Visualizing uncertainty: the impact on performance.

Objective: This work investigated the impact of uncertainty representation on performance in a complex authentic visualization task, submarine localization.

Background: Because passive sonar does not provide unique course, speed, and range information on a contact, the submarine operates under significant uncertainty. There are many algorithms designed to address this problem, but all are subject to uncertainty.

Contending with complexity: developing and using a scaled world in applied cognitive research.

Scaled worlds preserve certain functional relationships of a complex task environment while paring away others. The functional relationships preserved are defined by the questions of interest to the researcher. Different scaled worlds of the same task may preserve and pare away different functional relationships.