Detection and Mitigation of Inefficient Visual Searching

Abstract

A commonly known cognitive bias is a confirmation bias: the overweighting of evidence supporting a hy- pothesis and underweighting evidence countering that hypothesis. Due to high-stress and fast-paced opera- tions, military decisions can be affected by confirmation bias. One military decision task prone to confirma- tion bias is a visual search. During a visual search, the operator scans an environment to locate a specific target. If confirmation bias causes the operator to scan the wrong portion of the environment first, the search is inefficient. This study has two primary goals: 1) detect inefficient visual search using machine learning and Electroencephalography (EEG) signals, and 2) apply various mitigation techniques in an effort to im- prove the efficiency of searches. Early findings are presented showing how machine learning models can use EEG signals to detect when a person might be performing an inefficient visual search. Four mitigation techniques were evaluated: a nudge which indirectly slows search speed, a hint on how to search efficiently, an explanation for why the participant was receiving a nudge, and instructions to instruct the participant to search efficiently. These mitigation techniques are evaluated, revealing the most effective mitigations found to be the nudge and hint techniques.