMID:24399928

How social cognition can inform social decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Victoria K; Harris, Lasana T

2013-12-25

Social decision-making is often complex, requiring the decision-maker to make inferences of others' mental states in addition to engaging traditional decision-making processes like valuation and reward processing. A growing body of research in neuroeconomics has examined decision-making involving social and non-social stimuli to explore activity in brain regions such as the striatum and prefrontal cortex, largely ignoring the power of the social context. Perhaps more complex processes may influence decision-making in social vs. non-social contexts. Years of social psychology and social neuroscience research have documented a multitude of processes (e.g., mental state inferences, impression formation, spontaneous trait inferences) that occur upon viewing another person. These processes rely on a network of brain regions including medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), superior temporal sulcus (STS), temporal parietal junction, and precuneus among others. Undoubtedly, these social cognition processes affect social decision-making since mental state inferences occur spontaneously and automatically. Few studies have looked at how these social inference processes affect decision-making in a social context despite the capability of these inferences to serve as predictions that can guide future decision-making. Here we review and integrate the person perception and decision-making literatures to understand how social cognition can inform the study of social decision-making in a way that is consistent with both literatures. We identify gaps in both literatures-while behavioral economics largely ignores social processes that spontaneously occur upon viewing another person, social psychology has largely failed to talk about the implications of social cognition processes in an economic decision-making context-and examine the benefits of integrating social psychological theory with behavioral economic theory.

How Social Cognition Can Inform Social Decision Making

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Victoria eLee

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Social decision-making is often complex, requiring the decision-maker to make inferences of others’ mental states in addition to engaging traditional decision-making processes like valuation and reward processing. A growing body of research in neuroeconomics has examined decision- making involving social and nonsocial stimuli to explore activity in brain regions such as the striatum and prefrontal cortex, largely ignoring the power of the social context. Perhaps more complex processes may influence decision-making in social versus nonsocial contexts. Years of social psychology and social neuroscience research have documented a multitude of processes (e.g. mental state inferences, impression formation, spontaneous trait inferences that occur upon viewing another person. These processes rely on a network of brain regions including medial prefrontal cortex, superior temporal sulcus, temporal parietal junction, and precuneus among others. Undoubtedly, these social cognition processes affect social decision-making since mental state inferences occur spontaneously and automatically. Few studies have looked at how these social inference processes affect decision-making in a social context despite the capability of these inferences to serve as predictions that can guide future decision-making. Here we review and integrate the person perception and decision-making literatures to understand how social cognition can inform the study of social decision-making in a way that is consistent with both literatures. We identify gaps in both literatures—while behavioral economics largely ignores social processes that spontaneously occur upon viewing another person, social psychology has largely failed to talk about the implications of social cognition processes in an economic decision-making context—and examine the benefits of integrating social psychological theory with behavioral economic theory.

Decision Making in Adults with ADHD

Science.gov (United States)

Montyla, Timo; Still, Johanna; Gullberg, Stina; Del Missier, Fabio

2012-01-01

Objectives: This study examined decision-making competence in ADHD by using multiple decision tasks with varying demands on analytic versus affective processes. Methods: Adults with ADHD and healthy controls completed two tasks of analytic decision making, as measured by the Adult Decision-Making Competence (A-DMC) battery, and two affective…

Human Errors in Decision Making

OpenAIRE

Mohamad, Shahriari; Aliandrina, Dessy; Feng, Yan

2005-01-01

The aim of this paper was to identify human errors in decision making process. The study was focused on a research question such as: what could be the human error as a potential of decision failure in evaluation of the alternatives in the process of decision making. Two case studies were selected from the literature and analyzed to find the human errors contribute to decision fail. Then the analysis of human errors was linked with mental models in evaluation of alternative step. The results o...

Ethical Decision Making

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lauesen, Linne Marie

2012-01-01

of the interaction between a corporation and its stakeholders. Methodology/approach: This paper offers a theoretical 'Organic Stakeholder Model' based on decision making theory, risk assessment and adaption to a rapidly changing world combined with appropriate stakeholder theory for ethical purposes in decision...... applicable): The Model is based on case studies, but the limited scope of the length of the paper did not leave room to show the empirical evidence, but only the theoretical study. Originality / value of a paper: The model offers a new way of combining risk management with ethical decision-making processes...... by the inclusion of multiple stakeholders. The conceptualization of the model enhances business ethics in decision making by managing and balancing stakeholder concerns with the same concerns as the traditional risk management models does – for the sake of the wider social responsibilities of the businesses...

The Rational Adolescent: Strategic Information Processing during Decision Making Revealed by Eye Tracking.

Science.gov (United States)

Kwak, Youngbin; Payne, John W; Cohen, Andrew L; Huettel, Scott A

2015-01-01

Adolescence is often viewed as a time of irrational, risky decision-making - despite adolescents' competence in other cognitive domains. In this study, we examined the strategies used by adolescents (N=30) and young adults (N=47) to resolve complex, multi-outcome economic gambles. Compared to adults, adolescents were more likely to make conservative, loss-minimizing choices consistent with economic models. Eye-tracking data showed that prior to decisions, adolescents acquired more information in a more thorough manner; that is, they engaged in a more analytic processing strategy indicative of trade-offs between decision variables. In contrast, young adults' decisions were more consistent with heuristics that simplified the decision problem, at the expense of analytic precision. Collectively, these results demonstrate a counter-intuitive developmental transition in economic decision making: adolescents' decisions are more consistent with rational-choice models, while young adults more readily engage task-appropriate heuristics.

The Rational Adolescent: Strategic Information Processing during Decision Making Revealed by Eye Tracking

Science.gov (United States)

Kwak, Youngbin; Payne, John W.; Cohen, Andrew L.; Huettel, Scott A.

2015-01-01

Adolescence is often viewed as a time of irrational, risky decision-making – despite adolescents' competence in other cognitive domains. In this study, we examined the strategies used by adolescents (N=30) and young adults (N=47) to resolve complex, multi-outcome economic gambles. Compared to adults, adolescents were more likely to make conservative, loss-minimizing choices consistent with economic models. Eye-tracking data showed that prior to decisions, adolescents acquired more information in a more thorough manner; that is, they engaged in a more analytic processing strategy indicative of trade-offs between decision variables. In contrast, young adults' decisions were more consistent with heuristics that simplified the decision problem, at the expense of analytic precision. Collectively, these results demonstrate a counter-intuitive developmental transition in economic decision making: adolescents' decisions are more consistent with rational-choice models, while young adults more readily engage task-appropriate heuristics. PMID:26388664

Hospice decision making: diagnosis makes a difference.

Science.gov (United States)

Waldrop, Deborah P; Meeker, Mary Ann

2012-10-01

This study explored the process of decision making about hospice enrollment and identified factors that influence the timing of that decision. This study employed an exploratory, descriptive, cross-sectional design and was conducted using qualitative methods. In-depth in-person semistructured interviews were conducted with 36 hospice patients and 55 caregivers after 2 weeks of hospice care. The study was guided by Janis and Mann's conflict theory model (CTM) of decision making. Qualitative data analysis involved a directed content analysis using concepts from the CTM. A model of hospice enrollment decision making is presented. Concepts from the CTM (appraisal, surveying and weighing the alternatives, deliberations, adherence) were used as an organizing framework to illustrate the dynamics. Distinct differences were found by diagnosis (cancer vs. other chronic illness, e.g., heart and lung diseases) during the pre-encounter phase or before the hospice referral but no differences emerged during the post-encounter phase. Differences in decision making by diagnosis suggest the need for research about effective means for tailored communication in end-of-life decision making by type of illness. Recognition that decision making about hospice admission varies is important for clinicians who aim to provide person-centered and family-focused care.

Making the business case for process safety using value-at-risk concepts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fang, Jayming S.; Ford, David M.; Mannan, M. Sam

2004-01-01

An increasing emphasis on chemical process safety over the last two decades has led to the development and application of powerful risk assessment tools. Hazard analysis and risk evaluation techniques have developed to the point where quantitatively meaningful risks can be calculated for processes and plants. However, the results are typically presented in semi-quantitative 'ranked list' or 'categorical matrix' formats, which are certainly useful but not optimal for making business decisions. A relatively new technique for performing valuation under uncertainty, value at risk (VaR), has been developed in the financial world. VaR is a method of evaluating the probability of a gain or loss by a complex venture, by examining the stochastic behavior of its components. We believe that combining quantitative risk assessment techniques with VaR concepts will bridge the gap between engineers and scientists who determine process risk and business leaders and policy makers who evaluate, manage, or regulate risk. We present a few basic examples of the application of VaR to hazard analysis in the chemical process industry

Decision Making under Uncertainty: A Neural Model based on Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rajesh P N Rao

2010-11-01

Full Text Available A fundamental problem faced by animals is learning to select actions based on noisy sensory information and incomplete knowledge of the world. It has been suggested that the brain engages in Bayesian inference during perception but how such probabilistic representations are used to select actions has remained unclear. Here we propose a neural model of action selection and decision making based on the theory of partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs. Actions are selected based not on a single optimal estimate of state but on the posterior distribution over states (the belief state. We show how such a model provides a unified framework for explaining experimental results in decision making that involve both information gathering and overt actions. The model utilizes temporal difference (TD learning for maximizing expected reward. The resulting neural architecture posits an active role for the neocortex in belief computation while ascribing a role to the basal ganglia in belief representation, value computation, and action selection. When applied to the random dots motion discrimination task, model neurons representing belief exhibit responses similar to those of LIP neurons in primate neocortex. The appropriate threshold for switching from information gathering to overt actions emerges naturally during reward maximization. Additionally, the time course of reward prediction error in the model shares similarities with dopaminergic responses in the basal ganglia during the random dots task. For tasks with a deadline, the model learns a decision making strategy that changes with elapsed time, predicting a collapsing decision threshold consistent with some experimental studies. The model provides a new framework for understanding neural decision making and suggests an important role for interactions between the neocortex and the basal ganglia in learning the mapping between probabilistic sensory representations and actions that maximize

Dementia, Decision Making, and Capacity.

Science.gov (United States)

Darby, R Ryan; Dickerson, Bradford C

After participating in this activity, learners should be better able to:• Assess the neuropsychological literature on decision making and the medical and legal assessment of capacity in patients with dementia• Identify the limitations of integrating findings from decision-making research into capacity assessments for patients with dementia ABSTRACT: Medical and legal professionals face the challenge of assessing capacity and competency to make medical, legal, and financial decisions in dementia patients with impaired decision making. While such assessments have classically focused on the capacity for complex reasoning and executive functions, research in decision making has revealed that motivational and metacognitive processes are also important. We first briefly review the neuropsychological literature on decision making and on the medical and legal assessment of capacity. Next, we discuss the limitations of integrating findings from decision-making research into capacity assessments, including the group-to-individual inference problem, the unclear role of neuroimaging in capacity assessments, and the lack of capacity measures that integrate important facets of decision making. Finally, we present several case examples where we attempt to demonstrate the potential benefits and important limitations of using decision-making research to aid in capacity determinations.

THE MAKING OF DECISION MAKING

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Leonardo Yuji Tamura

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Quantum Electronics was a Brazilian startup in the 1990's that was acquired by an American equity fund in 2012. They are currently the largest manufacturer of vehicle tracking and infotainment systems. The company was founded by three college friends, who are currently executives at the company: Camilo Santos, Pedro Barbosa and Luana Correa. Edward Hutter was sent by the equity fund to take over the company’s finances, but is having trouble making organizational decisions with his colleagues. As a consultant, I was called to help them improve their decision making process and project prioritization. I adapted and deployed our firm's methodology, but, in the end, its adequacy is shown to be very much in question. The author of this case study intends to explore how actual organizational decisions rely on different decision models and their assumptions, .as well as demonstrate that a decision model is neither absolutely good nor bad as its quality is context dependent.

