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AviationTest Facilities, Equipment and Methods

Deductive Sensemaking Principles Using Personal Constructs of the Field Commanders

Authors: Celestine A. Ntuen; Dennis Leedom; NORTH CAROLINA AGRICULTURAL AND TECHNICAL STATE UNIV GREENSBORO INST FOR HUMAN-MACHINE STUDIES
Abstract:
The virtue of defining and measuring the commander's performance solely on their "knowledge in their heads" has become an important part of reconstructing battlefield sensemaking process. It is assumed that the expert commander constructs diverse and asynchronous sensemaking models when confronted with asymmetric situations-evolving and changing dynamics of the battlefield information. This personal construct systems are not static-they are confirmed when patterns of old information match the current situational goal, or challenged every moment the commander realizes that everything "held in the head" is no longer relevance-and thus, a new construct system has to be developed quickly to adapt to the new situation. Some of these constructs represent the commander's atypical belief and core values, which can be expressed intuitively by using heuristics, or explanatively by testing wide-ranging hypotheses using mental models. We extend Kelly's construct theory to model the commander's sensemaking process based on his/her field experience. Information from expert interviews with the field commanders from recent conflicts in Iraq and Afaghistan are used to develop the principles of individual sensemaking constructs based on evolving battle situations. "It is by the eyes of the mind, by reasoning over the whole, by a species of inspiration that the general sees, knows and judges" "Napoleon Bonaparte".

Limitations: APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE
Description: Conference paper
Pages: 55
Report Date: JUN 2007
Contract Number: W911NF0420052
Report Number: A132184
Keywords relating to this report:
*BATTLE MANAGEMENT
*DECISION MAKING
*MILITARY COMMANDERS
BATTLEFIELDS
BATTLES
DYNAMICS
FIELD ARMY
HEURISTIC METHODS
MENTAL ABILITY
MODELS
PATTERNS
REASONING
SYMPOSIA
THEORY
VALUE
WARFARE
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