Master of Science / Department of Psychology / James C. Shanteau / Situation Awareness (SA) measurement takes on many forms: subjective, direct, and implicit performance, each with limitations. Subjective measures are based on self and peer reports, which allow biases to enter the measurement. Direct measures, such as SA Global Assessment Technique (SAGAT), interrupt SA in order to probe the participants’ SA level using questions. Implicit performance measures are based on participants’ ability to complete SA tasks, which must be created for each domain. A new approach, Dynamic – SA Task (D-SAT), was developed using a microworld wildfire fighting simulation, Networked Fire Chief (NFC). D-SAT is an implicit performance measure that can be adapted to multiple domains, for example inattentional blindness. Scenarios were developed during study one by tracking participant performance and scenario situations. Study two used the scenarios developed during study one to test D-SAT’s ability to evaluate SA by comparing D-SAT performance to an established SA performance measure, situation awareness global assessment technique (SAGAT). While the manipulation used to create had an effect on D-SAT performance, it was not associated with the established SA performance measure. However, a signal detection theory (SDT) analysis showed additional promise for D-SAT being a useful SA measure.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T16:58:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 edith desp.pdf: 9443168 bytes, checksum: 373751b634881d1df27b702d1636cc5a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-05-25 / The aim of this work was to design and evaluate a musical microworld, created to enable users to explore concepts related to multiplication. Inspired by the constructionist perspective of Papert, the study evolved from the conjecture that by engaging in the construction of a musical rhythm, learners could interact with various aspects of the multiplicative field. To investigate this conjecture, a teaching experiment of two phases was conceived. The analyses in both these phases were based on the distinction made in the research of Confrey between the world of counting and the world of splitting. In the design phase, attention was given to the aspects of the microworld that might permit learners to construct conceptions that go beyond a vision of multiplication as repeated addition. The experimentation phase involved two groups of six students of the 5th Grade of a school within the public education system in the city of São Paulo. Using as their bases the interactions of students during the construction of their own rhythmic compositions, the analyses explored the different ways through which the learners made use of tools of the microworld and, in particular, the ways they chose to represent and express ideas related to notions such as ratio and proportion. The results suggest that, with the support of these tools, the learners gradually came to associate their musical activities with mathematical properties and concepts. They also showed how, during the experiment, the learners were enabled to explore the relations half and double within a perspective coherent with the world of splitting, as well as to use a diverse set of representations of these two relations / Este trabalho tem como objetivo o design e a avaliação de um micromundo musical para a exploração de conceitos multiplicativos. Dentro de uma perspectiva construcionista, partiu-se da hipótese de que, no contexto da construção de um ritmo musical, os aprendizes possam interagir com diferentes aspectos do campo multiplicativo. Foi elaborado um experimento de ensino composto por duas fases: a fase de design do micromundo e a fase de experimentação. As análises em ambas as fases foram baseadas na distinção feita nas pesquisas de Confrey entre o mundo da contagem e o mundo de splitting. Na fase de design, a atenção foi dada aos aspetos do micromundo que permitissem os aprendizes ampliar as concepções do campo multiplicativo, indo além de uma visão de multiplicação como adição repetida. A fase de experimentação contou com dois grupos de seis alunos da 5.ª série do Ensino Fundamental de uma escola pública localizada na cidade de São Paulo. Por meio das interações dos estudantes durante a construção de suas próprias composições rítmicas, as análises exploraram as diferentes maneiras pelas quais os aprendizes interagiram com as ferramentas do micromundo e em particular as formas utilizadas para expressar concepções relativas a noções, tais como razão e proporção. Como resultado, foi observado que, com o apoio destas ferramentas, os alunos gradualmente associaram suas atividades musicais com propriedades e conceitos matemáticos. Em particular, todos os alunos conseguiram, ao longo do experimento, explorar as relações de dobro e metade em uma perspectiva coerente com o mundo de splitting e utilizaram uma variedade de formas para representar estas relações

