| Error Visualization and Information-Seeking Behavior for Air-Vehicle Control | | BIBA | Full-Text | 3-11 | |
| Lewis L. Chuang | |||
| A control schema for a human-machine system allows the human operator to be integrated as a mathematical description in a closed-loop control system, i.e., a pilot in an aircraft. Such an approach typically assumes that error feedback is perfectly communicated to the pilot who is responsible for tracking a single flight variable. However, this is unlikely to be true in a flight simulator or a real flight environment. This paper discusses different aspects that pertain to error visualization and the pilot's ability in seeking out relevant information across a range of flight variables. | |||
| DataShopping for Performance Predictions | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 12-23 | |
| Michael Collins; Kevin A. Gluck; Tiffany S. Jastrzembski | |||
| Mathematical models of learning have been created to capitalize on the
regularities that are seen when individuals acquire new skills, which could be
useful if implemented in learning management systems. One such mathematical
model is the Predictive Performance Equation (PPE). It is the intent that PPE
will be used to predict the performance of individuals to inform real-world
education and training decisions. However, in order to improve mathematical
models of learning, data from multiple samples are needed. Online data
repositories, such as Carnegie Mellon University's DataShop, provide data from
multiple studies at fine levels of granularity. In this paper, we describe
results from a set of analyses ranging across levels of granularity in order to
assess the predictive validity of PPE in educational contexts available in the
repository. Keywords: Performance prediction; Datashop; Repository; Learning optimization;
Mathematical models | |||
| Using Context to Optimize a Functional State Estimation Engine in Unmanned Aircraft System Operations | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 24-35 | |
| Kevin Durkee; Scott Pappada; Andres Ortiz; John Feeney; Scott Galster | |||
| As UAS operations continue to expand, the ability to monitor real-time
cognitive states of human operators would be a valuable asset. Although great
strides have been made toward this capability using physiological signals, the
inherent noisiness of these data hinders its readiness for operational
deployment. We theorize the addition of contextual data alongside physiological
signals could improve the accuracy of cognitive state classifiers. In this
paper, we review a cognitive workload model development effort conducted in a
simulated UAS task environment at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL).
Real-time workload model classifiers were trained using three levels of
physiological data inputs both with and without context added. Following the
evaluation of each classifier using four model evaluation metrics, we conclude
that by adding contextual data to physiological-based models, we improved the
ability to reliably measure real-time cognitive workload in our UAS operations
test case. Keywords: Context; Human performance; Modeling and simulation; Physiological
measurement; Workload; UAS | |||
| Methods for Determining the Role of Fatigue and Cognitive Load on Behavior Detection Officers (BDOs) Performance in the Field | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 36-43 | |
| Robert Kittinger; James Bender | |||
| Job analysis and cognitive task analysis (CTA) are two methods for
identifying all job tasks, both observable and unobservable respectively, which
correlate to successful job performance. These methods will be applied to the
Transportation Security Administration's (TSA's) Behavior Detection Officers
(BDOs) to identify the elements which compose their job and to identify what
elements are most difficult, important and frequently accomplished in the
support of our national security. This paper will describe one method for
conducting a job analysis on the BDO job and then a method for following that
work with a cognitive task analysis. The described JA and CTA will provide a
scientific foundation for future research and analysis of the BDO job position
and successful performance of that job. Keywords: National security; Homeland security; Transportation security
administration; TSA; Behavior detection officers; BDO; Job analysis; Work
analysis; Cognitive task analysis; Cognitive load; Cognitive fatigue; Fatigue;
Job performance; Methodology | |||
| Workload Is Multidimensional, Not Unitary: What Now? | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 44-55 | |
| Gerald Matthews; Lauren Reinerman-Jones; Ryan Wohleber; Jinchao Lin; Joe Mercado; Julian, IV Abich | |||
| It is commonly assumed that workload is a unitary construct, but recent data
suggest that there are multiple subjective and objective facets of workload
that are only weakly intercorrelated. This article reviews the implications of
treating workload as multivariate. Examples from several simulated task
environments show that high subjective workload is compatible with a variety of
patterns of multivariate psychophysiological response. Better understanding of
the cognitive neuroscience of the different components of workload, including
stress components, is required. At a practical level, neither subjective
workload measures nor single physiological responses are adequate for
evaluating task demands, building predictive models of human performance, and
driving augmented cognition applications. Multivariate algorithms that
accommodate the variability of cognitive and affective responses to demanding
tasks are needed. Keywords: Workload; Task demands; Psychophysiology; Electroencephalogram (EEG);
Electrocardiogram (ECG); Stress; Performance; Individual differences | |||
| Time Dependent Effects of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation and Caffeine on Vigilance Performance During Extended Wakefulness | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 56-62 | |
| R. Andy McKinley; Lindsey K. McIntire; Ryan Schilling; Chuck Goodyear; Justin Nelson | |||
| Background: Previously, we found that transcranial direct current
stimulation (tDCS) preserved vigilance performance approximately twice as well
and three times as long as caffeine during a period of extended wakefulness.
