Minimap: An interactive dynamic decision making game for search and rescue missions

Many aspects of humans' dynamic decision-making (DDM) behaviors have been studied with computer-simulated games called microworlds. However, most microworlds only emphasize specific elements of DDM and are inflexible in generating a variety of environments and experimental designs. Moreover, despite the ubiquity of gridworld games for Artificial Intelligence (AI) research, only some tools exist to aid in the development of browser-based gridworld environments for studying the dynamics of human decision-making behavior. To address these issues, we introduce Minimap, a dynamic interactive game to examine DDM in search and rescue missions, which incorporates all the essential characteristics of DDM and offers a wide range of flexibility regarding experimental setups and the creation of experimental scenarios. Minimap specifically allows customization of dynamics, complexity, opaqueness, and dynamic complexity when designing a DDM task. Minimap also enables researchers to visualize and replay recorded human trajectories for the analysis of human behavior. To demonstrate the utility of Minimap, we present a behavioral experiment that examines the impact of different degrees of structural complexity coupled with the opaqueness of the environment on human decision-making performance under time constraints. We discuss the potential applications of Minimap in improving productivity and transparent replications of human behavior and human-AI teaming research. We made Minimap an open-source tool, freely available at .

Automated summary

Many aspects of dynamic decision-making (DDM) behaviors in humans have been studied using computer-simulated games called microworlds. However, most microworlds lack flexibility and only focus on specific elements of DDM. Additionally, there are limited tools available to study human decision-making behavior using browser-based gridworld environments. To address these limitations, Minimap, a dynamic interactive game, is introduced to examine DDM in search and rescue missions, providing flexibility in experimental setups and scenario creation. Minimap allows customization of dynamics, complexity, opaqueness, and dynamic complexity, and enables visualization and replay of recorded human trajectories for behavior analysis.