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T16:58:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 dissertacao_carlos_drisostes.pdf: 10264577 bytes, checksum: 46781bfd7d6a5c0a169ee7c89649fe13 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005-05-12 / nenhum / This study aims to explore processes associated with the design of educational activities for learning of mathematics involving computer software. In particular, it consides the processes involved in the design of microworlds, both in respect to the incorporation of mathematical objects in the environment and the interactions of the mathematics teachers who participated in the research. Within a constructionist perspective, it investigated the conjecture that the iterative design of a microworld can involve designers in constructing new relationships with the computer, with mathematics and with its teaching. A design-based research methodology was chosen for the study, with two phases of experimentation developed: The individual design phase involved the construction of a microworld for geometrical transformations; in the collaborative design phase, a group of six mathematics teachers from a public sector school in the interior of the state of São Paulo participated in the iterative design and e design of two microworlds during a set of twelve research sessions. Analysis of the cycle description-execution-reflection-debugging, that characterized the interaction during both research phases, indicated that participating in the process of computational transposition, by which a mathematical object becomes incorporated in a microworld, enabled both the researcher and the teachers to construct new meanings situated abstractions as well as to adopt new perspectives on the design of learning activities. The opportunity to act simultaneously as designers and as learners also permitted a change in the attitudes of the teachers, increasing their sense of security in relation to the computer. / O objetivo deste trabalho é explorar os processos associados ao design de atividades educacionais utilizando software para a aprendizagem de conteúdos matemáticos. Em particular, considera-se os processos envolvidos no design de micromundos, tanto em respeito da incorporação de objeto matemático no ambiente quanto nas interações dos professores de matemática participantes na pesquisa. Dentro de uma perspectiva construcionista, partiu-se da hipótese de que o design iterativo de um micromundo possa envolver os designers na construção de novas relações com o computador, com a matemática e seu ensino. A metodologia utilizada neste trabalho baseou-se no design-based research methodologies. Foram elaboradas duas fases de experimentação. A fase do design individual de um micromundo envolveu o desenvolvimento do micromundo sobre Transformações Geométricas. A fase de design colaborativo contou com um grupo de seis professores de matemática do ensino fundamental (5º a 8º séries), de uma escola pública localizada no interior de São Paulo. Estes professores participaram do desenvolvimento de dois micromundos, através de um processo iterativo de design e redesign, durante um conjunto de doze sessões. Análise do ciclo descrição-execução-reflexão-depuração que caracterizou as interações em ambas as fases indicou que a participação no processo de transposição informática, pelo qual um objetivo matemático é incorporado num micromundo, favoreceu a construção de novos significados, abstrações situadas, e um novo olhar sobre o design de atividades de aprendizagem, tanto para o pesquisador quanto para os professores. A oportunidade de agir simultaneamente no papel de designer e aprendiz também permitiu uma mudança de postura dos professores aumentando sua segurança frente ao uso do computador.

In emergency management and in military operations, command and control comprises the collection of functions, systems and staff personnel that one or several executives draw on to arrive at decisions and seeing that these decisions are carried out. The large amount of available information coupled with modern computers and computer networks brings along the potential for making well-informed and quick decisions. Hence, decision-making is a central aspect in command and control, emphasizing an obvious need for development of adequate decision-supporting tools to be used in command and control centers. However, command and control takes place in a versatile environment, including both humans and artifacts, making the design of useful computer tools both challenging and multi-faceted. This thesis deals with preparatory action in command and control settings with a focus on the strategic properties of a situation, i.e., to aid commanders in their operational planning activities with the utmost goal of ensuring that strategic interaction occurs under the most favorable circumstances possible. The thesis highlights and investigates the common features of interaction by approaching them broadly using a gaming perspective, taking into account various forms of strategic interaction in command and control. This governing idea, the command and control gaming perspective, is considered an overall contribution of the thesis. Taking the gaming perspective, it turns out that the area ought to be approached from several research directions. In particular, the persistent gap between theory and applications can be bridged by approaching the command and control gaming perspective using both an applied and a theoretical research direction. On the one hand, the area of game theory in conjunction with research findings stemming from artificial intelligence need to be modified to be of use in applied command and control settings. On the other hand, existing games and simulations need to be adapted further to take theoretical game models into account. Results include the following points: (1) classification of information with proposed measurements for a piece of information's precision, fitness for purpose and expected benefit, (2) identification of decision help and decision