A Make-or-buy Decision Process for Outsourcing

OpenAIRE

Bajec, Patricija; Jakomin, Igor

2010-01-01

Should firms perform logistics services on their own or should they buy them from a logistics provider? Today’s global competition forces companies to re-evaluate their existing processes, technologies and services in order to focuse on strategic activities. Outsourcing is now increasingly used as a competitive weapon in today’s economy. External parties can often do job quicker, cheaper and better. This has resulted in an increasing awareness of the importance of the make-or-buy decision, th...

Communication barriers in the decision-making process : System Language and System Thinking

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schinagl, S.; Paans, R.

2017-01-01

A major problem in the decision-making process is poor communication regarding threats and risks between information security experts and decision makers. By their nature, experts have a strong interest in operational details and limited insight into the purpose of the organization as they may not

Errors in Aviation Decision Making: Bad Decisions or Bad Luck?

Science.gov (United States)

Orasanu, Judith; Martin, Lynne; Davison, Jeannie; Null, Cynthia H. (Technical Monitor)

1998-01-01

Despite efforts to design systems and procedures to support 'correct' and safe operations in aviation, errors in human judgment still occur and contribute to accidents. In this paper we examine how an NDM (naturalistic decision making) approach might help us to understand the role of decision processes in negative outcomes. Our strategy was to examine a collection of identified decision errors through the lens of an aviation decision process model and to search for common patterns. The second, and more difficult, task was to determine what might account for those patterns. The corpus we analyzed consisted of tactical decision errors identified by the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) from a set of accidents in which crew behavior contributed to the accident. A common pattern emerged: about three quarters of the errors represented plan-continuation errors, that is, a decision to continue with the original plan despite cues that suggested changing the course of action. Features in the context that might contribute to these errors were identified: (a) ambiguous dynamic conditions and (b) organizational and socially-induced goal conflicts. We hypothesize that 'errors' are mediated by underestimation of risk and failure to analyze the potential consequences of continuing with the initial plan. Stressors may further contribute to these effects. Suggestions for improving performance in these error-inducing contexts are discussed.

Command Decision-Making: Experience Counts

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Wolgast, Kelly A

2005-01-01

Decision-making is the mainstay of military leadership and command. Due to the changed nature of the current military environment, military commanders can no longer rely solely on the traditional Military Decision-making Process (MDMP...

A communication model of shared decision making: accounting for cancer treatment decisions.

Science.gov (United States)

Siminoff, Laura A; Step, Mary M

2005-07-01

The authors present a communication model of shared decision making (CMSDM) that explicitly identifies the communication process as the vehicle for decision making in cancer treatment. In this view, decision making is necessarily a sociocommunicative process whereby people enter into a relationship, exchange information, establish preferences, and choose a course of action. The model derives from contemporary notions of behavioral decision making and ethical conceptions of the doctor-patient relationship. This article briefly reviews the theoretical approaches to decision making, notes deficiencies, and embeds a more socially based process into the dynamics of the physician-patient relationship, focusing on cancer treatment decisions. In the CMSDM, decisions depend on (a) antecedent factors that have potential to influence communication, (b) jointly constructed communication climate, and (c) treatment preferences established by the physician and the patient.

Toward theoretical understanding of the fertility preservation decision-making process: Examining information processing among young women with cancer

Science.gov (United States)

Hershberger, Patricia E.; Finnegan, Lorna; Altfeld, Susan; Lake, Sara; Hirshfeld-Cytron, Jennifer

2014-01-01

Background Young women with cancer now face the complex decision about whether to undergo fertility preservation. Yet little is known about how these women process information involved in making this decision. Objective The purpose of this paper is to expand theoretical understanding of the decision-making process by examining aspects of information processing among young women diagnosed with cancer. Methods Using a grounded theory approach, 27 women with cancer participated in individual, semi-structured interviews. Data were coded and analyzed using constant-comparison techniques that were guided by five dimensions within the Contemplate phase of the decision-making process framework. Results In the first dimension, young women acquired information primarily from clinicians and Internet sources. Experiential information, often obtained from peers, occurred in the second dimension. Preferences and values were constructed in the third dimension as women acquired factual, moral, and ethical information. Women desired tailored, personalized information that was specific to their situation in the fourth dimension; however, women struggled with communicating these needs to clinicians. In the fifth dimension, women offered detailed descriptions of clinician behaviors that enhance or impede decisional debriefing. Conclusion Better understanding of theoretical underpinnings surrounding women’s information processes can facilitate decision support and improve clinical care. PMID:24552086

An Analysis of the Associations among Cognitive Impulsiveness, Reasoning Process, and Rational Decision Making

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ana P. G. Jelihovschi

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Impulsivity may lead to several unfortunate consequences and maladaptive behaviors for both clinical and nonclinical people. It has a key role in many forms of psychopathology. Although literature has discussed the negative impact of impulsivity, few have emphasized the relationship between cognitive impulsiveness and decision making. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of cognitive impulsiveness on decision making and explore the strategies used by participants to solve problems. For this purpose, we apply two measures of impulsivity: the self-report Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11 and the performance based Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT. Moreover, we evaluate participants' reasoning processes employed to answer CRT questions based on the calculation expressions, data organization, and erasures they made while answering the CRT (note that we utilized the instruments using pen and paper. These reasoning processes are related to the role of executive functions in decision making, and its relationship with impulsiveness. The sample consists of 191 adults, who were either professionals or undergraduate students from the fields of business, management, or accounting. The results show that cognitive impulsiveness may negatively affect decision making, and that those who presented the calculation to answer the CRT questions made better decisions. Moreover, there was no difference in the strategies used by impulsive vs. nonimpulsive participants during decision making. Finally, people who inhibited their immediate answers to CRT questions performed better during decision making.

An Analysis of the Associations among Cognitive Impulsiveness, Reasoning Process, and Rational Decision Making

Science.gov (United States)

Jelihovschi, Ana P. G.; Cardoso, Ricardo L.; Linhares, Alexandre

2018-01-01

Impulsivity may lead to several unfortunate consequences and maladaptive behaviors for both clinical and nonclinical people. It has a key role in many forms of psychopathology. Although literature has discussed the negative impact of impulsivity, few have emphasized the relationship between cognitive impulsiveness and decision making. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of cognitive impulsiveness on decision making and explore the strategies used by participants to solve problems. For this purpose, we apply two measures of impulsivity: the self-report Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11) and the performance based Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT). Moreover, we evaluate participants' reasoning processes employed to answer CRT questions based on the calculation expressions, data organization, and erasures they made while answering the CRT (note that we utilized the instruments using pen and paper). These reasoning processes are related to the role of executive functions in decision making, and its relationship with impulsiveness. The sample consists of 191 adults, who were either professionals or undergraduate students from the fields of business, management, or accounting. The results show that cognitive impulsiveness may negatively affect decision making, and that those who presented the calculation to answer the CRT questions made better decisions. Moreover, there was no difference in the strategies used by impulsive vs. nonimpulsive participants during decision making. Finally, people who inhibited their immediate answers to CRT questions performed better during decision making. PMID:29375440

Affective Decision Making and the Ellsberg Paradox

OpenAIRE

Anat Bracha; Donald J. Brown

2008-01-01

Affective decision-making is a strategic model of choice under risk and uncertainty where we posit two cognitive processes -- the "rational" and the "emotional" process. Observed choice is the result of equilibrium in this intrapersonal game. As an example, we present applications of affective decision-making in insurance markets, where the risk perceptions of consumers are endogenous. We derive the axiomatic foundation of affective decision making, and show that affective decision making is ...

A decision-making process model of young online shoppers.

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Chin-Feng; Wang, Hui-Fang

2008-12-01

Based on the concepts of brand equity, means-end chain, and Web site trust, this study proposes a novel model called the consumption decision-making process of adolescents (CDMPA) to understand adolescents' Internet consumption habits and behavioral intention toward particular sporting goods. The findings of the CDMPA model can help marketers understand adolescents' consumption preferences and habits for developing effective Internet marketing strategies.

The impact of safety and quality of health care on Chinese nursing career decision-making.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Junhong; Rodgers, Sheila; Melia, Kath M

2014-05-01

The aim of the study was to understand why nurses leave nursing practice in China by exploring the process from recruitment to final exit. This report examines the impact of safety and quality of health care on nursing career decision-making from the leavers' perspective. The nursing shortage in China is more serious than in most developed countries, but the loss of nurses through voluntarily leaving nursing practice has not attracted much attention. This qualitative study draws on a grounded theory approach. In-depth interviews with 19 nurses who have left nursing practice and were theoretically sampled from one provincial capital city in Mainland China. 'Loss of confidence in the safety and quality of health care' became one of the main categories from all leavers' accounts of their decision to leave nursing practice. It emerged from three themes 'Perceiving risk in clinical practice', 'Recognising organisational barriers to safety' and 'Failing to meet expectations of patients'. The findings indicate that the essential work value of nursing to the leavers is the safety and quality of care for their patients. When nurses perceived that they could not fulfil this essential work value in their nursing practice, some of them could not accept the compromise to their value of nursing and left voluntarily to get away from the physical and mental stress. However, some nurses had to stay and accept the limitations on the safety and quality of health care. The study suggests that well-qualified nurses voluntarily leaving nursing practice is a danger signal for patients and hospitals, and has caused deterioration in nursing morale for both current and potential nursing workforces. It suggests that safety and quality of health care could be improved when individual nurses are empowered to exercise nursing autonomy with organisational and managerial support. The priority retention strategies need to remove organisational barriers to the safety and quality of health care

Decision-Making Processes in Texas School Districts That Arm Personnel

Science.gov (United States)

Domain, Melinda Willoughby

2014-01-01

This qualitative phenomenological study employed narrative inquiry to describe the decision-making processes that Texas school districts followed in enacting firearms policies that allow school employees to carry concealed weapons on district property. Exploration of the lived experiences of eight Texas superintendents in such schools contributed…

Difficult decisions: A qualitative exploration of the statistical decision making process from the perspectives of psychology students and academics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Peter James Allen

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Quantitative research methods are essential to the development of professional competence in psychology. They are also an area of weakness for many students. In particular, students are known to struggle with the skill of selecting quantitative analytical strategies appropriate for common research questions, hypotheses and data types. To begin understanding this apparent deficit, we presented nine psychology undergraduates (who had all completed at least one quantitative methods course with brief research vignettes, and asked them to explicate the process they would follow to identify an appropriate statistical technique for each. Thematic analysis revealed that all participants found this task challenging, and even those who had completed several research methods courses struggled to articulate how they would approach the vignettes on more than a very superficial and intuitive level. While some students recognized that there is a systematic decision making process that can be followed, none could describe it clearly or completely. We then presented the same vignettes to 10 psychology academics with particular expertise in conducting research and/or research methods instruction. Predictably, these ‘experts’ were able to describe a far more systematic, comprehensive, flexible and nuanced approach to statistical decision making, which begins early in the research process, and pays consideration to multiple contextual factors. They were sensitive to the challenges that students experience when making statistical decisions, which they attributed partially to how research methods and statistics are commonly taught. This sensitivity was reflected in their pedagogic practices. When asked to consider the format and features of an aid that could facilitate the statistical decision making process, both groups expressed a preference for an accessible, comprehensive and reputable resource that follows a basic decision tree logic. For the academics in

Difficult Decisions: A Qualitative Exploration of the Statistical Decision Making Process from the Perspectives of Psychology Students and Academics

Science.gov (United States)

Allen, Peter J.; Dorozenko, Kate P.; Roberts, Lynne D.

