Displays for decision making.

Traditionally, the human factors evaluation of displays is focused on input aspects (e.g. ratio of line width to height, use of colour, visibility, etc.). Acquisition measures (e.g. reaction-time, reading speed, etc.) have typically been chosen as dependent variables. However, many displays of interest (e.g. those for Command and Control) require the observer not only to acquire information but also to manipulate the displayed data and derive a decision that is judicious as well as timely. This paper will summarize a series of studies in which a decision adequacy metric was applied to the evaluation of displays. It will be shown that several of the relationships previously found (using acquisition variables) are either modified or reversed when we focus on the goodness of display based decisions. A programme of research expanding on these studies will also be described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]