analysis as the two main directions for development of computerized tools in support of command and control, (3) development and implementation of a rule based algorithm for map-based decision analysis, (4) construction of an open source generic simulation environment to support command and control microworld research, (5) development of a generic tool for prediction of forthcoming troop movements using an algorithm stemming from particle filtering, (6) a non-linear multi-attribute utility function intended to take prevailing cognitive decision-making models into account, and (7) a framework based on game theory and influence diagrams to be used for command and control situation awareness enhancements. Field evaluations in cooperation with military commanders as well as game-theoretic computer experiments are presented in support of the results. / QC 20100825

In response to technological advances, especially in the field of information and communication technology (ICT), the so called revolution in military affairs (RMA) and later the concept of network-centric warfare (NCW) emerged as a theory to further utilize technology for military command and control (C2). Advocates of the Swedish ROLF 2010-vision and the concept of NCW have made claims and assumptions that future technology will improve mission effectiveness by, for example, increasing the understanding of a current situation and its development, the speed of command, and providing means to utilize more efficient forms of organizations. The scope of this thesis is to critically dissect and assess some of these claims and assumptions. Four papers are included: (1) An observational study involving military officers participating in a training session at the Swedish National Defence College’s command and control laboratory. (2) A study performed with a microworld is presented with a discussion considering using microworlds as a tool for investigating the effects of introducing characteristics of novel tech- nology. (3) An experimental study introducing a method to measure individual’s apprehension and assessed development of a situation. (4) Finally, an experiment is presented addressing assumptions of the efficiency of different C2 architectures and effects of graphical support for communication of intentions. The overall conclusion is that the strong benefits from implementing new technologies can be questioned. Results from the qualitative observations indicate that traditional working practices are used regardless introduction of technology with future characteristics. The results show that the strong positive effect that networked and technology enhanced C2 architecture was expected to have generally could not be demonstrated experimentally. However, it appeared that such a C2 architecture can provide some advantages of C2 performance over traditional counterparts under conditions of moderate complexity. Under situations of high complexity, neither the networked nor the traditional C2 architecture performed better than the control condition who lacked C2 capabilities. / Som svar på tekniska framsteg, särskilt inom fältet information och kommunikationsteknologi (IKT), uppstod den så kallade revolutionen i militära angelägenheter (RMA) och senare konceptet nätverksbaserad krigföring (NCW). Det senare har efterhand utvecklats till en teori om hur teknik kan utnyttjas för att effektivisera militär ledning. Bland förespråkare för nätverksbaserad krigföring har antaganden gjorts om hur genomförandet av framtida uppdrag kommer att kunna förbättras och effektiviseras med stöd av framtida teknik. Till exempel antas framtida teknologier kunna; öka förståelsen för en rådande situation och dess fortsatta utveckling, medge att tempot i vilket ledningen bedrivs kommer att kunna ökas samt medge att nya och mer effektiva organisationsformer kommer att kunna utnyttjas. Det övergripande syftet med denna avhandling är att kritiskt analysera och bedöma några av de antaganden som gjorts inom ramen för den svenska ROLF 2010-visionen samt konceptet för nätverksbaserad krigföring. I avhandlingen ingår fyra artiklar. (1) En observationsstudie av en militär stabsövning genomförd i Försvarshögskolans ledningslaboratorium. (2) Resultatet från en studie där en mikrovärld använts som ett verktyg för att undersöka effekterna på ledning där egenskaper hos ny teknik införs. (3) En experimentell studie där en metod introduceras för att mäta olika individers förmåga att uppfatta och bedöma en situation och dess troliga utveckling. (4) Slutligen presenteras ett experiment som syftar till att utvärdera antaganden om olika ledningsarkitekturer och deras effektivitet samt effekter av grafiskt stöd för kommunikation. Den allmänna slutsatsen är att de antaganden som görs där starka fördelar skall kunna uppnås genom implementering av ny teknik kan ifrågasättas. Resultat från de kvalitativa observationerna indikerar att traditionella arbetsmetoder används trots att teknik med nya egenskaper har införts. Resultaten visar att de starka positiva effekter som nätverksbaserad och teknikstödd ledningsarkitektur förväntades ha generellt inte kunde påvisas experimentellt. Emellertid visade det sig att en sådan ledningsarkitektur kan ge vissa lednings- och prestandafördelar jämfört med traditionella motsvarigheter i situationer med måttligt förhöjd komplexitet. I situationer med kraftigt höjd komplexitet visade det sig att vare sig den nya eller den traditionella ledningsarkitekturen var effektivare än kontrollbetingelsen som saknade ledning.