2016-01-01

Quantitative research methods are essential to the development of professional competence in psychology. They are also an area of weakness for many students. In particular, students are known to struggle with the skill of selecting quantitative analytical strategies appropriate for common research questions, hypotheses and data types. To begin understanding this apparent deficit, we presented nine psychology undergraduates (who had all completed at least one quantitative methods course) with brief research vignettes, and asked them to explicate the process they would follow to identify an appropriate statistical technique for each. Thematic analysis revealed that all participants found this task challenging, and even those who had completed several research methods courses struggled to articulate how they would approach the vignettes on more than a very superficial and intuitive level. While some students recognized that there is a systematic decision making process that can be followed, none could describe it clearly or completely. We then presented the same vignettes to 10 psychology academics with particular expertise in conducting research and/or research methods instruction. Predictably, these “experts” were able to describe a far more systematic, comprehensive, flexible, and nuanced approach to statistical decision making, which begins early in the research process, and pays consideration to multiple contextual factors. They were sensitive to the challenges that students experience when making statistical decisions, which they attributed partially to how research methods and statistics are commonly taught. This sensitivity was reflected in their pedagogic practices. When asked to consider the format and features of an aid that could facilitate the statistical decision making process, both groups expressed a preference for an accessible, comprehensive and reputable resource that follows a basic decision tree logic. For the academics in particular, this aid

PROCESSING THE INFORMATION CONTENT ON THE BASIS OF FUZZY NEURAL MODEL OF DECISION MAKING

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nina V. Komleva

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The article is devoted to the issues of mathematical modeling of the decision-making process of information content processing based on the fuzzy neural network TSK. Integral rating assessment of the content, which is necessary for taking a decision about its further usage, is made depended on varying characteristics. Mechanism for building individual trajectory and forming individual competence is provided to make the intellectual content search.

Psychiatric service staff perceptions of implementing a shared decision-making tool: a process evaluation study.

Science.gov (United States)

Schön, Ulla-Karin; Grim, Katarina; Wallin, Lars; Rosenberg, David; Svedberg, Petra

2018-12-01

Shared decision making, SDM, in psychiatric services, supports users to experience a greater sense of involvement in treatment, self-efficacy, autonomy and reduced coercion. Decision tools adapted to the needs of users have the potential to support SDM and restructure how users and staff work together to arrive at shared decisions. The aim of this study was to describe and analyse the implementation process of an SDM intervention for users of psychiatric services in Sweden. The implementation was studied through a process evaluation utilizing both quantitative and qualitative methods. In designing the process evaluation for the intervention, three evaluation components were emphasized: contextual factors, implementation issues and mechanisms of impact. The study addresses critical implementation issues related to decision-making authority, the perceived decision-making ability of users and the readiness of the service to increase influence and participation. It also emphasizes the importance of facilitation, as well as suggesting contextual adaptations that may be relevant for the local organizations. The results indicate that staff perceived the decision support tool as user-friendly and useful in supporting participation in decision-making, and suggest that such concrete supports to participation can be a factor in implementation if adequate attention is paid to organizational contexts and structures.

New vaccine adoption: qualitative study of national decision-making processes in seven low- and middle-income countries.

Science.gov (United States)

Burchett, H E D; Mounier-Jack, S; Griffiths, U K; Biellik, R; Ongolo-Zogo, P; Chavez, E; Sarma, H; Uddin, J; Konate, M; Kitaw, Y; Molla, M; Wakasiaka, S; Gilson, L; Mills, A

2012-05-01

As more new and improved vaccines become available, decisions on which to adopt into routine programmes become more frequent and complex. This qualitative study aimed to explore processes of national decision-making around new vaccine adoption and to understand the factors affecting these decisions. Ninety-five key informant interviews were conducted in seven low- and middle-income countries: Bangladesh, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Kenya, Mali and South Africa. Framework analysis was used to explore issues both within and between countries. The underlying driver for adoption decisions in GAVI-eligible countries was the desire to seize GAVI windows of opportunity for funding. By contrast, in South Africa and Guatemala, non-GAVI-eligible countries, the decision-making process was more rooted in internal and political dynamics. Decisions to adopt new vaccines are, by nature, political. The main drivers influencing decisions were the availability of funding, political prioritization of vaccination or the vaccine-preventable disease and the burden of disease. Other factors, such as financial sustainability and feasibility of introduction, were not as influential. Although GAVI procedures have established more formality in decision-making, they did not always result in consideration of all relevant factors. As familiarity with GAVI procedures increased, questioning by decision-makers about whether a country should apply for funding appeared to have diminished. This is one of the first studies to empirically investigate national processes of new vaccine adoption decision-making using rigorous methods. Our findings show that previous decision-making frameworks (developed to guide or study national decision-making) bore little resemblance to real-life decisions, which were dominated by domestic politics. Understanding the realities of vaccine policy decision-making is critical for developing strategies to encourage improved evidence-informed decision-making about new

What's "quickest and easiest?": parental decision making about school trip mode

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Faulkner Guy EJ

2010-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The potential benefits of active school travel (AST are widely recognized, yet there is consistent evidence of a systematic decline in the use of active modes of transportation to school since the middle part of the 20th century. This study explored parental accounts of the school travel mode choice decision-making process. Methods Thirty-seven parents of children (17 who walked; 20 who were driven from four elementary schools in Toronto, Canada participated in semi-structured interviews. The schools varied with respect to walkability of the built environment and socio-economic status. Thematic analysis of interview transcripts identified a two-stage decision-making process. Results An initial decision concerned the issue of escorting or chauffeuring a child to/from school. This decision appeared to be primarily influenced by concerns about traffic, the child's personal safety, and the child's maturity and cognitive ability regarding navigating his/her way to/from school safely. Following the escort decision, parents considered mode choice, typically selecting what they perceived to be the easiest and most convenient way to travel. The ascription of convenience to the various modes of transportation was influenced by perceptions of travel time and/or distance to/from school. Convenience became a particularly salient theme for parents who found it necessary to complete multi-activity trip chains. Conclusions The school travel mode choice decision process is complex. Future research and practice should continue to address safety concerns that are typically the focus of active school transport initiatives while addressing more explicitly the behavioural cost of competing mode choices.

Information Dominance: Informations Role in Influencing Decision Making

Science.gov (United States)

2014-03-01

satisfying enough to ensure safety and completion of the task. For example, the USS GREENEVILLE, SSN 772, was conducting a routine emergency surfacing...was developed by David J. Bryant of Defense Research and Development, Canada . It is designed to model command and control (C2) processes in alignment...adapt (CECA): A new model for command decision making. ( No. DRDC Toronto TR 2003-150). Toronto, Canada : Minister of National Defense. Bryant, D. J

A Hybrid Decision-Making Model for Selecting Container Seaport in the Persian Gulf

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jafar Sayareh

2014-04-01

Full Text Available Ports have always played a vital role in international transportation. Port selection decision is a process that requires consideration of many important and relevant criteria. The selection of the influential decision-making criteria is also a significant and vital issue which demands cautious thoughts. The main objective of this paper is to weigh the most dominant decision-making criteria by Technique for Order Preference to Similarity by Ideal Solution (TOPSIS and select an optimised container seaport in the Persian Gulf by Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP according to decisive port selection factors. This paper presents an extensive review of port selection decision-making attributes in different past studies. Finally, by using TOPSIS and AHP, the findings of this research suggest that the working time, stevedoring rate, safety, port entrance, sufficient draft, capacity of port facilities, operating cost, number of berths, ship chandelling, and international policies are critical factors for selecting container seaport in the Persian Gulf.

Changing Times, Complex Decisions: Presidential Values and Decision Making

Science.gov (United States)

Hornak, Anne M.; Garza Mitchell, Regina L.

2016-01-01

Objective: The objective of this article is to delve more deeply into the thought processes of the key decision makers at community colleges and understand how they make decisions. Specifically, this article focuses on the role of the community college president's personal values in decision making. Method: We conducted interviews with 13…

What is on your mind? Using the perceptual cycle model and critical decision method to understand the decision-making process in the cockpit.

Science.gov (United States)

Plant, Katherine L; Stanton, Neville A

2013-01-01

Aeronautical decision-making is complex as there is not always a clear coupling between the decision made and decision outcome. As such, there is a call for process-orientated decision research in order to understand why a decision made sense at the time it was made. Schema theory explains how we interact with the world using stored mental representations and forms an integral part of the perceptual cycle model (PCM); proposed here as a way to understand the decision-making process. This paper qualitatively analyses data from the critical decision method (CDM) based on the principles of the PCM. It is demonstrated that the approach can be used to understand a decision-making process and highlights how influential schemata can be at informing decision-making. The reliability of this approach is established, the general applicability is discussed and directions for future work are considered. This paper introduces the PCM, and the associated schema theory, as a framework to structure and explain data collected from the CDM. The reliability of both the method and coding scheme is addressed.

Electroencephalogy (EEG) Feedback in Decision-Making

Science.gov (United States)

2015-08-26

Electroencephalogy ( EEG ) Feedback In Decision- Making The goal of this project is to investigate whether Electroencephalogy ( EEG ) can provide useful...feedback when training rapid decision-making. More specifically, EEG will allow us to provide online feedback about the neural decision processes...Electroencephalogy ( EEG ) Feedback In Decision-Making Report Title The goal of this project is to investigate whether Electroencephalogy ( EEG ) can provide useful

Using social network analysis to examine the decision-making process on new vaccine introduction in Nigeria.

Science.gov (United States)

Wonodi, C B; Privor-Dumm, L; Aina, M; Pate, A M; Reis, R; Gadhoke, P; Levine, O S

2012-05-01

The decision-making process to introduce new vaccines into national immunization programmes is often complex, involving many stakeholders who provide technical information, mobilize finance, implement programmes and garner political support. Stakeholders may have different levels of interest, knowledge and motivations to introduce new vaccines. Lack of consensus on the priority, public health value or feasibility of adding a new vaccine can delay policy decisions. Efforts to support country-level decision-making have largely focused on establishing global policies and equipping policy makers with the information to support decision-making on new vaccine introduction (NVI). Less attention has been given to understanding the interactions of policy actors and how the distribution of influence affects the policy process and decision-making. Social network analysis (SNA) is a social science technique concerned with explaining social phenomena using the structural and relational features of the network of actors involved. This approach can be used to identify how information is exchanged and who is included or excluded from the process. For this SNA of vaccine decision-making in Nigeria, we interviewed federal and state-level government officials, officers of bilateral and multilateral partner organizations, and other stakeholders such as health providers and the media. Using data culled from those interviews, we performed an SNA in order to map formal and informal relationships and the distribution of influence among vaccine decision-makers, as well as to explore linkages and pathways to stakeholders who can influence critical decisions in the policy process. Our findings indicate a relatively robust engagement of key stakeholders in Nigeria. We hypothesized that economic stakeholders and implementers would be important to ensure sustainable financing and strengthen programme implementation, but some economic and implementation stakeholders did not appear centrally on

Social processes used by African American women in making decisions about mammography screening.

Science.gov (United States)

Fowler, Barbara Ann

2006-01-01

To describe the social processes used by African American (AA) women ages > or = 50 years in making decisions about mammography screening. Grounded theory methodology. Tape-recorded interviews with a researcher-designed, semi-structured interview guide with an initial and theoretical sample of 30 AA women ages 52 to 71 of diverse socioeconomic status. Interviews occurred in various settings such as the church rectory, women's homes, and work settings. Extensive written field notes and tapes were transcribed verbatim immediately after the interviews by an experienced transcriptionist. The women's decisions about mammography screening were associated with five social processes: (a) acknowledging prior experiences with healthcare providers and systems; (b) reporting fears and fatalistic beliefs of breast cancer and related treatment; (c) valuing the opinions of significant others; (d) relying on religious beliefs and supports; and (e) caregiving responsibilities of significant others. The processes were further differentiated by three distinct decision-making styles: taking charge, enduring, and protesting. Each of the social processes was reported equally and emphasized by the diverse sample of AA women in decisions related to mammography screening. Mammography screening decisions were heavily influenced by caregiving responsibilities. Further research is needed to explain and understand this social process on the health and well-being of AA women over time.