Vigilance performance often declines linearly over the period of watch, but in
our previous study the performance trends over the period of watch were not
analyzed. Hence, it was not known whether the intervention applied reduced the
vigilance decrement, or simply shifted the performance to a higher mean value
while maintaining a similar slope.
Objective: Our objective was to evaluate the time-dependent effects (within each period of watch) of anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) applied to the pre-frontal cortex at 2 mA for 30 min. We then compared these results to those of caffeine as well as the effects of both interventions on arousal. Methods: The period of watch was segregated into equal time segments and target identification accuracy was averaged across subjects in each group. These values were used in an analysis of covariance (separately for each session) as the dependent variable. Factors were group and subject nested in group. Results: The results indicated there is not a significant difference in slope (i.e. vigilance decrement) between the treatment conditions (tDCS, caffeine, and sham) within each period of watch. However, as reported previously, there was a significant difference in mean change from baseline between the treatment conditions. Conclusion: Our data suggests that tDCS does not prevent the vigilance decrement within the period of watch. Rather, it shifts performance to higher mean values by a scalar multiple while maintaining a similar slope. Keywords: Transcranial direct current stimulation; Sleep deprivation; Caffeine;
Cognition; Vigilance | |||
| Towards a Translational Method for Studying the Influence of Motivational and Affective Variables on Performance During Human-Computer Interactions | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 63-72 | |
| Jason S. Metcalfe; Stephen M. Gordon; Antony D. Passaro; Bret Kellihan; Kelvin S. Oie | |||
| A primary goal in operational neuroscience is to create translational
pathways linking laboratory observations with real-world applications.
Achieving this requires a method that enables study of variability in operator
performance that does not typically emerge under controlled laboratory
circumstances; the present paper describes the development of such a paradigm.
An essential aspect of the design process involved eliciting subject engagement
without using extrinsic incentive (e.g. money) as a motivating stressor and,
instead, tapping an appropriate intrinsic incentive (i.e. competitive stress).
Two sources of competition were initially considered including one based on
self-competition and another based on competition with another individual;
ultimately, the latter approach was selected. A virtual competitor was designed
to affect individual valuation of momentary successes and failures in specific
ways and preliminary results revealed early indicators of success in meeting
this goal. Discussion focuses on implications and challenges for future
research using similar translational paradigms. Keywords: Competitive stress; Affect; Motivation; Translational science | |||
| Impact of Acute Stress on Attentional Orienting to Social Cues in Special Operations Personnel | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 73-81 | |
| Charles A. Morgan; Harlan M. Fichtenholtz; Bartlett Russell | |||
| The goal of the present study was to characterize the effects of an acutely
stressful situation on attentional orienting to social cues. Participants were
tested before and during a highly stressful military training course. During
the task, participants shown faces at fixation that concurrently displayed
dynamic gaze shifts and expression changes from neutral to fearful or happy
emotions. Military-relevant targets subsequently appeared in the periphery and
were spatially congruent or incongruent with the gaze direction. Participants
showed faster responses during fearful face trials during the high stress
condition compared to baseline, while the response on happy face trials did not
change. Additionally, enhanced performance was related to self-report
reappraisal use during emotion regulation at baseline. Reaction times to
threatening targets were faster on validly cued trials during both tests.