Det är viktigt med ett effektivt samarbete och en välfungerande kommunikation i dynamiska miljöer, till exempel vid släckningsarbetet av en brand. Bristande kommunikation i en sådan miljö skulle kunna få förödande konsekvenser. Denna uppsats bygger på material från studien ”Bridging Cultural Barriers to Collaborative Decision Making in On-Site Operations Coordination Centers”, där 32 svenskar samarbetade i olika lagkonstellationer med att släcka simulerade eldar i mikrovärlden C3Fire. Kommunikationsteorier visar på att personer samtalar med varandra efter en viss struktur; deras yttranden tenderar att komma i par, så kallade närhetspar. Denna studie syftade till att undersöka närhetspar i beställningssekvenser, i form av en beställning av vatten och/eller bränsle följd av en bekräftelse. Till sin hjälp hade försöksdeltagarna en datorskärm med en karta samt tillgång till ett e-postverktyg för att kommunicera inom laget. Varje person genomgick åtta spelomgångar, vilket resulterade i totalt 64 spelomgångar. De lag som lyckades släcka elden antogs ha större andel närhetspar i beställningssekvenserna, vilket innebar att de skulle bekräfta varandras beställningar mer kontinuerligt än de lag som inte lyckades släcka elden. För studiet av närhetsparen kategoriserades e-postmeddelandena från samtliga spelomgångar, för att se hur strukturen i kommunikationen såg ut. Resultatet visade på att något annat måste ha påverkat de medverkandes prestation, eftersom det inte fanns någon påtaglig skillnad i andelen närhetspar i beställningssekvenserna mellan de olika lagen. Det uppmärksammades att de inte bekräftade varandras beställningar endast genom e-postmeddelanden utan även genom direkta manipulationer. Anledningen till detta antas vara att alla lagmedlemmar blev presenterade samma information på sina datorskärmar, vilket frambringade en mer implicit kommunikation. / Efficient communication and cooperation is important in dynamic environments, for instance in fire-fighting teamwork. A lack of communication in this environment could cause devastating consequences. This Master’s thesis is based on material from ”Bridging Cultural Barriers to Collaborative Decision Making in On-Site Operations Coordination Centers”, a study where 32 Swedes collaborated in teams conducting fire-fighting exercises in the micro-world C3Fire. Communication theories propose that people talk with each other after a certain structure; their utterances tend to come in pairs, so-called adjacency pairs. The purpose of this study was to examine adjacency pairs in request sequences, in form of a request for water and/or fuel followed by a confirmation. The participants had access to a computer screen with a map together with an e-mail tool, to communicate within the team. Every person participated in eight rounds of the game, which resulted in 64 rounds of the game altogether. The teams who managed to extinguish the fire were assumed to have a larger amount of adjacency pairs in their request sequences than the teams who did not extinguish the fire. For the study of the adjacency pairs, the e-mails were categorized, to see what the structure of the communication looked like. The result showed that some other factor must have influenced the participants’ performance, since there was no obvious difference in the amount of the adjacency pairs in the request sequence between the teams. It was observed that the team members did not confirm each other’s requests just by sending e-mail, but also by direct manipulations. The reason for this is assumed to be that every member of the team was shown the same information on his computer screen, which gave rise to a more implicit communication.