A Briefing on Metrics and Risks for Autonomous Decision-Making in Aerospace Applications

Science.gov (United States)

Frost, Susan; Goebel, Kai Frank; Galvan, Jose Ramon

2012-01-01

Significant technology advances will enable future aerospace systems to safely and reliably make decisions autonomously, or without human interaction. The decision-making may result in actions that enable an aircraft or spacecraft in an off-nominal state or with slightly degraded components to achieve mission performance and safety goals while reducing or avoiding damage to the aircraft or spacecraft. Some key technology enablers for autonomous decision-making include: a continuous state awareness through the maturation of the prognostics health management field, novel sensor development, and the considerable gains made in computation power and data processing bandwidth versus system size. Sophisticated algorithms and physics based models coupled with these technological advances allow reliable assessment of a system, subsystem, or components. Decisions that balance mission objectives and constraints with remaining useful life predictions can be made autonomously to maintain safety requirements, optimal performance, and ensure mission objectives. This autonomous approach to decision-making will come with new risks and benefits, some of which will be examined in this paper. To start, an account of previous work to categorize or quantify autonomy in aerospace systems will be presented. In addition, a survey of perceived risks in autonomous decision-making in the context of piloted aircraft and remotely piloted or completely autonomous unmanned autonomous systems (UAS) will be presented based on interviews that were conducted with individuals from industry, academia, and government.

Decision-making in abnormal radiological situations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pretre, S.

1998-01-01

General problems associated with social impacts of radiology and decision making is discussed, as the main topics of the meeting. The problem of population is discussed living in areas contaminates with radioactive substances resulting from a major accident or from pest practices. This situation needs decision making process for initiating actions like relocation, resettlement or large-scale decontamination. The roles of various participants in this decision making process and in the communication with the public are considered. (R.P.)

Decision making for wildfires: A guide for applying a risk management process at the incident level

Science.gov (United States)

Mary A. Taber; Lisa M. Elenz; Paul G. Langowski

2013-01-01

This publication focuses on the thought processes and considerations surrounding a risk management process for decision making on wildfires. The publication introduces a six element risk management cycle designed to encourage sound risk-informed decision making in accordance with Federal wildland fire policy, although the process is equally applicable to non-Federal...

Development of a First-of-a-Kind Deterministic Decision-Making Tool for Supervisory Control System

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cetiner, Sacit M [ORNL; Kisner, Roger A [ORNL; Muhlheim, Michael David [ORNL; Fugate, David L [ORNL

2015-07-01

Decision-making is the process of identifying and choosing alternatives where each alternative offers a different approach or path to move from a given state or condition to a desired state or condition. The generation of consistent decisions requires that a structured, coherent process be defined, immediately leading to a decision-making framework. The overall objective of the generalized framework is for it to be adopted into an autonomous decision-making framework and tailored to specific requirements for various applications. In this context, automation is the use of computing resources to make decisions and implement a structured decision-making process with limited or no human intervention. The overriding goal of automation is to replace or supplement human decision makers with reconfigurable decision- making modules that can perform a given set of tasks reliably. Risk-informed decision making requires a probabilistic assessment of the likelihood of success given the status of the plant/systems and component health, and a deterministic assessment between plant operating parameters and reactor protection parameters to prevent unnecessary trips and challenges to plant safety systems. The implementation of the probabilistic portion of the decision-making engine of the proposed supervisory control system was detailed in previous milestone reports. Once the control options are identified and ranked based on the likelihood of success, the supervisory control system transmits the options to the deterministic portion of the platform. The deterministic multi-attribute decision-making framework uses variable sensor data (e.g., outlet temperature) and calculates where it is within the challenge state, its trajectory, and margin within the controllable domain using utility functions to evaluate current and projected plant state space for different control decisions. Metrics to be evaluated include stability, cost, time to complete (action), power level, etc. The

Decision-making capacity should not be decisive in emergencies.

Science.gov (United States)

Hubbeling, Dieneke

2014-05-01

Examples of patients with anorexia nervosa, depression or borderline personality disorder who have decision-making capacity as currently operationalized, but refuse treatment, are discussed. It appears counterintuitive to respect their treatment refusal because their wish seems to be fuelled by their illness and the consequences of their refusal of treatment are severe. Some proposed solutions have focused on broadening the criteria for decision-making capacity, either in general or for specific patient groups, but these adjustments might discriminate against particular groups of patients and render the process less transparent. Other solutions focus on preferences expressed when patients are not ill, but this information is often not available. The reason for such difficulties with assessing decision-making capacity is that the underlying psychological processes of normal decision-making are not well known and one cannot differentiate between unwise decisions caused by an illness or other factors. The proposed alternative, set out in this paper, is to allow compulsory treatment of patients with decision-making capacity in cases of an emergency, if the refusal is potentially life threatening, but only for a time-limited period. The argument is also made for investigating hindsight agreement, in particular after compulsory measures.

Complex Decision Making Theory and Practice

CERN Document Server

Qudrat-Ullah, Hassan; Spector, J Michael

2007-01-01

The increasingly complex environment of today's world, characterized by technological innovation and global communication, generates myriads of possible and actual interactions while limited physical and intellectual resources severely impinge on decision makers, be it in the public or private domains. At the core of the decision-making process is the need for quality information that allows the decision maker to better assess the impact of decisions in terms of outcomes, nonlinear feedback processes and time delays on the performance of the complex system invoked. This volume is a timely review on the principles underlying complex decision making, the handling of uncertainties in dynamic envrionments and of the various modeling approaches used. The book consists of five parts, each composed of several chapters: I: Complex Decision Making: Concepts, Theories and Empirical Evidence II: Tools and Techniques for Decision Making in Complex Environments and Systems III: System Dynamics and Agent-Based Modeling IV:...

Ethical safety of deep brain stimulation: A study on moral decision-making in Parkinson's disease.

Science.gov (United States)

Fumagalli, Manuela; Marceglia, Sara; Cogiamanian, Filippo; Ardolino, Gianluca; Picascia, Marta; Barbieri, Sergio; Pravettoni, Gabriella; Pacchetti, Claudio; Priori, Alberto

2015-07-01

The possibility that deep brain stimulation (DBS) in Parkinson's disease (PD) alters patients' decisions and actions, even temporarily, raises important clinical, ethical and legal questions. Abnormal moral decision-making can lead to ethical rules violations. Previous experiments demonstrated the subthalamic (STN) activation during moral decision-making. Here we aim to study whether STN DBS can affect moral decision-making in PD patients. Eleven patients with PD and bilateral STN DBS implant performed a computerized moral task in ON and OFF stimulation conditions. A control group of PD patients without DBS implant performed the same experimental protocol. All patients underwent motor, cognitive and psychological assessments. STN stimulation was not able to modify neither reaction times nor responses to moral task both when we compared the ON and the OFF state in the same patient (reaction times, p = .416) and when we compared DBS patients with those treated only with the best medical treatment (reaction times: p = .408, responses: p = .776). Moral judgment is the result of a complex process, requiring cognitive executive functions, problem-solving, anticipations of consequences of an action, conflict processing, emotional evaluation of context and of possible outcomes, and involving different brain areas and neural circuits. Our data show that STN DBS leaves unaffected moral decisions thus implying relevant clinical and ethical implications for DBS consequences on patients' behavior, on decision-making and on judgment ability. In conclusion, the technique can be considered safe on moral behavior. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Decision Making Under Objective Risk Conditions-a Review of Cognitive and Emotional Correlates, Strategies, Feedback Processing, and External Influences.

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Schiebener, Johannes; Brand, Matthias

2015-06-01

While making decisions under objective risk conditions, the probabilities of the consequences of the available options are either provided or calculable. Brand et al. (Neural Networks 19:1266-1276, 2006) introduced a model describing the neuro-cognitive processes involved in such decisions. In this model, executive functions associated with activity in the fronto-striatal loop are important for developing and applying decision-making strategies, and for verifying, adapting, or revising strategies according to feedback. Emotional rewards and punishments learned from such feedback accompany these processes. In this literature review, we found support for the role of executive functions, but also found evidence for the importance of further cognitive abilities in decision making. Moreover, in addition to reflective processing (driven by cognition), decisions can be guided by impulsive processing (driven by anticipation of emotional reward and punishment). Reflective and impulsive processing may interact during decision making, affecting the evaluation of available options, as both processes are affected by feedback. Decision-making processes are furthermore modulated by individual attributes (e.g., age), and external influences (e.g., stressors). Accordingly, we suggest a revised model of decision making under objective risk conditions.

Logics of pre-merger decision-making processes: the case of Karolinska University Hospital.

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Choi, Soki; Brommels, Mats

2009-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to examine how and why a decision to merge two university hospitals in a public context might occur by using an in-depth case study of the pre-merger process of Karolinska University Hospital. Based on extensive document analysis and 35 key informant interviews the paper reconstructed the pre-merger process, searched for empirical patterns, and interpreted those by applying neo-institutional theory. Spanning nearly a decade, the pre-merger process goes from idea generation through transition to decision, and took place on two arenas, political, and scientific. Both research excellence and economic efficiency are stated merger motives. By applying a neo-institutional perspective, the paper finds that the two initial phases are driven by decision rationality, which is typical for political organizations and that the final phase demonstrated action rationality, which is typical for private firms. Critical factors behind this radical change of decision logic are means convergence, uniting key stakeholder groups, and an economic and political crisis, triggering critical incidents, which ultimately legitimized the formal decision. It is evident from the paper that merger decisions in the public sector might not necessarily result from stated and/or economic drivers only. This paper suggests that a change of decision logic from decision to action rationality might promote effective decision making on large and complex issues in a public context. This is the first systematic in-depth study of a university hospital merger employing a decision-making perspective.

Women's decision-making processes and the influences on their mode of birth following a previous caesarean section in Taiwan: a qualitative study.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Shu-Wen; Hutchinson, Alison M; Nagle, Cate; Bucknall, Tracey K

2018-01-17

Vaginal birth after caesarean (VBAC) is an alternative option for women who have had a previous caesarean section (CS); however, uptake is limited because of concern about the risks of uterine rupture. The aim of this study was to explore women's decision-making processes and the influences on their mode of birth following a previous CS. A qualitative approach was used. The research comprised three stages. Stage I consisted of naturalistic observation at 33-34 weeks' gestation. Stage II involved interviews with pregnant women at 35-37 weeks' gestation. Stage III consisted of interviews with the same women who were interviewed postnatally, 1 month after birth. The research was conducted in a private medical centre in northern Taiwan. Using a purposive sampling, 21 women and 9 obstetricians were recruited. Data collection involved in-depth interviews, observation and field notes. Constant comparative analysis was employed for data analysis. Ensuring the safety of mother and baby was the focus of women's decisions. Women's decisions-making influences included previous birth experience, concern about the risks of vaginal birth, evaluation of mode of birth, current pregnancy situation, information resources and health insurance. In communicating with obstetricians, some women complied with obstetricians' recommendations for repeat caesarean section (RCS) without being informed of alternatives. Others used four step decision-making processes that included searching for information, listening to obstetricians' professional judgement, evaluating alternatives, and making a decision regarding mode of birth. After birth, women reflected on their decisions in three aspects: reflection on birth choices; reflection on factors influencing decisions; and reflection on outcomes of decisions. The health and wellbeing of mother and baby were the major concerns for women. In response to the decision-making influences, women's interactions with obstetricians regarding birth choices

Lone ranger decision making versus consensus decision making: Descriptive analysis

OpenAIRE

Maite Sara Mashego

2015-01-01

Consensus decision making, concerns group members make decisions together with the requirement of reaching a consensus that is all members abiding by the decision outcome. Lone ranging worked for sometime in a autocratic environment. Researchers are now pointing to consensus decision-making in organizations bringing dividend to many organizations. This article used a descriptive analysis to compare the goodness of consensus decision making and making lone ranging decision management. This art...

