Simulating naturalistic demands for speeded judgment

Responses to speeded judgment (e.g., ''shoot/don't shoot'') situations in naturalistic environments are influenced by many variables and psychological processes. We describe a custom-built simulator with head- and eye-tracking capabilities for basic and applied research on speeded decision making. The system allows the user to project life-sized, time-coded, videotaped, or computer-animated scenarios on a screen to collect reaction-time, shot-accuracy, and eye-movement data. An initial experiment is also reported to demonstrate the utility of the system for studying factors that affect speeded judgment under naturalistic situations.