Orientation, Exploration, Investigation and Proof, 08/16/06
This article, on Adriaan de Groot, a psychologist who studied 'the cognitive processes that occur in the brains of strong chess players' provides an excellent description/model of quantitative discretionary trading - just substitute 'trader' for 'chess player':
The orientation phase: here the strong chess player grasped the position and formulated general ideas of what to do.The Orientation, Exploration, Investigation, and Proof phases also make an excellent research model.
The exploration phase: this was characterised by the analysis of concrete variations.
The investigation phase: this was where the strong player actually decided on a probable best move.
The proof phase: here the subject spent time in confirming the validity of the choice reached in phase three.