Automation ist heute in allen Lebensbereichen zu finden. Die „zuverlässige“ Automation soll den „unzuverlässigen“ Menschen (Benutzer/Operateur) entlasten, kompensieren, teilweise sogar ersetzen. Eine Automation kann jedoch Fehler machen, wurde sie doch von „unzuverlässigen“ Menschen (Entwicklern) entwickelt. Deshalb verfolgte das Projekt ATEO einen in der Forschung bisher nur theoretisch betrachteten Ansatz zur Optimierung der Funktionallokation zwischen Mensch und Maschine. Hierbei handelt es sich um die Optimierung der Arbeitsteilung zwischen Operateuren und Entwicklern von komplexen, dynamischen, technischen Systemen inklusive Automationen. Diese Dissertation beschäftigt sich mit den Leistungsdeterminanten dieser Entwickler. Die bisher in der Literatur beschriebenen Befunde zu diesen Leistungsdeterminanten wurden zu einem deskriptiven „Modell der Leistungsdeterminanten von Entwicklern“ zusammengetragen. Anschließend wurde die potentielle Leistungsdeterminante „Informationsverfügbarkeit“ unter Einsatz von 90 professionellen Entwicklern experimentell beleuchtet. Zur Erfassung der abhängigen Variable „Güte der Automatikkonzepte“ wurde ein Bewertungsinstrument entwickelt. Zudem wurde die Komplexität der verwendeten Versuchsumgebung „Socially Augmented Microworld“ experimentell erhöht, damit für professionelle Entwickler die Konzeption von Automatiken nicht zu leicht ist. Zusätzlich wurde eine Automatiksoftware zur Implementierung und Konfiguration der von den Entwicklern konzipierten Automatiken entwickelt. Durch die Untersuchung konnte gezeigt werden, dass die Kontrollvariablen „Erfahrungsindex“, „Witzanzahl“ und „Leistungsmotiv HE“ einen höheren Einfluss auf die Güte des Konzeptions¬ergebnisses haben als die systematisch variierte „Informationsverfügbarkeit“. Erst durch Eliminierung der Wirkung dieser Kontrollvariablen konnte ein signifikanter Einfluss der zur Verfügung gestellten Informationen auf die Güte der Automatikkonzepte nachgewiesen werden. / Automation is currently to be found in all aspects of life. “Reliable” automation is believed to take the pressure off, to compensate, or even displace the “unreliable” human (user/operator). However, as a consequence of being developed by “unreliable” humans (developers) automations can also be susceptible to error. The Project ATEO (division of work between developers and operators) pursues an, so far in researches only theoretical considered, approach to optimize the function allocation between human and machine. It is about an optimization of the division of responsibilities between operators and developers of complex, dynamic, technical systems including automations. This thesis concerns the performance determinants of these developers. Literature regarding the previous findings of performance determinants research were gathered into a descriptive "model of developers'' performance determinants". Subsequently, the potential performance determinant "information availability" was examined experimentally by using 90 professional developers. To capture the dependent variable "quality of automation concepts" an assessment tool was developed. Moreover, the complexity of the used test environment "Socially Augmented Microworld" was experimentally heightened to ensure that for these developers the conception of automatic functions was not too easy. Also, an automations software was designed to enable the implementation and configuration of the developer-created automations. The results of the experiment with the professional developers showed that the control variables “experience index”, “number of jokes” and “achievement motive hope of success” had a higher influence on the quality of the design result as the systematically varied "information availability". Only by eliminating the effect of these control variables a significant influence of the performance determinant “information availability” on the quality of automation conceptions was attested.