Trials with safe targets showed no differences at baseline. These results
suggest that acute stress plays a role in how individuals respond in the
presence of a fearful cue, and during the evaluation of potentially threatening
targets. Keywords: Facial affect; Shared attention; Stress | |||
| Live-Virtual-Constructive (LVC) Training in Air Combat: Emergent Training Opportunities and Fidelity Ripple Effects | | BIBA | Full-Text | 82-90 | |
| Kelly J. Neville; Angus L. M. Thom, III McLean; Sarah Sherwood; Katherine Kaste; Melissa Walwanis; Amy Bolton | |||
| Live training is where air combat personnel gain practice and experience with situations as close to real combat as possible. Computer-generated entities could expand the range and complexity of scenarios used in live training and could offer instructors a new means of manipulating the training environment. These new capabilities might help aircrew boost their proficiency beyond what is currently achieved in live training. On the other hand, computer-generated entities add artificiality to the live training environment, reducing its similarity to real combat. As part of a research program conducted to examine how the introduction of Live, Virtual, Constructive (LVC) training technology may change air combat training, we identified strategies to support learning and the acceleration of proficiency development. In this paper, we present these new possibilities for live training and discuss their implications for the fidelity of the training experience, related research, and research needs. | |||
| A Composite Cognitive Workload Assessment System in Pilots Under Various Task Demands Using Ensemble Learning | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 91-100 | |
| Hyuk Oh; Bradley D. Hatfield; Kyle J. Jaquess; Li-Chuan Lo; Ying Ying Tan; Michael C. Prevost; Jessica M. Mohler; Hartley Postlethwaite; Jeremy C. Rietschel; Matthew W. Miller; Justin A. Blanco; Shuo Chen; Rodolphe J. Gentili | |||
| The preservation of attentional resources under mental stress holds
particular importance for the execution of effective performance. Specifically,
the failure to conserve attentional resources could result in an overload of
attentional capacity, the failure to execute critical brain processes, and
suboptimal decision-making for effective motor performance. Therefore,
assessment of attentional resources is particularly important for individuals
such as pilots who must retain adequate attentional reserve to respond to
unexpected events when executing their primary task. This study aims to devise
an expert model to assess an operator's dynamic cognitive workload in a flight
simulator under various levels of challenge. The results indicate that the
operator's cognitive workload can be effectively predicted with combined
classifiers of neurophysiological biomarkers, subjective assessments of
perceived cognitive workload, and task performance. This work provides
conceptual feasibility to develop a real-time cognitive state monitoring tool
that facilitates adaptive human-computer interaction in operational
environments. Keywords: Attentional reserve; Mental workload; Simulated visuomotor task; Ensemble of
classifiers | |||
| Sensitive, Diagnostic and Multifaceted Mental Workload Classifier (PHYSIOPRINT) | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 101-111 | |
| Djordje Popovic; Maja Stikic; Theodore Rosenthal; David Klyde; Thomas Schnell | |||
| Mental workload is difficult to quantify because it results from an
interplay of the objective task load, ambient and internal distractions,
capacity of mental resources, and strategy of their utilization. Furthermore,
different types of mental resources are mobilized to a different degree in
different tasks even if their perceived difficulty is the same. Thus, an ideal
mental workload measure needs to quantify the degree of utilization of
different mental resources in addition to providing a single global workload
measure. Here we present a novel assessment tool (called PHYSIOPRINT) that
derives workload measures in real time from multiple physiological signals
(EEG, ECG, EOG, EMG). PHYSIOPRINT is modeled after the theoretical IMPRINT
workload model developed by the US Army that recognizes seven different
workload types: auditory, visual, cognitive, speech, tactile, fine motor and
gross motor workload. Preliminary investigation on 25 healthy volunteers proved
feasibility of the concept and defined the high level system architecture. The
classifier was trained on the EEG and ECG data acquired during tasks chosen to
represent the key anchors on the respective seven workload scales. The trained
model was then validated on realistic driving simulator. The classification
accuracy was 88.7% for speech, 86.6% for fine motor, 89.3% for gross motor,
75.8% for auditory, 76.7% for visual, and 72.5% for cognitive workload. By
August of 2015, an extended validation of the model will be completed on over
100 volunteers in realistically simulated environments (driving and flight
simulator), as well as in a real military-relevant environment (fully
instrumented HMMWV). Keywords: Mental workload; Assessment; EEG; IMPRINT; Wearable | |||
| The Neurobiology of Executive Function Under Stress and Optimization of Performance | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 112-123 | |
| Ann M. Rasmusson; John M. Irvine | |||
| Much basic and clinical research to date has investigated predictors of
stress resilience and vulnerability, indicating, for example, that broad impact
neurobiological factors, such as neuropeptide Y (NPY) and neuroactive steroids,
are mechanistically related to short term stress resilience, as well as
longterm patterns of stress-related medical and neuropsychiatric comorbidities.
The problem is that we lack good methods for identifying predictors of stress
resilience or vulnerability at an individual level, so that human performance
and therapeutic interventions can be targeted precisely to underlying points of
malfunction for maximum effectiveness. We thus propose modified experimental
designs that capitalize on our growing capacities to query and analyze
multimodal data across the translational levels of human biology and behavior.
We propose that use of these methods in studies of individuals participating in
intense military training or returning from deployment could enable better
prediction of performance, and development of more effective personalized
interventions aimed at optimizing and maintaining stress resilience over time. Keywords: Resilience; PTSD; Translational neuroscience; Neuropeptide Y;
Allopregnanolone; Neuroactive steroids; Predictive algorithms; Functional data
analysis; Non-linear modeling; Machine learning | |||
| Objective-Analytical Measures of Workload -- the Third Pillar of Workload Triangulation? | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 124-135 | |
| Christina Rusnock; Brett Borghetti; Ian McQuaid | |||
| The ability to assess operator workload is important for dynamically
allocating tasks in a way that allows efficient and effective goal completion.