Know the risk, take the win: how executive functions and probability processing influence advantageous decision making under risk conditions.

Science.gov (United States)

Brand, Matthias; Schiebener, Johannes; Pertl, Marie-Theres; Delazer, Margarete

2014-01-01

Recent models on decision making under risk conditions have suggested that numerical abilities are important ingredients of advantageous decision-making performance, but empirical evidence is still limited. The results of our first study show that logical reasoning and basic mental calculation capacities predict ratio processing and that ratio processing predicts decision making under risk. In the second study, logical reasoning together with executive functions predicted probability processing (numeracy and probability knowledge), and probability processing predicted decision making under risk. These findings suggest that increasing an individual's understanding of ratios and probabilities should lead to more advantageous decisions under risk conditions.

Review of decision methodologies for evaluating regulatory actions affecting public health and safety. [Nuclear industry site selection

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hendrickson, P.L.; McDonald, C.L.; Schilling, A.H.

1976-12-01

This report examines several aspects of the problems and choices facing the governmental decision maker who must take regulatory actions with multiple decision objectives and attributes. Particular attention is given to the problems facing the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and to the decision attribute of chief concern to NRC, the protection of human health and safety, with emphasis on nuclear power plants. The study was undertaken to provide background information for NRC to use in refining its process of value/impact assessment of proposed regulatory actions. The principal conclusion is that approaches to rationally consider the value and impact of proposed regulatory actions are available. These approaches can potentially improve the decision-making process and enable the agency to better explain and defend its decisions. They also permit consistent examination of the impacts, effects of uncertainty and sensitivity to various assumptions of the alternatives being considered. Finally, these approaches can help to assure that affected parties are heard and that technical information is used appropriately and to the extent possible. The principal aspects of the regulatory decision problem covered in the report are: the legal setting for regulatory decisions which affect human health and safety, elements of the decision-making process, conceptual approaches to decision making, current approaches to decision making in several Federal agencies, and the determination of acceptable risk levels.

Searching Choices: Quantifying Decision-Making Processes Using Search Engine Data.

Science.gov (United States)

Moat, Helen Susannah; Olivola, Christopher Y; Chater, Nick; Preis, Tobias

2016-07-01

When making a decision, humans consider two types of information: information they have acquired through their prior experience of the world, and further information they gather to support the decision in question. Here, we present evidence that data from search engines such as Google can help us model both sources of information. We show that statistics from search engines on the frequency of content on the Internet can help us estimate the statistical structure of prior experience; and, specifically, we outline how such statistics can inform psychological theories concerning the valuation of human lives, or choices involving delayed outcomes. Turning to information gathering, we show that search query data might help measure human information gathering, and it may predict subsequent decisions. Such data enable us to compare information gathered across nations, where analyses suggest, for example, a greater focus on the future in countries with a higher per capita GDP. We conclude that search engine data constitute a valuable new resource for cognitive scientists, offering a fascinating new tool for understanding the human decision-making process. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Topics in Cognitive Science published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Cognitive Science Society.

Why it is important to promote communication in the decision-making process

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Viktorsson, C.

2001-01-01

Opportunity, nightmare, integrity and public confidence are all well-known words for us working in the nuclear area. Dealing with the outside world involves all those elements. However, having an active communication component in the decision making process can reduce the risk of getting into a nightmare situation and at the same time it contributes to gaining public confidence. The nuclear regulatory authority needs confidence to achieve effectiveness. Investing in trust is, therefore, necessary but requires a well-defined strategy and working methods. Moreover, it requires patience, and a culture of openness and relaxed attitude towards media. Finally, my experience tells me that it requires training of staff and motivators that constantly remind us of the importance of promoting communication in the decision-making process. In this paper I am presenting some insights into how SKI (Swedish Nuclear Power Inspectorate) works when preparing decision and why we are doing it. (author)

A conceptual framework for automating the operational and strategic decision-making process in the health care delivery system.

Science.gov (United States)

Ruohonen, Toni; Ennejmy, Mohammed

2013-01-01

Making reliable and justified operational and strategic decisions is a really challenging task in the health care domain. So far, the decisions have been made based on the experience of managers and staff, or they are evaluated with traditional methods, using inadequate data. As a result of this kind of decision-making process, attempts to improve operations usually have failed or led to only local improvements. Health care organizations have a lot of operational data, in addition to clinical data, which is the key element for making reliable and justified decisions. However, it is progressively problematic to access it and make usage of it. In this paper we discuss about the possibilities how to exploit operational data in the most efficient way in the decision-making process. We'll share our future visions and propose a conceptual framework for automating the decision-making process.

Consensual decision-making model based on game theory for LNG processes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Castillo, Luis; Dorao, Carlos A.

2012-01-01

Highlights: ► A Decision Making (DM) approach for LNG projects based on game theory is presented. ► DM framework was tested with two different cases, using analytical models and a simple LNG process. ► The problems were solved by using a Genetic Algorithm (GA) binary coding and Nash-GA. ► Integrated models from the design and optimization of the process could result in more realistic outcome. ► The major challenge in such a framework is related to the uncertainties in the market models. - Abstract: Decision-Making (DM) in LNG projects is a quite complex process due to the number of actors, approval phases, large investments and capital return in the long time. Furthermore, due to the very high investment of a LNG project, a detailed and efficient DM process is required in order to minimize risks. In this work a Decision-Making (DM) approach for LNG projects is presented. The approach is based on a consensus algorithm to address the consensus output over a common value using cost functions within a framework based on game theory. The DM framework was tested with two different cases. The first case was used for evaluating the performance of the framework with analytical models, while the second case corresponds to a simple LNG process. The problems were solved by using a Genetic Algorithm (GA) binary coding and Nash-GA. The results of the DM framework in the LNG project indicate that considering an integrated DM model and including the markets role from the design and optimization of the process more realistic outcome could be obtained. However, the major challenge in such a framework is related to the uncertainties in the market models.

Adolescent Sexual Decision-Making: An Integrative Review.

Science.gov (United States)

Hulton, Linda J.

2001-10-03

PURPOSE: The purpose of this integrative review was to summarize the present literature to identify factors associated with adolescent sexual decision-making. Thirty-eight salient research studies were selected as a basis of this review from the databases of Medline, CINAHL, and Psychinfo using the Cooper methodology. CONCLUSIONS: Two categories of decision-making were identified: 1) The research on factors related to the decisions that adolescents make to become sexually active or to abstain from sexual activity; 2) The research on factors related to contraceptive decision-making. The most consistent findings were that the factors of gender differences, cognitive development, perception of benefits, parental influences, social influences, and sexual knowledge were important variables in the decision-making processes of adolescents. IMPLICATIONS: Practice implications for nursing suggest that clinicians should assess adolescent sexual decision-making in greater detail and address the social and psychological context in which sexual experiences occur. Nurses must be aware of the differences between adolescent and adult decision-making processes and incorporate knowledge of growth and development into intervention strategies. Moreover, to the degree that adolescent sexual decision-making proves to be less than rational, interventions designed to improve competent sexual decision-making are needed.

Towards a Transparent, Credible, Evidence-Based Decision-Making Process of New Drug Listing on the Hong Kong Hospital Authority Drug Formulary: Challenges and Suggestions.

Science.gov (United States)

Wong, Carlos King Ho; Wu, Olivia; Cheung, Bernard M Y

2018-02-01

The aim of this article is to describe the process, evaluation criteria, and possible outcomes of decision-making for new drugs listed in the Hong Kong Hospital Authority Drug Formulary in comparison to the health technology assessment (HTA) policy overseas. Details of decision-making processes including the new drug listing submission, Drug Advisory Committee (DAC) meeting, and procedures prior to and following the meeting, were extracted from the official Hong Kong Hospital Authority drug formulary management website and manual. Publicly-available information related to the new drug decision-making process for five HTA agencies [the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC), the Australia Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC), the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH), and the New Zealand Pharmaceutical Management Agency (PHARMAC)] were reviewed and retrieved from official documents from public domains. The DAC is in charge of systemically and critically appraising new drugs before they are listed on the formulary, reviewing submitted applications, and making the decision to list the drug based on scientific evidence to which safety, efficacy, and cost-effectiveness are the primary considerations. When compared with other HTA agencies, transparency of the decision-making process of the DAC, the relevance of clinical and health economic evidence, and the lack of health economic and methodological input of submissions are the major challenges to the new-drug listing policy in Hong Kong. Despite these challenges, this review provides suggestions for the establishment of a more transparent, credible, and evidence-based decision-making process in the Hong Kong Hospital Authority Drug Formulary. Proposals for improvement in the listing of new drugs in the formulary should be a priority of healthcare reforms.

Evaluation of End-Products in Architecture Design Process: A Fuzzy Decision-Making Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Serkan PALABIYIK

2012-06-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a study on the development of a fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making model for the evaluation of end products of the architectural design process. Potentials of the developed model were investigated within the scope of architectural design education, specifically an international design studio titled “Design for Disassembly and Reuse: Design & Building Multipurpose Transformable Pavilions.” The studio work followed a design process that integrated systematic and heuristic thinking. The design objectives and assessment criteria were clearly set out at the beginning of the process by the studio coordinator with the aim of narrowing the design space and increasing awareness of the consequences of design decisions. At the end of the design process, designs produced in the studio were evaluated using the developed model to support decision making. The model facilitated the identification of positive and negative aspects of the designs and selection of the design alternative that best met the studio objectives set at the beginning.

Motivators That Intervene in the Decision Making Process in Tourism

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alexandra VINEREAN

2014-10-01

Full Text Available Being part of the tourism industries involves many researches and analyses in different periods of time, regarding different segments of consumers. Therefore, it is important to be aware of all the factors and motivators that influence a tourist to purchase a particular tourism services. These complex variables are crucial for the final purchase decision of an offer with emotional value for customers. This paper presents the principals motivators which intervene in the decision making process that should be acknowledged by marketers in order to provide the ideal tourism package.

International Patients' Travel Decision Making Process- A Conceptual Framework.

Science.gov (United States)

Khan, Mohammad Jamal; Chelliah, Shankar; Haron, Mahmod Sabri

2016-02-01

Role of information source, perceived benefits and risks, and destination image has significantly been examined in travel and tourism literature; however, in medical tourism it is yet to be examined thoroughly. The concept discussed in this article is drawn form well established models in tourism literature. The purpose of this research was to identify the source of information, travel benefits and perceived risks related to movement of international patients and develop a conceptual model based on well-established theory. Thorough database search (Science Direct, utmj.org, nih.gov, nchu.edu.tw, palgrave-journals, medretreat, Biomedcentral) was performed to fulfill the objectives of the study. International patients always concern about benefits and risks related to travel. These benefits and risks form images of destination in the minds of international patients. Different sources of information make international patients acquaint about the associated benefits and risks, which later leads to development of intention to visit. This conceptual paper helps in establishing model for decision-making process of international patients in developing visit intention. Ample amount of literature is available detailing different factors involved in travel decision making of international patients; however literature explaining relationship between these factors is scarce.