The complexity in the world is continuously increasing. Teams are faced with imperfect information in uncertain, dynamic, and time critical environments as they strive to make the right decisions, not just as individuals, but as a team. In this joint activity the members choreograph their actions and synchronize their behavior through the use of communication. Communication is the predominant form of interaction within teams – it is not only a window into team cognition – it is an externalized cognitive process at a team level (Letsky, Warner, Fiore & Smith, 2008). In an earlier study, non-professional participants were trained in teams of three to become high-performing within the C3Fire microworld (Baroutsi, Berggren, Nählinder and Johansson, 2013). In this microworld the team members are faced with the dynamic decision problem of fighting a forest fire. They have interdependent roles, requiring them to coordinate and strategize on a team level, making C3Fire a suitable platform for investigating dynamic decision making in teams. These six trained teams were compared to six untrained teams in a final experiment through a variety of measures, showing that the trained teams differed significantly in terms of both performance and in other important team aspects (Baroutsi, Berggren, Johansson, Nählinder, Granlund, Turcotte, & Tremblay, 2014; Berggren, Baroutsi, Johansson, Turcotte, & Tremblay, 2014; Berggren, Johansson, Baroutsi, & Dahlbäck, 2014; Berggren, Johansson, Svensson, Baroutsi, & Dahlbäck, 2014; Baroutsi, Berggren, Johansson, manuscript). These differences were thought to have an impact on the communication shared among the team members. Hence, the purpose of the present report was to investigate how the communication pattern was affected by these differences. The communication was analyzed using a coding scheme that categorized the content of the teams’ utterances. No difference was found in terms of communication frequency between the two types of teams. However, the trained and untrained teams did differ in communication content. The trained teams communicated more frequently about the context and the situation, while the untrained teams communicated more about the activities of the team. This can be interpreted as a deficiency in common ground, directability, and interpredictability (Klein, Feltovich & Bradshaw, 2005) among the untrained teams. Also, the communication content explained 88.3 % of the variance in performance. / I en värld av ständigt ökande komplexitet, som karaktäriseras av ofullständig information och dynamiska, tidskritiska miljöer, strävar människor efter att fatta rätt beslut – inte som individer – utan även som ett team. I denna gemensamma aktivitet behöver medlemmarna synkronisera sina handlingar, vilket utförs med hjälp av kommunikation. Kommunikationen är den dominerande formen av interaktion inom ett team, och är även en externalisering av teamets kognitiva processer (Letsky, Warner, Fiore & Smith, 2008). I en tidigare studie har oerfarna deltagare tränats i team om tre, för att bli högpresterande inom mikrovärlden C3Fire (Baroutsi, Berggren, Nählinder och Johansson, 2013). I denna mikrovärld står teammedlemmarna inför ett dynamiskt beslutsproblem - att bekämpa en skogsbrand. Rollerna i teamet är ömsesidigt beroende av varandra, vilket kräver att de samordnar och lägger upp strategier på en teamnivå för att på ett framgångsrikt sätt kunna lösa uppgiften. Dessa sex tränade team jämfördes sedan med sex otränade team i ett experiment. Flera mått användes för att bedöma teamen (CARS, DATMA, Shared Priorities, m.fl.), vilket visade att de tränade teamen skilde sig både avseende prestation, men även inom andra viktiga teamaspekter (Baroutsi, Berggren, Johansson, Nählinder, Granlund, Turcotte, & Tremblay, 2014; Berggren, Baroutsi, Johansson, Turcotte, & Tremblay, 2014; Berggren, Johansson, Baroutsi, & Dahlbäck, 2014; Berggren, Johansson, Svensson, Baroutsi, & Dahlbäck, 2014; Baroutsi, Berggren, Johansson, manuskript). Syftet med denna rapport är att undersöka hur kommunikationsmönstret påverkas av dessa skillnader. Kommunikationen analyserades med hjälp av ett kodningsschema där innehållet i teamens uttalanden kategoriseras. De två olika typerna av team uppvisade ingen skillnad i antalet uttalanden, men skillnader fanns för olika kommunikationskategorier. De tränade teamen kommunicerade oftare angående sammanhanget och situationen, medan de otränade teamen oftare kommunicerade om de aktiviteter som pågick. Detta kan tolkas som en brist i den gemensamma förståelsen, styrbarheten och förutsägbarheten mellan teamets medlemmar (Klein, Feltovich & Bradshaw, 2005) hos de otränade teamen. Kommunikationsinnehållet förklarade 88,3 % av variationen i prestationen. / The Swedish Armed Forces research and development (R&D) project AVALO