For over fifty years, human factors professionals have relied upon
self-reported measures of workload. However, these subjective-empirical
measures have limited use for real-time applications because they are often
collected only at the completion of the activity. In contrast,
objective-empirical measurements of workload, such as physiological data, can
be recorded continuously, and provide frequently-updated information over the
course of a trial. Linking the low-sample-rate subjective-empirical measurement
to the high-sample-rate objective-empirical measurements poses a significant
challenge. While the series of objective-empirical measurements could be
down-sampled or averaged over a longer time period to match the
subjective-empirical sample rate, this process discards potentially relevant
information, and may produce meaningless values for certain types of
physiological data. This paper demonstrates the technique of using an
objective-analytical measurement produced by mathematical models of workload to
bridge the gap between subjective-empirical and objective-empirical measures.
As a proof of concept, we predicted operator workload from physiological data
using VACP, an objective-analytical measure, which was validated against
NASA-TLX scores. Strong predictive results pave the way to use the
objective-empirical measures in real-time augmentation (such as dynamic task
allocation) to improve operator performance. Keywords: Workload measurement; Machine learning; VACP; IMPRINT | |||
| Eye-Tracking Technology for Estimation of Cognitive Load After Traumatic Brain Injury | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 136-143 | |
| Ashley Safford; Jessica Kegel; Jamie Hershaw; Doug Girard; Mark Ettenhofer | |||
| The goal of this study was to develop an eye-tracking based tool to measure
cognitive effort as an approach to assess injury-related changes in brain
function. A set of novel tasks were developed to examine changes in manual and
saccadic reaction time under varying levels of cognitive load and cuing
conditions. Twenty-six healthy individuals completed these working memory and
continuous monitoring tasks while eye movements were recorded. Results indicate
that these tasks, in combination with eye-tracking measures, are sensitive to
cognitive difficulty as manual and saccadic response times increased under the
higher load and invalid cuing conditions. These procedures show promise for
utility in measuring cognitive effort and track the subtle changes associated
with mild TBI. Keywords: Eye-tracking; Cognitive load; Mild TBI | |||
| Measuring Expert and Novice Performance Within Computer Security Incident Response Teams | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 144-152 | |
| Austin Silva; Glory Emmanuel; Jonathan T. McClain; Laura Matzen; Chris Forsythe | |||
| There is a great need for creating cohesive, expert cybersecurity incident
response teams and training them effectively. This paper discusses new
methodologies for measuring and understanding expert and novice differences
within a cybersecurity environment to bolster training, selection, and teaming.
This methodology for baselining and characterizing individuals and teams relies
on relating eye tracking gaze patterns to psychological assessments,
human-machine transaction monitoring, and electroencephalography data that are
collected during participation in the game-based training platform Tracer FIRE.
We discuss preliminary findings from two pilot studies using novice and
professional teams. Keywords: Cybersecurity; Training; Teams; Visual search; Eye tracking; EEG; In situ
testing; Measuring individual differences; Psychological measures | |||
| Bracketing Human Performance to Support Automation for Workload Reduction: A Case Study | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 153-163 | |
| Robert E. Wray; Benjamin Bachelor; Randolph M. Jones; Charles Newton | |||
| Semi-automated Forces (SAFs) are commonly used in training simulation. SAFs
often require human intervention to ensure that appropriate, individual
training opportunities are presented to trainees. We cast this situation as a
supervisory control challenge and are developing automation designed to support
human operators, reduce workload, and improve training outcomes. This paper
summarizes a combined analytic and empirical verification study that identified
specific situations in the overall space of possible scenarios where automation
may be particularly helpful. By bracketing "high performance" and "low
performance" conditions, this method illuminates salient points in the space of
operational performance for future human-in-the-loop studies. Keywords: Simulation-based training; Semi-automated forces; Cognitive workload | |||
| Phylter: A System for Modulating Notifications in Wearables Using Physiological Sensing | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 167-177 | |
| Daniel Afergan; Samuel W. Hincks; Tomoki Shibata; Robert J. K. Jacob | |||
| As wearable computing becomes more mainstream, it holds the promise of
delivering timely, relevant notifications to the user. However, these devices
can potentially inundate the user, distracting them at the wrong times and
providing the wrong amount of information. As physiological sensing also
becomes consumer-grade, it holds the promise of helping to control these
notifications. To solve this, we build a system Phylter that uses physiological
sensing to modulate notifications to the user. Phylter receives streaming data
about a user's cognitive state, and uses this to modulate whether the user
should receive the information. We discuss the components of the system and how
they interact. Keywords: fNIRS; Adaptive interfaces; Brain-computer interfaces; Google glass | |||
| Monitoring Mental States of the Human Brain in Action: From Cognitive Test to Real-World Simulations | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 178-186 | |