The Use of the Evidence from the Behavioral Sciences in the Organizational Decision-Making Process

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bogdan MÎNJINĂ

2015-09-01

Full Text Available The important managerial decision-making and the development of policies, strategies, internal normative acts and procedures must be solid grounded for efficient achieving of their objectives. To this end, the evidence-based approach uses various types of evidence, a leading role having those scientific, and the critical thinking. The evidence from behavioral sciences is especially important when the decisions objectives involve behavioral elements. They also help to ensure the rationality of any decision-making process. The concern for the use of behavioral sciences research in the decision-making preceded the occurrence of evidence-based approach. The increased knowledge fund of organizations, the access to the best practices and to the relevant scientific research findings represent only the initial stages of the evidence-based approach implementation and functioning. The ensuring of their effective use calls for special skills training among staff, the creation of tools and organizational mechanisms and of a facilitating organizational culture. This paper argues the need to integrate two approaches that promote the decision-making based on scientific evidence, the evidence-based approach and the use of behavioral and social sciences in the decision-making, to potentiate the contribution of the behavioral sciences to the increasing of the decision-making efficiency. The efforts made in this paper had overall objective to prepare and facilitate the use of research evidence provided by behavioral sciences in the organizational decision-making process by presenting the main concepts and knowledge in the field and by proposing an outline procedure specifically developed.

Do Teachers Make Decisions Like Firefighters? Applying Naturalistic Decision-Making Methods to Teachers' In-Class Decision Making in Mathematics

Science.gov (United States)

Jazby, Dan

2014-01-01

Research into human decision making (DM) processes from outside of education paint a different picture of DM than current DM models in education. This pilot study assesses the use of critical decision method (CDM)--developed from observations of firefighters' DM -- in the context of primary mathematics teachers' in-class DM. Preliminary results…

Conversion Timing of Seafarer’s Decision-making for Unmanned Ship Navigation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ruolan Zhang

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The aim of this study is to construct an unmanned ship swarms monitoring model to improve autonomous decision-making efficiency and safety performance of unmanned ship navigation. A framework is proposed to determine the relationship between on-board decision-making and shore side monitoring, the process of ship data detection, tracking, analysis and loss, and the application of decision-making algorithm, to discuss the different risk responses of specific unmanned ship types under various latent hazard environments, particularly in terms of precise conversion timing in switching over to remote control and full manual monitoring, to ensure safe navigation when the capability of automatic risk response inadequate. This frame-work makes it easier to train data and the adjustment for machine learning based on Bayesian risk prediction. It can be concluded that the automation level can be increased and the workload of shore-based seafarers can be reduced easily.

Role of affect in decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Bandyopadhyay, Debarati; Pammi, V S Chandrasekhar; Srinivasan, Narayanan

2013-01-01

Emotion plays a major role in influencing our everyday cognitive and behavioral functions, including decision making. We introduce different ways in which emotions are characterized in terms of the way they influence or elicited by decision making. This chapter discusses different theories that have been proposed to explain the role of emotions in judgment and decision making. We also discuss incidental emotional influences, both long-duration influences like mood and short-duration influences by emotional context present prior to or during decision making. We present and discuss results from a study with emotional pictures presented prior to decision making and how that influences both decision processes and postdecision experience as a function of uncertainty. We conclude with a summary of the work on emotions and decision making in the context of decision-making theories and our work on incidental emotions. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Making effective links to decision-making: Key challenges for health impact assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Elliott, Eva; Francis, Sarah

2005-01-01

This paper draws on an exploratory research study to examine the effectiveness of health impact assessments in Wales. Through the review of five case study health impact assessments the research identified a number of benefits of the process in terms of skills and knowledge development amongst participants. The indirect contributions to decision-making were also evident including the way in which health impact assessment provided useful insights into the local community's perspective and raised awareness about the wider determinants of health. The process was also useful in establishing a dialogue between different stakeholders, which indirectly assisted decision-making and implementation. The direct links between health impact assessment and decision-making were more difficult to trace and this paper puts forward a number of suggestions for making those links more transparent. Suggestions include integrating decision-makers and clarifying the intended links to decision-making at the start of the health impact assessment process. Mainstreaming health impact assessment so that it is triggered as a routine part of all decision-making would help ensure it stands the best chance of informing decisions

Has patients' involvement in the decision-making process changed over time?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Brink-Muinen, A. van den; Dulmen, A.M. van; Haes, H.C.J.M. de; Visser, A.P.; Schellevis, F.G.; Bensing, J.M.

2006-01-01

Objective: To get insight into the changes over time of patients' involvement in the decision-making process, and into the factors contributing to patients' involvement and general practitioners' (GPs) communication related to the Medical Treatment Act (MTA) Issues: information about treatment,

Has patients’ involvement in the decision-making process changed over time?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Brink-Muinen, A. van den; Dulmen, S.M. van; Haes, H.C.J.M. de; Visser, A.P.; Schellevis, F.G.; Bensing, J.

2006-01-01

Objective To get insight into the changes over time of patients’ involvement in the decision-making process, and into the factors contributing to patients’ involvement and general practitioners’ (GPs) communication related to the Medical Treatment Act (MTA) issues: information about treatment,

Decision making in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy.

Science.gov (United States)

Labudda, Kirsten; Frigge, Kristina; Horstmann, Simone; Aengenendt, Joerg; Woermann, Friedrich G; Ebner, Alois; Markowitsch, Hans J; Brand, Matthias

2009-01-01

The mesiotemporal lobe is involved in decision making processes because bilateral amygdala damage can cause impairments in decision making that is mainly based on the processing of emotional feedback. In addition to executive functions, previous studies have suggested the involvement of feedback processing in decision making under risk when explicit information about consequences and their probabilities is provided. In the current study, we investigated whether unilateral mesiotemporal damage, comprising of the hippocampus and/or the amygdala, results in alterations of both kinds of decision making. For this purpose, we preoperatively examined 20 patients with refractory unilateral mesiotemporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and a comparison group (CG) of 20 healthy volunteers with the Iowa Gambling Task to assess decision making based on feedback processing, the Game of Dice Task to assess decision making under risk, and with a neuropsychological test battery. Results indicate that TLE patients performed normally in decision making under risk, but can exhibit disturbances in decision making on the Iowa Gambling Task. A subgroup analysis revealed that those patients with a preference for the disadvantageous alternatives performed worse on executive subcomponents and had seizure onset at an earlier age in comparison to the patient subgroup without disadvantageous decision making. Furthermore, disadvantageous decision making can emerge in patients with selective hippocampal sclerosis not extended to the amygdala. Thus, our results demonstrate for the first time that presurgical patients with TLE can have selective reductions in decision making and that these deficits can result from hippocampal lesions without structural amygdala abnormalities.

Cochlear Implant: the complexity involved in the decision making process by the family.

Science.gov (United States)

Vieira, Sheila de Souza; Bevilacqua, Maria Cecília; Ferreira, Noeli Marchioro Liston Andrade; Dupas, Giselle

2014-01-01

to understand the meanings the family attributes to the phases of the decision-making process on a cochlear implant for their child. qualitative research, using Symbolic Interactionism and Grounded Theory as the theoretical and methodological frameworks, respectively. Data collection instrument: semistructured interview. Nine families participated in the study (32 participants). knowledge deficit, difficulties to contextualize benefits and risks and fear are some factors that make this process difficult. Experiences deriving from interactions with health professionals, other cochlear implant users and their relatives strengthen decision making in favor of the implant. deciding on whether or not to have the implant involves a complex process, in which the family needs to weigh gains and losses, experience feelings of accountability and guilt, besides overcoming the risk aversion. Hence, this demands cautious preparation and knowledge from the professionals involved in this intervention.

Decision making in midwifery: rationality and intuition.

Science.gov (United States)

Steinhauer, Suyai

2015-04-01

Decision making in midwifery is a complex process that shapes and underpins clinical practice and determines, to a large extent, the quality of care. Effective decision making and professional accountability are central to clinical governance, and being able.to justify all decisions is a professional and legal requirement. At the same time, there is an emphasis in midwifery on shared decision making, and keeping women at the centre of their care, and research reveals that feelings of choice, control and autonomy are central to a positive birth experience. However the extent to which decisions are really shared and care truly woman-centred is debatable and affected by environment and culture. Using a case study of a decision made in clinical practice around amniotomy, this article explores the role of the intuitive thinking system in midwifery decision making, and highlights the importance of involving women in the decision making process.

Information Technology Process Improvement Decision-Making: An Exploratory Study from the Perspective of Process Owners and Process Managers

Science.gov (United States)

Lamp, Sandra A.

2012-01-01

There is information available in the literature that discusses information technology (IT) governance and investment decision making from an executive-level perception, yet there is little information available that offers the perspective of process owners and process managers pertaining to their role in IT process improvement and investment…

Reasoning in explanation-based decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Pennington, N; Hastie, R

1993-01-01

A general theory of explanation-based decision making is outlined and the multiple roles of inference processes in the theory are indicated. A typology of formal and informal inference forms, originally proposed by Collins (1978a, 1978b), is introduced as an appropriate framework to represent inferences that occur in the overarching explanation-based process. Results from the analysis of verbal reports of decision processes are presented to demonstrate the centrality and systematic character of reasoning in a representative legal decision-making task.

Intergroup conflict and rational decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Martínez-Tur, Vicente; Peñarroja, Vicente; Serrano, Miguel A; Hidalgo, Vanesa; Moliner, Carolina; Salvador, Alicia; Alacreu-Crespo, Adrián; Gracia, Esther; Molina, Agustín

2014-01-01

The literature has been relatively silent about post-conflict processes. However, understanding the way humans deal with post-conflict situations is a challenge in our societies. With this in mind, we focus the present study on the rationality of cooperative decision making after an intergroup conflict, i.e., the extent to which groups take advantage of post-conflict situations to obtain benefits from collaborating with the other group involved in the conflict. Based on dual-process theories of thinking and affect heuristic, we propose that intergroup conflict hinders the rationality of cooperative decision making. We also hypothesize that this rationality improves when groups are involved in an in-group deliberative discussion. Results of a laboratory experiment support the idea that intergroup conflict -associated with indicators of the activation of negative feelings (negative affect state and heart rate)- has a negative effect on the aforementioned rationality over time and on both group and individual decision making. Although intergroup conflict leads to sub-optimal decision making, rationality improves when groups and individuals subjected to intergroup conflict make decisions after an in-group deliberative discussion. Additionally, the increased rationality of the group decision making after the deliberative discussion is transferred to subsequent individual decision making.

Intergroup Conflict and Rational Decision Making

Science.gov (United States)

Martínez-Tur, Vicente; Peñarroja, Vicente; Serrano, Miguel A.; Hidalgo, Vanesa; Moliner, Carolina; Salvador, Alicia; Alacreu-Crespo, Adrián; Gracia, Esther; Molina, Agustín

2014-01-01

The literature has been relatively silent about post-conflict processes. However, understanding the way humans deal with post-conflict situations is a challenge in our societies. With this in mind, we focus the present study on the rationality of cooperative decision making after an intergroup conflict, i.e., the extent to which groups take advantage of post-conflict situations to obtain benefits from collaborating with the other group involved in the conflict. Based on dual-process theories of thinking and affect heuristic, we propose that intergroup conflict hinders the rationality of cooperative decision making. We also hypothesize that this rationality improves when groups are involved in an in-group deliberative discussion. Results of a laboratory experiment support the idea that intergroup conflict –associated with indicators of the activation of negative feelings (negative affect state and heart rate)– has a negative effect on the aforementioned rationality over time and on both group and individual decision making. Although intergroup conflict leads to sub-optimal decision making, rationality improves when groups and individuals subjected to intergroup conflict make decisions after an in-group deliberative discussion. Additionally, the increased rationality of the group decision making after the deliberative discussion is transferred to subsequent individual decision making. PMID:25461384

Intergroup conflict and rational decision making.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vicente Martínez-Tur

Full Text Available The literature has been relatively silent about post-conflict processes. However, understanding the way humans deal with post-conflict situations is a challenge in our societies. With this in mind, we focus the present study on the rationality of cooperative decision making after an intergroup conflict, i.e., the extent to which groups take advantage of post-conflict situations to obtain benefits from collaborating with the other group involved in the conflict. Based on dual-process theories of thinking and affect heuristic, we propose that intergroup conflict hinders the rationality of cooperative decision making. We also hypothesize that this rationality improves when groups are involved in an in-group deliberative discussion. Results of a laboratory experiment support the idea that intergroup conflict -associated with indicators of the activation of negative feelings (negative affect state and heart rate- has a negative effect on the aforementioned rationality over time and on both group and individual decision making. Although intergroup conflict leads to sub-optimal decision making, rationality improves when groups and individuals subjected to intergroup conflict make decisions after an in-group deliberative discussion. Additionally, the increased rationality of the group decision making after the deliberative discussion is transferred to subsequent individual decision making.

