RPD has been described in diverse groups including trauma nurses, fireground commanders, chess players, and stock market traders.
It appears, as discussed by Gary A. Klein in Sources of Power,[1] to be a valid model for how human decision-makers make decisions.
Novices, lacking this experience, must cycle through different possibilities, and tend to use the first course of action that they believe will work.
More experienced decision makers are more likely to have the knowledge of both prototypical situations and established courses of action that is required for an RPD strategy to qualify as Variation 1.
Variation 2 occurs when the decision maker diagnoses an unknown situation to choose from a known selection of courses of action.
The decision maker therefore implements a mental trial and error simulation to develop the most effective course of action.
Due to the time constraint fundamental to the RPD model, the decision maker will choose the first course of action which appears appropriate to the situation.