Cross-Boundary Information Sharing By Knowledge Brokers During A Disaster

<p>This thesis explores and investigates the process of cross-boundary information sharing by knowledge brokers (KB) during a disaster using lenses of knowledge management and naturalistic decision making. The study integrated interpretivist and positivist stances, conducted using qualitative methods. It used a multiple case embedded research design and in-depth face-to-face interviews as the method of inquiry and an inductive process of theory generation. The cases were in the context of disasters that occurred in New Zealand. The unit of analysis was the scenarios that KB experienced during disasters. Based on a four stage analysis of the data, there were two phases that KB went through in assessing the veracity of the information they received and deciding to whom the information is relevant. In each phase, KB were relying on different cognitive resources to filter and to match the information. It was also found that there were different types of boundary, information and disasters. Interestingly, it was found that KB used different tactics to make the decision on the information’s veracity and to whom it is relevant. The primary contribution of this thesis is the generation and explanation of the theoretical model of cross-boundary information sharing by KB during a disaster. This theory can also be used by practitioners as a guide to improve disaster management training and for the community to prepare stronger resilience plans.</p>

Cross-Boundary Information Sharing By Knowledge Brokers During A Disaster

<p>This thesis explores and investigates the process of cross-boundary information sharing by knowledge brokers (KB) during a disaster using lenses of knowledge management and naturalistic decision making. The study integrated interpretivist and positivist stances, conducted using qualitative methods. It used a multiple case embedded research design and in-depth face-to-face interviews as the method of inquiry and an inductive process of theory generation. The cases were in the context of disasters that occurred in New Zealand. The unit of analysis was the scenarios that KB experienced during disasters. Based on a four stage analysis of the data, there were two phases that KB went through in assessing the veracity of the information they received and deciding to whom the information is relevant. In each phase, KB were relying on different cognitive resources to filter and to match the information. It was also found that there were different types of boundary, information and disasters. Interestingly, it was found that KB used different tactics to make the decision on the information’s veracity and to whom it is relevant. The primary contribution of this thesis is the generation and explanation of the theoretical model of cross-boundary information sharing by KB during a disaster. This theory can also be used by practitioners as a guide to improve disaster management training and for the community to prepare stronger resilience plans.</p>

A model of naturalistic decision making in preference tests

Decisions as to whether to continue with an ongoing activity or to switch to an alternative are a constant in an animal’s natural world, and in particular underlie foraging behavior and performance in food preference tests. Stimuli experienced by the animal both impact the choice and are themselves impacted by the choice, in a dynamic back and forth. Here, we present model neural circuits, based on spiking neurons, in which the choice to switch away from ongoing behavior instantiates this back and forth, arising as a state transition in neural activity. We analyze two classes of circuit, which differ in whether state transitions result from a loss of hedonic input from the stimulus (an “entice to stay” model) or from aversive stimulus-input (a “repel to leave” model). In both classes of model, we find that the mean time spent sampling a stimulus decreases with increasing value of the alternative stimulus, a fact that we linked to the inclusion of depressing synapses in our model. The competitive interaction is much greater in “entice to stay” model networks, which has qualitative features of the marginal value theorem, and thereby provides a framework for optimal foraging behavior. We offer suggestions as to how our models could be discriminatively tested through the analysis of electrophysiological and behavioral data.

Development and Testing of an Instrument to Measure Contextual Factors Influencing Self-Care Decisions Among Adults with Chronic Illness

Background: Adults with chronic illness frequently experience bothersome symptoms (e.g., pain). Decisions about how to manage these symptoms are complex and influenced by factors related to the patient, their illness, and their environment. The naturalistic decision-making framework describes decision-making when conditions are dynamically evolving, and the decision maker is uncertain because the situation is ambiguous and missing information. The contextual factors influencing decisions include time stress, the perception of high stakes, and input from other individuals, which may facilitate or complicate the decision about the self-care of symptoms. There is no valid instrument to measure these contextual factors. The purpose of this study was to develop and test a self-report instrument measuring the contextual factors that influence self-care decisions about symptoms. Methods: Items were drafted from the literature and refined with patient input. Content validity of the instrument was evaluated using a Delphi survey of expert clinicians and researchers, and cognitive interviews with adults with chronic illness. Psychometric testing included exploratory factor analysis to test dimensionality, item response theory-based approaches for item recalibration, confirmatory factor analysis to generate factor determinacy scores, and evaluation of construct validity. Results: The content validity of the Self-Care Decisions Scale is excellent with all items achieving a content validity index of greater than 0.78 in the Delphi survey of experts (n=12). Adults with chronic illness (n=5) endorsed the relevance, comprehensiveness, and comprehensibility of the instrument during cognitive interviews. Initial psychometric testing (n=431) revealed a 6-factor multidimensional structure that was further refined for precision, and high multidimensional reliability. In construct validity testing, there were modest associations with some scales of the Melbourne Decision Making Questionnaire and the Self-Care of Chronic Illness Inventory. Conclusion: The Self-Care Decisions Scale is a 27-item self-report instrument that measures the extent to which contextual factors influence decisions about symptoms of chronic illness with six scales reflecting naturalistic decision making (external, urgency, uncertainty, cognitive/affective, waiting/cue competition, and concealment). The scale can support research that aims to better understand how adults with chronic illness make decisions in response to symptoms. Additional testing of the instrument is needed to evaluate clinical utility.