Analysis of Decision Making Process in Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game

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Mochamad Sandy Triady

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Billy Beanes’s success in using data-driven decision making in baseball industry is wonderfully written by Michael Lewis in Moneyball. As a general manager in baseball team that were in the bottom position of the league from the financial side to acquire the players, Beane, along with his partner, explored the use of data in choosing the team’s player. They figured out how to determine the worth of every player.The process was not smooth, due to the condition of baseball industry that was not common with using advanced statistic in acquiring   players. Many teams still use the old paradigm that rely on experts’ judgments, intuition, or experience in decision making process. Moneyball approached that using data-driven decision making gave excellent result for Beane’s team. The team won 20 gamessequently in the 2002 season and also spent the lowest cost per win than other teams.This paper attempts to review the principles of Moneyball – The Art of Winning an Unfair Game as a process of decision making and gives what we can learn from the story in order to win the games, the unfair games.

PROFIT SENSITIVITY IN THE DECISION - MAKING PROCESS

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Dimi Ofilean

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Projections on the profitability of an entity is a prerequisite impact assessment of implementing various management strategies. The literature did not include a model sensitivity analysis in terms of profit margin of safety modification and safety coefficient. This article aims to explicit solutions for identifying the factors that influence the sensitivity of profit, the proposed analytical models to change the margin of safety (physical and value and coefficient of safety. The model allows the determination of limits that can increase or decrease sales costs so that the company remains profitable, ie to be able to maintain an adequate level of profit. This analysis allows knowing the influence of each factor in the evolution of the profitability of the entity, allowing managers to adopt the right decisions based on the importance of the influence of the analysis results of the entity. To facilitate understanding of the proposed analytical model is presented a case study.

Influence of portofolio management in decision-making

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Rolney Baptestone

2018-05-01

Full Text Available This research aims to demonstrate how portfolio management influences the decision-making process in the projects of a financial organization. And to achieve this goal was used the single case study method. In order to reach this goal, the study began by means of bibliometric research on the subject of portfolio management and subsequent bibliographic research on the theme, decision making. Next, the relationships between portfolio management and decision making were studied. The results of the data collected confirmed the relationship between "the use of the project identification process in portfolio management to influence decision making" in order to add value to the business. It is also possible to demonstrate moderately that "the use of criteria for project selection influences the consequences of decision making", helping in the strategic management of the organization. One of the academic contributions was to note a migration of the portfolio management process, such as a tool that only controls the projects that will compose the portfolio of an organization, for a process that aims at a direct alignment with the strategic management of the organization. Regarding the practical implications, it was verified the importance of portfolio analysis for decision making, to the detriment of the evaluation of only one project. Taking into account the profitability and the return on investment of the projects, as the most important aspects for a decision making.

Make or buy decision considering uncertainty based on fuzzy logic using simulation and multiple criteria decision making

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Ali Mohtashami

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Decision making on making/buying problem has always been a challenge to decision makers. In this paper a methodology has been proposed to resolve this challenge. This methodology is capable of evaluating making/buying decision making under uncertainty. For uncertainty, the fuzzy logic and simulation approaches have been used. The proposed methodology can be applied to parts with multi stage manufacturing processes and different suppliers. Therefore this methodology provides a scale for decision making from full outsourcing to full manufacturing and with selecting appropriate supplier.

Communicating climate information: travelling through the decision-making process

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stoverinck, F.; Dubois, G.; Amelung, B.

2013-01-01

Climate change forces society to adapt. Adaptation strategies are preferably based on the best available climate information. Climate projections, however, often inform adaptation strategies after being interpreted once or several times. This process affects the original message put forward by climate scientists when presenting the basic climate projections, in particular regarding uncertainties. The nature of this effect and its implications for decision-making are as yet poorly understood. This paper explores the nature and consequences of a) the communication tools used by scientists and experts, and b)changes in the communicated information as it travels through the decision-making process. It does so by analysing the interpretative steps taken in a sample of 25 documents, pertaining to the field of public policies for climate change impact assessment and adaptation strategies. Five phases in the provisioning of climate information are distinguished: pre-existing knowledge (i.e. climate models and data), climate- change projection, impact assessment, adaptation strategy, and adaptation plan. Between the phases, climate information is summarized and synthesised in order to be passed on. The results show that in the sample information on uncertainty is under-represented: e.g. studies focus on only one scenario, and/or disregard probability distributions. In addition, visualization tools are often used ineffectively, leading to confusion and unintended interpretations. Several recommendations are presented. A better training of climatologists to communication issues, but also a training to climatology for decision makers are required, as well as more cautious and robust adaptation strategies, accounting for the uncertainty inherent to climate projections. (authors)

Optimising Transport Decision Making using Customised Decision Models and Decision Conferences

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Barfod, Michael Bruhn

The subject of this Ph.D. thesis entitled “Optimising Transport Decision Making using Customised Decision Models and Decision Conferences” is multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) and decision support in the context of transport infrastructure assessments. Despite the fact that large amounts...... is concerned with the insufficiency of conventional cost-benefit analysis (CBA), and proposes the use of MCDA as a supplementing tool in order to also capture impacts of a more strategic character in the appraisals and hence make more use of the often large efforts put in the preliminary examinations. MCDA...... and rail to bike transport projects. Two major concerns have been to propose an examination process that can be used in situations where complex decision problems need to be addressed by experts as well as non-experts in decision making, and to identify appropriate assessment techniques to be used...

Ethical aspect price decision making

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Grubor Aleksandar

2007-01-01

Full Text Available Price decision making in a marketing program framework creatings is a complicated and delicated part of marketing management, especially to keep in sight culminating of mass external factors. In a market economies price policy as a marketing mix instrument rarely is regulated by the law, which opening the ethical aspect questions of price decision making process. The ethics in the price decision making means consideration of the inner law of the individual (marketing managers and/or consumers, whose irreverence does not entail any juridical sanctions, rather its application is sanctioned by the self - awareness. The acception and stability of the ethical aspect price decision making are determined by the characteristic of selected marketing environment.

Making ethical choices: a comprehensive decision-making model for Canadian psychologists.

Science.gov (United States)

Hadjistavropoulos, T; Malloy, D C

2000-05-01

This paper proposes a theoretical augmentation of the seven-step decision-making model outlined in the Canadian Code of Ethics for Psychologists. We propose that teleological, deontological, and existential ethical perspectives should be taken into account in the decision-making process. We also consider the influence of individual, issue-specific, significant-other, situational, and external factors on ethical decision-making. This theoretical analysis demonstrates the richness and complexity of ethical decision-making.

Study types and reliability of Real World Evidence compared with experimental evidence used in Polish reimbursement decision-making processes.

Science.gov (United States)

Wilk, N; Wierzbicka, N; Skrzekowska-Baran, I; Moćko, P; Tomassy, J; Kloc, K

2017-04-01

The aim of this study was to identify the relationship and impact between Real World Evidence (RWE) and experimental evidence (EE) in Polish decision-making processes for the drugs from selected Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) groups. Descriptive study. A detailed analysis was performed for 58 processes from five ATC code groups in which RWE for effectiveness, or effectiveness and safety were cited in Agency for Health Technology Assessment and Tariff System's (AOTMiT) documents published between January 2012 and September 2015: Verification Analysis of AOTMiT, Statement of the Transparency Council of AOTMiT, and Recommendation of the President of AOTMiT. In 62% of the cases, RWE supported the EE and confirmed its main conclusions. The majority of studies in the EE group showed to be RCTs (97%), and the RWE group included mainly cohort studies (89%). There were more studies without a control group within RWE compared with the EE group (10% vs 1%). Our results showed that EE are more often assessed using Jadad, NICE or NOS scale by AOTMiT compared with RWE (93% vs 48%). When the best evidence within a given decision-making process is analysed, half of RWE and two-thirds of EE are considered high quality evidence. RWE plays an important role in the decision-making processes on public funding of drugs in Poland, contributing to nearly half (45%) of all the evidence considered. There exist such processes in which the proportion of RWE is dominant, with one process showing RWE as the only evidence presented. Copyright © 2016 The Royal Society for Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A mapping of design decision-making

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Claus Thorp; Andreasen, Mogens Myrup

2004-01-01

In this paper we present the decision score, which is a model of decision-making seen in the engineering designer's perspective of the design process dynamics, where a decision has multiple objects and where it is based on earlier decisions, prediction of consequences and design process progressi...

Making sense of adolescent decision-making: challenge and reality.

Science.gov (United States)

Unguru, Yoram

2011-08-01

Few topics in pediatric bioethics are as vexing as decision-making. Decision-making in pediatrics presents challenges for children, parents, and physicians alike. The related, yet distinct, concepts of assent and consent are central to pediatric decision-making. Although informed consent is largely regarded as a worthwhile adult principle, assent has been, and continues to be, mired in debate. Controversial subjects include a meaningful definition of assent; how old children should be to assent; who should be included in the assent process; parental permission; how to resolve disputes between children and their parents; the relationship between assent and consent; the quantity and quality of information to disclose to children and their families; how much and what information children desire and need; the necessity and methods for assessing both children's understanding of disclosed information and of the assent process itself; reconciling ethical and legal attitudes toward assent; and finally, an effective, practical, and realistically applicable decision-making model.

Use of the Safety Monitor in operational decision-making at a nuclear generating facility

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chien, Shan H.; Hook, Thomas G.; Lee, Roger J.

1998-01-01

The utilization of Safety Monitor at a nuclear generating facility in 1994 revolutionized the way US nuclear power plants manage configuration risks. At Southern California Edison (SCE) Company's San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, it transformed probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) from a retrospective tool for understanding past risk into a prospective tool for controlling future risk. Since that time, many other nuclear utilities have taken aggressive steps in using PRA better to understand and manage risks associated with plant operation and maintenance. These utilities have employed a variety of methods ranging from systems similar to San Onofre's Safety Monitor to systems dramatically different in both technology and philosophy. In the development and use of its Safety Monitor, SCE has been guided by two philosophical goals: (1) maximize the objectivity of PRA-informed decision-making relative to managing configuration risks, and (2) ensure that risks are managed conservatively

[Nurses' subjectivity production and the decision-making in the process of care].

Science.gov (United States)

Busanello, Josefine; Lunardi Filho, Wilson Danilo; Kerber, Nalú Pereira da Costa

2013-06-01

This study aimed to understand the relationship between Nurse's production of subjectivity and the decision-making in the process of Nursing care. A qualitative design of research was conducted. The investigation was carried out with twelve nurses who work at the Associação de Caridade Santa Casa do Rio Grande, a hospital located in Rio Grande, RS, Brazil. For data collection, focus group technique was used three meetings were conducted in december 2011. The results were presented in semantic categories: Capitalist System: maintenance of employment bond; Submission System: institutionalized culture and vision of society; Nursing Hierarchical System; and Values System: feeling of guilt and lack of professional recognition. The capitalist system mediates, mainly, the behavior that prevails in the decision-making process in Nursing care.