| Deepika Dasari; Guofa Shou; Lei Ding | |||
| Functional mental state of operators in real-world workspaces is a crucial
factor in many cognitively demanding tasks. In this paper, we present our
recent efforts in studying electroencephalograph (EEG) biomarkers to be used to
assess cognitive states of operators. We studied these biomarkers from a simple
cognitive task to low- and high-fidelity simulated air traffic control (ATC)
tasks, with both novices and professional ATC operators. EEG data were recorded
from 25 subjects (in three studies) who performed one of three different
cognitively demanding tasks up to 120 min. Our results identified two EEG
components with similar spatial and spectral patterns at the group level across
all three studies, which both indicated the time-on-task effects in their
temporal dynamics. With further developments in the future, the technology and
identified biomarkers can be used for real-time monitoring of operators'
cognitive functions in critical task environments and may even provide aids
when necessary. Keywords: Functional brain imaging; EEG; Independent component analysis; Mental state;
Human factors | |||
| Discrimination in Good-Trained Brain States for Brain Computer Interface | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 187-198 | |
| Mariko Funada; Tadashi Funada; Yoshihide Igarashi | |||
| BCI (brain computer interface) is particularly important for HCI. Some of
recent results concerning BCI made a great contribution to the development of
the HCI research area. In this paper we define "good-trained brain states", and
then propose a method for discriminating good-trained brain states from other
states. We believe that repetitious training might be effective to human
brains. Human brain reactions can be quantified by ERPs (event related
potentials). We analyze the data of ERPs reflecting the brain reactions, and
then discuss the effect of repetitious training to the brain states. Keywords: Good-trained brain states; BCI; ERP; EEG; Individual difference | |||
| BCI and Eye Gaze: Collaboration at the Interface | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 199-210 | |
| Leo Galway; Chris Brennan; Paul McCullagh; Gaye Lightbody | |||
| Due to an extensive list of restraints, brain-computer interface (BCI)
technology has seen limited success outside of laboratory conditions. In order
to address these limitations, which have prevented widespread deployment, an
existing modular architecture has been adapted to support hybrid collaboration
of commercially available BCI and eye tracking technologies. However, combining
multiple input modalities, which have different temporal properties, presents a
challenge in terms of data fusion and collaboration at the user interface. The
use of cost-effective and readily available equipment will further promote
hybrid BCI as a viable but alternative interface for human computer
interaction. In this paper, we focus on navigation through a virtual smart home
and control of devices within the rooms; the navigation being controlled by
multimodal interaction. As such, it promises a better information transfer rate
than BCI alone. Consequently, an extended architecture for a personalised
hybrid BCI system has been proposed. Keywords: Hybrid brain-computer interface; Eye tracking; Domotic control modalities | |||
| Using Behavioral Information to Contextualize BCI Performance | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 211-220 | |
| Stephen M. Gordon; Jonathan R. McDaniel; Jason S. Metcalfe; Antony D. Passaro | |||
| Brain-computer interface (BCI) systems often require millisecond-level
timing precision in order to function reliably. However, as BCI research
expands to an ever-widening array of applications, including operation in
real-world environments, such timing requirements will need to be relaxed. In
addition, overall BCI system design must be improved in order to better
disambiguate the numerous, seemingly similar, neural responses that may arise
in such environments. We argue that this new area of operational BCI will
require the integration of neural data with non-neural contextual variables in
order to function reliably. We propose a framework in which non-neural
contextual information can be used to better scope the operational BCI problem
by indicating windows of time for specific analyses as well as defining
probability distributions over these windows. We demonstrate the utility of our
framework on a sample data set and provide discussion on many of the factors
influencing performance. Keywords: Brain-computer interface (BCI); Electroencephalography (EEG); Asynchronous
event detection | |||
| How Low Can You Go? Empirically Assessing Minimum Usable DAQ Performance for Highly Fieldable EEG Systems | | BIBA | Full-Text | 221-231 | |
| W. David Hairston; Vernon Lawhern | |||
| Electroencephalography (EEG) as a physiological assessment technique holds high promise for on-line monitoring of cognitive states. Examples include detecting when a user is overly fatigued, if they are paying attention to a target item, or even detecting sub-conscious object recognition, all of which can be used for greatly enhanced human-system interaction. However, because EEG involves measuring extremely small voltage fluctuations (microvolts) against a potential background that is very large (milivolts), conventional EEG data acquisition (DAQ) systems utilize very high-resolution components, such as low-noise amplifiers and 24-bit sigma-delta analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) on the ideal premise of acquiring a maximal resolution signal to guarantee information content from the data. Unfortunately this comes at the cost of high power consumption and requires expensive system components. We hypothesize that, for many targeted research applications, this level of resolution may not be necessary, and