OODA and CECA: Analysis of Decision-Making Frameworks

Abstract

Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act (OODA) concepts have supported understanding human decision processes for agile and competitive decisions about human warfighters and human-centric operations. However, future military decision-making based on human-machine teaming relies on technology and interaction concepts that support joint human-machine intelligence, not just human capabilities, which require the modification of new OODA concepts. The Critique-Explore-Compare-Adapt (CECA) Loop is proposed as an improved descriptive model based on recent advances in the cognitive sciences. The CECA Loop has explicitly been based on the premise that goal-oriented mental models are central to human decision-making as the means to represent and make sense of the world. The model puts two mental representations, the conceptual model established through operational planning and the situation model, which represents the state of the battlespace, at the center of the decision-making process. Additionally, the four phases of the CECA Loop broadly correspond to the identification of information needs (Critique), active and passive data collection and situation updating (Explore), comparison of the current situation to the conceptual model (Compare), and adaptation to aspects of the battlespace that invalidate the conceptual model or block the path to goal completion (Adapt). Nevertheless, the CECA Loop is intended to serve as a simple but widely applicable framework to study decision-making in Command and Control (C2). The introduction of critical thinking elements and the exposition of the central role of planning and the mental representation of operational concepts in C2.