Decision-making, somatic markers and emotion processing in opiate users.

Science.gov (United States)

Biernacki, Kathryn; Terrett, Gill; McLennan, Skye N; Labuschagne, Izelle; Morton, Phoebe; Rendell, Peter G

2018-01-01

Opiate use is associated with deficits in decision-making. A possible explanation for these deficits is provided by the somatic marker hypothesis, which suggests that substance users may experience abnormal emotional responses during decision-making involving reward and punishment. This in turn may interfere with the brief physiological arousal, i.e. somatic markers that normally occur in anticipation of risky decisions. To date, the applicability of the somatic marker hypothesis to explain decision-making deficits has not been investigated in opiate users. This study assessed whether decision-making deficits in opiate users were related to abnormal emotional responses and reduced somatic markers. Opiate users enrolled in an opiate substitute treatment program (n = 28) and healthy controls (n = 32) completed the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) while their skin conductance responses (SCRs) were recorded. Participants' emotional responses to emotion-eliciting videos were also recorded using SCRs and subjective ratings. Opiate users displayed poorer decision-making on the IGT than did controls. However, there were no differences between the groups in SCRs; both groups displayed stronger SCRs following punishment than following reward, and both groups displayed stronger anticipatory SCRs prior to disadvantageous decisions than advantageous decisions. There were no group differences in objective or subjective measures of emotional responses to the videos. The results suggest that deficits in emotional responsiveness are not apparent in opiate users who are receiving pharmacological treatment. Thus, the somatic marker hypothesis does not provide a good explanation for the decision-making deficits in this group.

Dissociating sensory from decision processes in human perceptual decision making

OpenAIRE

Mostert, Pim; Kok, Peter; de Lange, Floris P.

2015-01-01

A key question within systems neuroscience is how the brain translates physical stimulation into a behavioral response: perceptual decision making. To answer this question, it is important to dissociate the neural activity underlying the encoding of sensory information from the activity underlying the subsequent temporal integration into a decision variable. Here, we adopted a decoding approach to empirically assess this dissociation in human magnetoencephalography recordings. We used a funct...

Instructional decision making of high school science teachers

Science.gov (United States)

Carver, Jeffrey S.

The instructional decision-making processes of high school science teachers have not been well established in the literature. Several models for decision-making do exist in other teaching disciplines, business, computer game programming, nursing, and some fields of science. A model that incorporates differences in science teaching that is consistent with constructivist theory as opposed to conventional science teaching is useful in the current climate of standards-based instruction that includes an inquiry-based approach to teaching science. This study focuses on three aspects of the decision-making process. First, it defines what factors, both internal and external, influence high school science teacher decision-making. Second, those factors are analyzed further to determine what instructional decision-making processes are articulated or demonstrated by the participants. Third, by analyzing the types of decisions that are made in the classroom, the classroom learning environments established as a result of those instructional decisions are studied for similarities and differences between conventional and constructivist models. While the decision-making process for each of these teachers was not clearly articulated by the teachers themselves, the patterns that establish the process were clearly exhibited by the teachers. It was also clear that the classroom learning environments that were established were, at least in part, established as a result of the instructional decisions that were made in planning and implementation of instruction. Patterns of instructional decision-making were different for each teacher as a result of primary instructional goals that were different for each teacher. There were similarities between teachers who exhibited more constructivist epistemological tendencies as well as similarities between teachers who exhibited a more conventional epistemology. While the decisions that will result from these two camps may be different, the six step

Integrating Click-Through and Eye-Tracking Logs for Decision-Making Process Mining

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Razvan PETRUSEL

2014-01-01

Full Text Available In current software every click of the users is logged, therefore a wealth of click-through information exists. Besides, recent technologies have made eye-tracking affordable and an alternative to other human-computer interaction means (e.g. mouse, touchscreens. A big challenge is to make sense of all this data and convert it into useful information. This paper introduces a possible solution placed in the context of decision-making processes. We show how the decision maker's activity can be traced using two means: mouse tracing (i.e. clicks and eye-tracking (i.e. eye fixations. Then, we discuss a mining approach, based on the log, which extracts a Decision Data Model (DDM. We use the DDM to determine, post-hoc, which decision strategy was employed. The paper concludes with a validation based on a controlled experiment.

Constructions of accountability in child protection workers decision-making processes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schrøder, Ida Marie

2014-01-01

collected from three Danish local governments and consists of 24 qualitative interviews with child protection workers, leaders and economic consultants, 12 observations of team meetings and a quantitative survey of 150 cases. The study ends summer 2014 and the results of the research will be utilized...... construction of accountability as relational effects of these new forms of accounting practice. The paper draws on the preliminary results from a 2 ½ year mixed method study of how budgeting and accounting practice influences the processes of decision-making in child protection work. The data has been...... systems – such as setting standards or deciding on the delegation of decision-making authority. Using Actor-network theory as a methodological and analytical approach, it furthermore becomes clear how the types of accountability are enacted as effects, not only by the technologies offered to support...

Shared decision making and medication management in the recovery process.

Science.gov (United States)

Deegan, Patricia E; Drake, Robert E

2006-11-01

Mental health professionals commonly conceptualize medication management for people with severe mental illness in terms of strategies to increase compliance or adherence. The authors argue that compliance is an inadequate construct because it fails to capture the dynamic complexity of autonomous clients who must navigate decisional conflicts in learning to manage disorders over the course of years or decades. Compliance is rooted in medical paternalism and is at odds with principles of person-centered care and evidence-based medicine. Using medication is an active process that involves complex decision making and a chance to work through decisional conflicts. It requires a partnership between two experts: the client and the practitioner. Shared decision making provides a model for them to assess a treatment's advantages and disadvantages within the context of recovering a life after a diagnosis of a major mental disorder.

Proposing a model for safety risk assessment in the construction industry using gray multi-criterion decision-making

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S. M. Abootorabi

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Statistical Report of the Social Security Organization indicate that among the various industries, the construction industry has the highest number of work-related accidents so that in addition to frequency, it has high intensity, as well. On the other hand, a large number of human resources are working in this whish shows they necessity for paying special attention to these workers. Therefore, risk assessment of the safety in the construction industry is an effective step in this regard. In this study, a method for ranking safety risks in conditions of low number of samples and uncertainty is presented, using gray multi-criterion decision-making. .Material and Method: In this study, we first identified the factors affecting the occurrence of hazards in the construction industry. Then, appropriate for ranking the risks were determined and the problem was defined as a multi-criterion decision-making. In order to weight the criteria and to evaluate alternatives based on each criterion, gray numbers were used. In the last stage, the problem was solved using the gray possibility degree. .Results: The results show that the method of gray multi-criterion decision-making is an effective method for ranking risks in situations of low samples compared with other methods of MCDM. .Conclusion: The proposed method is preferred to fuzzy methods and statistics in uncertain and low sample size, due to simple calculations and no need to define the membership function.

Exploring the decision-making process in the delivery of physiotherapy in a stroke unit.

Science.gov (United States)

McGlinchey, Mark P; Davenport, Sally

2015-01-01

The aim of this study was to explore the decision-making process in the delivery of physiotherapy in a stroke unit. A focused ethnographical approach involving semi-structured interviews and observations of clinical practice was used. A purposive sample of seven neurophysiotherapists and four patients participated in semi-structured interviews. From this group, three neurophysiotherapists and four patients were involved in observation of practice. Data from interviews and observations were analysed to generate themes. Three themes were identified: planning the ideal physiotherapy delivery, the reality of physiotherapy delivery and involvement in the decision-making process. Physiotherapists used a variety of clinical reasoning strategies and considered many factors to influence their decision-making in the planning and delivery of physiotherapy post-stroke. These factors included the therapist's clinical experience, patient's presentation and response to therapy, prioritisation, organisational constraints and compliance with organisational practice. All physiotherapists highlighted the importance to involve patients in planning and delivering their physiotherapy. However, there were varying levels of patient involvement observed in this process. The study has generated insight into the reality of decision-making in the planning and delivery of physiotherapy post-stroke. Further research involving other stroke units is required to gain a greater understanding of this aspect of physiotherapy. Implications for Rehabilitation Physiotherapists need to consider multiple patient, therapist and organisational factors when planning and delivering physiotherapy in a stroke unit. Physiotherapists should continually reflect upon how they provide physiotherapy, with respect to the duration, frequency and time of day sessions are delivered, in order to guide current and future physiotherapy delivery. As patients may demonstrate varying levels of participation in deciding and

Intelligent Aircraft Damage Assessment, Trajectory Planning, and Decision-Making under Uncertainty

Science.gov (United States)

Lopez, Israel; Sarigul-Klijn, Nesrin

Situational awareness and learning are necessary to identify and select the optimal set of mutually non-exclusive hypothesis in order to maximize mission performance and adapt system behavior accordingly. This paper presents a hierarchical and decentralized approach for integrated damage assessment and trajectory planning in aircraft with uncertain navigational decision-making. Aircraft navigation can be safely accomplished by properly addressing the following: decision-making, obstacle perception, aircraft state estimation, and aircraft control. When in-flight failures or damage occur, rapid and precise decision-making under imprecise information is required in order to regain and maintain control of the aircraft. To achieve planned aircraft trajectory and complete safe landing, the uncertainties in system dynamics of the damaged aircraft need to be learned and incorporated at the level of motion planning. The damaged aircraft is simulated via a simplified kinematic model. The different sources and perspectives of uncertainties in the damage assessment process and post-failure trajectory planning are presented and classified. The decision-making process for an emergency motion planning and landing is developed via the Dempster-Shafer evidence theory. The objective of the trajectory planning is to arrive at a target position while maximizing the safety of the aircraft given uncertain conditions. Simulations are presented for an emergency motion planning and landing that takes into account aircraft dynamics, path complexity, distance to landing site, runway characteristics, and subjective human decision.

Cochlear Implant: the complexity involved in the decision making process by the family

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sheila de Souza Vieira

2014-06-01

Full Text Available OBJECTIVE: to understand the meanings the family attributes to the phases of the decision-making process on a cochlear implant for their child.METHOD: qualitative research, using Symbolic Interactionism and Grounded Theory as the theoretical and methodological frameworks, respectively. Data collection instrument: semistructured interview. Nine families participated in the study (32 participants.RESULTS: knowledge deficit, difficulties to contextualize benefits and risks and fear are some factors that make this process difficult. Experiences deriving from interactions with health professionals, other cochlear implant users and their relatives strengthen decision making in favor of the implant.CONCLUSION: deciding on whether or not to have the implant involves a complex process, in which the family needs to weigh gains and losses, experience feelings of accountability and guilt, besides overcoming the risk aversion. Hence, this demands cautious preparation and knowledge from the professionals involved in this intervention.

A Relational Approach to the Acquisition Decision-Making Process in the Military Organization

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Gheorghe Minculete

2016-06-01

Full Text Available The market relations of military organizations focus on the acquisition of material goods and/or services. Nonetheless, the importance of the decisions related to the supply process is sometimes minimized. This attitude is so harmful for the effi cacy and effi ciency of the activities conducted by the military structure that at times it can have a negative impact on the management staff too. Problems may occur because the acquisition process must unfold performance-oriented; its main objective is the purchasing of material goods and/or services meant to ensure the smooth operation of the activities of the military organization. In case this cannot be achieved, it is highly probable that the mission of the organization itself is compromised. The present article explores the constitutive elements of the acquisition decision-making situation, certainty, uncertainty and risk connected to the purchasing mechanism, as well as the stages of the acquisition decision-making process