that by intelligently allowing a reduction in the signal fidelity, substantial savings in cost and power consumption can be obtained. To date though a pragmatic minimum resolution remains unexplored. Here, we discuss the utility of using a parametric approach of simulating signal degradation analogous to decreasing ADC bit (vertical) resolution and amplifier fidelity. Results derived from classification of both drowsiness (alpha oscillation) and oddity (P300) detection show strong overall robustness to poor-quality signals, such that classifier performance remains unaffected until resolution is well outside of typical recording specifications. These observations suggest that researchers and system designers should carefully consider that resolution trade-offs for power and cost are entirely reasonable for targeted applications, enabling feasibility of ultra-low power or highly fieldable data collection systems in the near future. | |||
| Investigation of Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy in Evaluation of Pilot Expertise Acquisition | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 232-243 | |
| Gabriela Hernandez-Meza; Lauren Slason; Hasan Ayaz; Patrick Craven; Kevin Oden; Kurtulus Izzetoglu | |||
| Functional Near-Infrared (fNIR) spectroscopy is an optical brain imaging
technology that enables assessment of brain activity through the intact skull
in human subjects. fNIR systems developed during the last decade allow for a
rapid, non-invasive method of measuring the brain activity of a subject while
conducting tasks in realistic environments. This paper examines the hemodynamic
changes associated with expertise development during C-130j simulated flying
missions. Keywords: Near-infrared spectroscopy; Optical brain imaging; fNIR; Human performance
assessment; Pilot training | |||
| Measuring Situational Awareness Aptitude Using Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 244-255 | |
| Leanne Hirshfield; Mark Costa; Danushka Bandara; Sarah Bratt | |||
| Attempts have been made to evaluate people's situational awareness (SA) in
military and civilian contexts through subjective surveys, speed, and accuracy
data acquired during SA target tasks. However, it is recognized in the SA
domain that more systematic measurement is necessary to assess SA theories and
applications. Recent advances in biomedical engineering have enabled relatively
new ways to measure cognitive and physiological state changes, such as with
functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). In this paper, we provide a
literature review relating to SA and fNIRS and present an experiment conducted
with an fNIRS device comparing differences in the brains between people with
high and low SA aptitude. Our results suggest statistically significant
differences in brain activity between the high SA group and low SA group. Keywords: Situational awareness; fNIRS; HCI; Brain measurement | |||
| Neurocognitive Correlates of Learning in a Visual Object Recognition Task | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 256-267 | |
| Ion Juvina; Priya Ganapathy; Matt Sherwood; Mohd Saif Usmani; Gautam Kunapuli; Tejaswi Tamminedi; Nasser Kashou | |||
| Preliminary results of a longitudinal study aimed at understanding the
neurocognitive correlates of learning in a visual object recognition task are
reported. The experimental task used real-world novel stimuli, whereas the
control task used real-world familiar stimuli. Participants practiced the tasks
over 10 weeks and reached a high level of accuracy. Brain imaging data was
acquired in weeks 2, 6, and 10 and eye-tracking data was acquired in the other
seven weeks. Quantitative and qualitative changes in brain activity were
observed over the course of learning and skill acquisition. Generally, in the
experimental task, brain activity increased at week 6 and decreased at week 10,
whereas in the control task, brain activity decreased at week 6 and further
decreased at week 10 compared to week 2. New clusters of brain activity emerged
at week 6 in the experimental task. Eye-fixation and pupil-dilation data showed
that fast learners tend to inspect the stimuli more thoroughly even after a
response was given. These results are used to inform the development of
computational cognitive models of visual object recognition tasks. Keywords: Longitudinal study; Learning; Brain imaging; Eye tracking | |||
| Neural Adaptation to a Working Memory Task: A Concurrent EEG-fNIRS Study | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 268-280 | |
| Yichuan Liu; Hasan Ayaz; Banu Onaral; Patricia A. Shewokis | |||
| Simultaneously recorded electroencephalography (EEG) and functional near
infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) measures from sixteen subjects were used to
assess neural correlates of a letter based n-back working memory task. We found
that EEG alpha power increased and prefrontal cortical oxygenation decreased
with increased practice time for the high memory load condition (2-back),
suggesting lower brain activation and a tendency toward the 'idle' state. The
cortical oxygenation changes for the low memory load conditions (0-back and
1-back) changed very little throughout the training session which the
behavioral scores showed high accuracy and a ceiling effect. No significant
effect of practice time were found for theta power or the behavioral
performance measures. Keywords: Multimodality; EEG; fNIRS; Working memory; Mental workload; Practice time;
Adaptation | |||
| The Effect of Limiting Trial Count in Context Aware BCIs: A Case Study with Language Model Assisted Spelling | | BIBA | Full-Text | 281-292 | |
| Mohammad Moghadamfalahi; Paula Gonzalez-Navarro; Murat Akcakaya; Umut Orhan; Deniz Erdogmus | |||