Mémoire en recherche-création / Cette recherche a permis de développer un micromonde portant sur la conscience phonémique destiné aux apprenants de moins de six ans, afin de vérifier si ce type de logiciel d’apprentissage par découverte pouvait être utilisé dans un nouveau domaine, la linguistique, et afin de voir les réactions que son utilisation suscitait. Après avoir établi les spécifications du logiciel, quatre expertes ont confirmé que celui-ci venait combler un besoin. La conception du logiciel a donc été poursuivie en alternant programmation et observation des réactions des apprenants lors de l’utilisation du prototype. Il a été constaté que les apprenants étaient curieux et excités d’explorer le micromonde et qu’ils faisaient preuve d’autonomie en effectuant plusieurs tâches de conscience phonémique via son interface. De plus, il a été observé que les apprenants n’avaient pas de difficultés à être attentifs pendant trente minutes, qu’ils étaient plus concentrés le matin, et qu’ils maitrisaient davantage l’utilisation du tactile que de la souris. Des interventions d’étayage offrant un soutien moral se sont avérées essentielles pour maintenir la motivation des apprenants. En effet, lorsque l’interface n’était pas assez intuitive, les apprenants se décourageaient lorsque leurs tentatives ne portaient pas fruit après plusieurs essais. Les résultats de cette recherche ne sont pas généralisables, car elle a été effectuée sur un petit échantillon de convenance. Aussi, il n’a pas été possible de vérifier si une progression d’apprentissage avait lieu. Plusieurs aspects demeurent donc à explorer avant de pouvoir affirmer que les micromondes sont des outils adaptés à la linguistique. / A phonemic awareness microworld for six years old or less learners was developed in this research to verify if this type of discovery learning software can be use in a new field: linguistic. Four experts have confirmed that the specifications of the software seem to create something needed in the field. Therefore the creation of the software was continued by alternating programming and observing learner’s reactions when they used the prototype. It was found that learners were curious and excited to explore the microworld and were autonomous when performing several phonemic awareness tasks via its interface. In addition, it was observed that learners had no difficulty being attentive for thirty minutes, that they were more concentrated in the morning, and that they mastered the use of the touch function more than the use of the mouse. Supportive interventions that provided moral support have been essential to keep learners motivated. Indeed, when the interface was not intuitive enough, learners became discouraged after several unsuccessful attempts. It is impossible to generalise the results of this research as it was carried out on a small sample of convenience. Also, the presence of a learning progression was not verified. As such several aspects remain to be explored before we can affirm that microworlds are tools adapted to linguistics.

This dissertation set out to understand the decision processes used by decision makers in adversarial environment by setting up an adversarial decision making microworld, as an experimental platform, using a real time strategy (RTS) game called Rise of Nations (RON). The specific objectives of this dissertation were: 1.Contribute to the validation of recognition-primed decision (RPD) model in a simulated adversarial environment; 2.Explore the roles of common-sense strategies in decision making in the adversarial environment; and 3.Test the effectiveness of training recommendations based on the RPD model. Three related experimental studies were setup to investigate each of the objectives. Study 1 found that RPD model was partly valid where RPD processes were prevalently used but other decision processes were also important in an adversarial environment. A new decision model (ConPAD model) was proposed to capture the nature of decision making in the adversarial environment. It was also found that cognitive abilities might have some effects on the types of decision processes used by the decision makers. Study 2 found that common-sense strategies were prevalent in the adversarial environment where the participants were able to use all but one of the warfare related strategies extracted from literature without teaching them. The strategy familiarization training was not found to significantly improve decision making but showed that common-sense strategies were prevalent and simple familiarization training was not sufficient to produce differences in strategy usage and performances from the novice participants. Study 3 also found that RPD based training (cue-recognition and decision skill training) were not significant in producing better performance although subjective feedback found such training to be useful. However, the participants with RPD based training conditions were able to perform on the same level as the expert participants bridging the gap between novices and experts. Based on the findings, it was recommended that decision training should involve not just RPD based training, but comparisons of attributes as well. A more interactive training combining common-sense strategies, cue-recognition and decision skill training might be more useful. More theoretical experimentation would be required to validate the new decision model proposed in this dissertation. / Ph. D.