Modeling Sociocultural Influences on Decision Making ─ Understanding Conflict, Enabling Stability

Cross Cultural Decision Making seeks to understand the impact that a variety of influences including geographical, historical, sociological, organizational, team, and technology have on an individual's decision making processes. This book proposes to explore how advances in information and social media technologies, as well as modeling and simulation tools, can be leveraged to represent and characterize a culture's decision making processes, providing an alternative means for gaining a shared cultural understanding in today's hi-tech and globally interconnected world.

Joseph Cohn holds a PhD in Neuroscience form Brandeis University. His research interests focus on advancing the state of the art in human systems science and technology to enhance, maintain and extend the survivability of humans under dynamic, stressful, and uncertain operating conditions. An active duty commander in the US Navy’s Aerospace Experimental Psychologist (USN AEP) community, Dr. Cohn is currently serving in the Office of the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense as Deputy Director, Human Systems. He is responsible for oversight and coordination of S&T programs in the Human Systems (HS) Technology area including: personnel selection, training and leadership, cognitive sciences, interface design, personnel protection, human systems integration, human performance and cultural & behavioral modeling. Past Science and Technology leadership positions in which he has served include: Deputy Director of Research for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) at the Office of Naval Research and, Program Manager, at the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency. He was a co-recipient of the 2013 Admiral Jeremy M. Boorda Award for Outstanding Integration of Analysis and Policy-Making recognizing his efforts to develop and transition transformative training technologies to the Naval Air Forces. In 2012 he was awarded the USN AEP Society’s Michael G. Lilienthal Leadership Award in recognition of his significant advancements in the field of Aerospace Experimental Psychology through excellence in leadership. In 2009 he was awarded the Association of Medical Service Corps Officers of the Navy’s "Best in Innovation" Award for developing a portable Traumatic Brain Injury diagnosis tool; in 2007 he received that Association’s "Best in Innovation" Award for developing neurocognitive technologies to ensure Warfighter resilience. In 2006 he received the Navy Modeling & Simulation Award, Training Category, from ASN (RD&A).

Sae Schatz, Ph.D., is an applied human–systems researcher, professional facilitator, and cognitive scientist. Her work focuses on human–systems integration (HSI), with an emphasis on human cognition and learning, instructional technologies, adaptive systems, human performance assessment, and modeling and simulation (M&S). Frequently, her work seeks to enhance individual’s higher-order cognitive skills (i.e., the mental, emotional, and relational skills associated with "cognitive readiness").

In addition to her research, Dr. Schatz mentors graduate students, teaches in the M&S graduate program at the University of Central Florida (UCF), and facilitates professional seminars for business and government clients, ranging from Fortune 1000 companies to international security agencies, such as the Singapore Armed Forces.