| Deflections in recorded electroencephalography (EEG) in response to visual, auditory or tactile stimuli have been popularly employed in non-invasive EEG based brain computer interfaces (BCIs) for intent detection. For example, in an externally stimulated typing BCI, an accurate estimate of the user intent might require long EEG data collection before the system can make a decision with a desired confidence. Long decision period can lead to slow typing and hence the user frustration. Therefore, there is a trade-off between the accuracy of inference and the typing speed. In this manuscript, using Monte-Carlo simulations, we assess the speed and accuracy of a Language Model (LM) assisted non-invasive EEG based typing BCI, RSVPKeyboard™, as a function of the maximum number of repetitions of visual stimuli sequences and the inter-trial interval (ITI) within the sequences. We show that the best typing performance with RSVPKeyboard™can be obtained when ITI=150 ms and maximum number of allowed sequences is 8. Even though the probabilistic fusion of the language model with the EEG evidence for joint inference allows the RSVPKeyboard™ to perform auto-typing when the system is confident enough t o make decisions before collecting EEG evidence, our experimental results show that RSVPKeyboard™does not benefit from auto-typing. | |||
| Improving BCI Usability as HCI in Ambient Assisted Living System Control | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 293-303 | |
| Niccolò Mora; Ilaria De Munari; Paolo Ciampolini | |||
| Brain Computer Interface (BCI) technology is an alternative/augmentative
communication channel, based on the interpretation of the user's brain
activity, who can then interact with the environment without relying on
neuromuscular pathways. Such technologies can act as alternative HCI devices
towards AAL (Ambient Assisted Living) systems, thus opening their services to
people for whom interacting with conventional interfaces could be troublesome,
or even not viable. We present here a complete solution for BCI-enabled home
automation. The implemented solution is, nonetheless, more general in the
approach, since both the realized hardware module and the software
infrastructure can handle general bio-potentials. We demonstrate the
effectiveness of the solution by restricting the focus to a SSVEP-based,
self-paced BCI, featuring calibration-less operation and a subject-independent,
"plug&play" approach. The hardware module will be validated and compared
against a commercial EEG device; at the same time, the signal processing chain
will be presented, introducing a novel method for improving accuracy and
immunity to false positives. The results achieved, especially in terms of false
positive rate containment (0.26 min-1) significantly improve over the
literature. Keywords: Brain computer interface (BCI); Steady state visual evoked potential
(SSVEP); Self-paced BCI; Subject-independent BCI | |||
| Human Computer Confluence in BCI for Stroke Rehabilitation | | BIBA | Full-Text | 304-312 | |
| Rupert Ortner; Danut-Constantin Irimia; Christoph Guger; Günter Edlinger | |||
| This publication presents a novel device for BCI based stroke rehabilitation, using two feedback modalities: visually, via an avatar showing the desired movements in the user's first perspective; and via electrical stimulation of the relevant muscles. Three different kinds of movements can be trained: wrist dorsiflexion, elbow flexion and knee extension. The patient has to imagine the selected motor movements. Feedback is presented online by the device if the BCI detects the correct imagination. Results of two patients are presented showing improvements in motor control for both of them. | |||
| Relevant HCI for Hybrid BCI and Severely Impaired Patients | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 313-323 | |
| José Rouillard; Alban Duprès; François Cabestaing; Marie-Hélène Bekaert; Charlotte Piau; Christopher Coat; Jean-Marc Vannobel; Claudine Lecocq | |||
| In this paper, we are studying the possibility to enhance the relevance of
hybrid Brain-Computer Interfaces for severely impaired patients by improving
the relevance of Human-Computer Interfaces. Across virtual reality tools and
serious games approaches, we believe that users will be more able to understand
how to interact with such kind of interactive systems. Keywords: Human-computer interaction; BCI; Hybrid BCI; Handicap; Virtual reality | |||
| Brain-in-the-Loop Learning Using fNIR and Simulated Virtual Reality Surgical Tasks: Hemodynamic and Behavioral Effects | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 324-335 | |
| Patricia A. Shewokis; Hasan Ayaz; Lucian Panait; Yichuan Liu; Mashaal Syed; Lawrence Greenawald; Faiz U. Shariff; Andres Castellanos; D. Scott Lind | |||
| Functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIR) is a noninvasive, portable
optical imaging tool to monitor changes in hemodynamic responses (i.e.,
oxygenated hemoglobin (HbO)) within the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in response to
sensory, motor or cognitive activation. We used fNIR for monitoring PFC
activation during learning of simulated laparoscopic surgical tasks throughout
4 days of training and testing. Blocked (BLK) and random (RND) practice orders
were used to test the practice schedule effect on behavioral, hemodynamic
responses and relative neural efficiency (EFFrel-neural) measures during
transfer. Left and right PFC for both tasks showed significant differences with
RND using less HbO than BLK. Cognitive workload showed RND exhibiting high
EFFrel-neural across the PFC for the coordination task while the more difficult
cholecystectomy task showed EFFrel-neural differences only in the left PFC. Use
of brain activation, behavioral and EFFrel-neural measures can provide a more
accurate depiction of the generalization or transfer of learning. Keywords: Cognitive effort and learning; fNIR; Simulation; Virtual reality; Transfer;
Brain sensors and measures; Contextual interference | |||
