Time-Oriented Visualization and Anticipation

Temporal awareness is pivotal to successful real-time dynamic decision making in a wide range of command and control situations; particularly in safety-critical environments. However, little explicit support for operators' temporal awareness is provided by decision support systems (DSS) for time-critical decisions. In the context of functional simulations of naval anti-air warfare and emergency response management, the present study compares operator support provided by two display formats. In both environments, we contrast a baseline condition to a condition in which a temporal display was integrated to the original interface to support operators' temporal awareness. We also wish to establish whether the implementation of time-based DSSs may also come with drawbacks on cognitive functioning and performance.