There is, I think, an enormous literature on this subject. I'll just indicate a few lines of attack, specific approaches you can work from.

1. In the career counseling field, some of the major approaches focus on improving decision-making skills. Probably the most influential is the CASVE model developed by Gary Peterson and others at Florida State U. (The acronym stands for Communication-Analysis-Synthesis-Valuation-Execution, five stages in a cycle of decision-making).

2. Irving Janis and his colleagues at Yale developed models for short-term counseling in the 1970s and 1980s with an emphasis on decision-making. As with the CASVE approach, their approach included a stage model of the process. Clients are guided through the stages to help them make an immediate life decision, but emphasis is also placed on teaching transferable decision-making skills.

3. Building on the seminal work of Daniel Kahneman's team, Israeli educators put together a set of training courses on this subject - down to the high school level. I think you can still get copies of the textbook, "An elementary approach to thinking under uncertainty."

I am sure that if you begin with books and articles in these traditions, you will be able to trace forward along the citation trail.

Thanks a lot, Stephen. Very helpful.

I recently found the following two studies when searching for research on interventions targeting decision-making skills. One (Westbrook and colleagues) is looking at practice of decision-making strategies in healthy young and old adults. The other (De Wilde and colleagues) is assessing changes in impulsive decision-making during an inpatient intervention (CBT-based) in polysubstance users.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3349274/

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3760441/

Thanks Bettina.

The second article you cited gives two additional relevant refs:

- Alfonso JP, Caracuel A, Delgado-Pastor LC, Verdejo-García A. Combined Goal Management Training and Mindfulness meditation improve executive functions and decision-making performance in abstinent polysubstance abusers. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2011 Aug 1;117(1):78-81. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2010.12.025. Epub 2011 Feb 1. PubMed PMID: 21277705.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21277705/

- Zhang XL, Wang GB, Zhao LY, Sun LL, Wang J, Wu P, Lu L, Shi J. Clonidine

improved laboratory-measured decision-making performance in abstinent heroin

addicts. PLoS One. 2012;7(1):e29084. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0029084. Epub 2012

Jan 23. PubMed PMID: 22291886; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3264554.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22291886/

Another study that Luke Clark just published:

- Porchet RI, Boekhoudt L, Studer B, Gandamaneni PK, Rani N, Binnamangala S, Müller U, Clark L. Opioidergic and dopaminergic manipulation of gambling tendencies: a preliminary study in male recreational gamblers. Front Behav Neurosci. 2013 Oct 7;7:138. PubMed PMID: 24109443.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24109443

Improving decision-making in mental disorders is clearly a very interesting research direction. Now, decision-making impairment is quite heterogenous, so we will need different approaches to address this issue and each group or even subgroup of patients may necessitate specific interventions. Good to see that both psychical and pharmacological interventions are being studied.

Hi, maybe this could also be relevant?

Article: The suggestible brain: posthypnotic effects on value-based decision-making.

Vera U Ludwig, Christine Stelzel, Harald Krutiak, Amadeus Magrabi, Rosa Steimke, Lena M Paschke, Norbert Kathmann, Henrik Walter

Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 07/201

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23887809

Interesting. Thanks

In surgical literature, Carla Pugh has done work related to operative decision making through the use of simulated hernia repair models (in journal Surgery). Also, there is a literature related to "slowing down" in the operating room as part of the decision making process.

There is a massive literature on the nature of thinking in design that I have contributed to so you can find references there. The field looks at not only logical problem solving but also creative innovation. In my most recent book with Kees Dorst we develop a theory and model of the nature of design expertise and how this is acquired and can be improved and taught. Not sure if this field interests you but if so you will find much that might have more generic value as design thinking is now considered to be a major type of cognition.