Use of Augmented Reality to Train Sensemaking in High-Stakes Medical Environments

We present a framework for using augmented reality (AR) to train sensemaking skills in combat medics and civilian emergency medical personnel. AR and other extended reality technologies create engaging training environments, but their effectiveness on training outcomes is not yet clear. One benefit of AR is that it can enhance simulation training with realism and context that naturalistic decision-making (NDM) models emphasize. We describe four key elements of sensemaking that leverage the strengths of AR: perceptual skills, assessment skills, mental models, and generating/evaluating hypotheses. We discuss how AR can be used to train each of these four elements, along with design implications. A focus on naturalistic tasks and environments while designing AR-based simulation training will likely lead to training that is not only engaging but also effective.

Exploring the Differences in Macrocognition Between Experts and Non-CHD Experts Managing Congenital Heart Disease (CHD)

Background and aims: Children with congenital heart disease (CHD) are at risk of deterioration in the face of common childhood illnesses, and their resuscitation and acute management is often best achieved with the guidance of CHD experts. Access to such expertise may be limited outside specialty heart centers and the fragility of these patients is cause for discomfort among many emergency medicine physicians. An understanding of the differences in macrocognition of these clinicians could shed light on some of the causes of discomfort and facilitate the development of a sociotechnological solution to this problem. Methods: Cardiac intensivists (CHD experts) and pediatric emergency medicine physicians (non-CHD experts) in a major academic cardiac center were interviewed using the critical decision method. Interview transcripts were coded deductively based on Klein’s macrocognitive framework and inductively to allow for new or modified characterization of dimensions. Results: While both CHD-experts and non-CHD experts relied on the macrocognitive functions of sensemaking, naturalistic decision making and detecting problems, the specific data and mental models used to understand the patients and course of therapy differed between CHD-experts and non-CHD experts. Conclusion: Characterization of differences between the macrocognitive processes of CHD experts and non-CHD experts can inform development of sociotechnological solutions to augment decision making pertaining to the acute management of pediatric CHD patients.

What Cognitive Mechanism, When, Where, and Why? Exploring the Decision Making of University and Professional Rugby Union Players During Competitive Matches

Over the past 50 years decision making research in team invasion sport has been dominated by three research perspectives, information processing, ecological dynamics, and naturalistic decision making. Recently, attempts have been made to integrate perspectives, as conceptual similarities demonstrate the decision making process as an interaction between a players perception of game information and the individual and collective capability to act on it. Despite this, no common ground has been found regarding what connects perception and action during performance. The differences between perspectives rest on the role of stored mental representations, that may, or may not facilitate the retrieval of appropriate responses in time pressured competitive environments. Additionally, in team invasion sports like rugby union, the time available to players to perceive, access memory and act, alters rapidly between specific game situations. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine theoretical differences and the mechanisms that underpin them, through the vehicle of rugby union. Sixteen semi-elite rugby union players took part in two post-game procedures to explore the following research objectives; (i) to consider how game situations influence players perception of information; (ii) to consider how game situations influence the application of cognitive mechanisms whilst making decisions; and (iii) to identify the influence of tactics and/or strategy on player decision making. Deductive content analysis and elementary units of meaning derived from self-confrontation elicitation interviews indicate that specific game situations such as; the lineout, scrum or open phases of play or the tackle situation in attack or defence all provide players with varying complexity of perceptual information, formed through game information and time available to make decisions. As time increased, players were more likely to engage with task-specific declarative knowledge-of the game, stored as mental representations. As time diminished, players tended to diagnose and update their knowledge-in the game in a rapid fashion. Occasionally, when players described having no time, they verbalised reacting on instinct through a direct connection between perception and action. From these findings, clear practical implications and directions for future research and dissemination are discussed.