| Team Resilience: A Neurodynamic Perspective | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 336-347 | |
| Ronald Stevens; Trysha Galloway; Jerry Lamb; Ronald Steed; Cynthia Lamb | |||
| Neurophysiologic models were created from US Navy navigation teams
performing required simulations that captured their dynamic responses to the
changing task environment. Their performances were simultaneously rated by two
expert observers for team resilience using a team process rubric adopted by the
US Navy Submarine Force. Symbolic neurodynamic (NS) representations of the 1-40
Hz EEG amplitude fluctuations of the crew were created each second displaying
the EEG levels of each team member in the context of the other crew members and
in the context of the task. Quantitative estimates of the NS fluctuations were
made using a moving window of entropy. Periods of decreased entropy were
considered times of increased team neurodynamic organization; e.g. when there
were prolonged and restricted relationships between the EEG- PSD levels of the
crew. Resilient teams showed significantly greater neurodynamic organization in
the pre-simulation Briefing than the less resilient teams. Most of these
neurodynamic organizations occurred in the 25-40 Hz PSD bins. In contrast, the
more resilient teams showed significantly lower neurodynamic organization
during the Scenario than the less resilient teams with the greatest differences
in the 12-20 Hz PSD bins. The results indicate that the degree of neurodynamic
organization reflects the performance dynamics of the team with more
organization being important during the pre-mission briefing while less
organization (i.e. more flexibility) important while performing the task. Keywords: Team neurodynamics; Resilience; EEG; Submarine | |||
| Through a Scanner Quickly: Elicitation of P3 in Transportation Security Officers Following Rapid Image Presentation and Categorization | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 348-360 | |
| Michael C. Trumbo; Laura E. Matzen; Austin Silva; Michael J. Haass; Kristin Divis; Ann Speed | |||
| Numerous domains, ranging from medical diagnostics to intelligence analysis,
involve visual search tasks in which people must find and identify specific
items within large sets of imagery. These tasks rely heavily on human judgment,
making fully automated systems infeasible in many cases. Researchers have
investigated methods for combining human judgment with computational processing
to increase the speed at which humans can triage large image sets. One such
method is rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP), in which images are
presented in rapid succession to a human viewer. While viewing the images and
looking for targets of interest, the participant's brain activity is recorded
using electroencephalography (EEG). The EEG signals can be time-locked to the
presentation of each image, producing event-related potentials (ERPs) that
provide information about the brain's response to those stimuli. The
participants' judgments about whether or not each set of images contained a
target and the ERPs elicited by target and non-target images are used to
identify subsets of images that merit close expert scrutiny [1]. Although the
RSVP/EEG paradigm holds promise for helping professional visual searchers to
triage imagery rapidly, it may be limited by the nature of the target items.
Targets that do not vary a great deal in appearance are likely to elicit
useable ERPs, but more variable targets may not. In the present study, we
sought to extend the RSVP/EEG paradigm to the domain of aviation security
screening, and in doing so to explore the limitations of the technique for
different types of targets. Professional Transportation Security Officers
(TSOs) viewed bag X-rays that were presented using an RSVP paradigm. The TSOs
viewed bursts of images containing 50 segments of bag X-rays that were
presented for 100 ms each. Following each burst of images, the TSOs indicated
whether or not they thought there was a threat item in any of the images in
that set. EEG was recorded during each burst of images and ERPs were calculated
by time-locking the EEG signal to the presentation of images containing threats
and matched images that were identical except for the presence of the threat
item. Half of the threat items had a prototypical appearance and half did not.
We found that the bag images containing threat items with a prototypical
appearance reliably elicited a P300 ERP component, while those without a
prototypical appearance did not. These findings have implications for the
application of the RSVP/EEG technique to real-world visual search domains. Keywords: Rapid serial visual presentation; Visual search; EEG; P300 | |||
| Constrained Tensor Decomposition via Guidance: Increased Inter and Intra-Group Reliability in fMRI Analyses | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 361-369 | |
| Peter B. Walker; Sean Gilpin; Sidney Fooshee; Ian Davidson | |||
| Recently, Davidson and his colleagues introduced a promising new approach to
analyzing functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) that suggested a more
appropriate analytic approach is one that views the spatial and temporal
activation as a multi-way tensor [1]. In this paper, we illustrate how the use
of prior domain knowledge might be incorporated into the deconstruction of the
tensor so as to increase analytical reliability. These results will be
discussed in reference to implications towards military selection and
classification. Keywords: Tensor decomposition; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Reliability | |||
| A Quantitative Methodology for Identifying Attributes Which Contribute to Performance for Officers at the Transportation Security Administration | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 373-380 | |
| Glory Emmanuel; Robert Kittinger; Ann Speed | |||
| Performance at Transportation Security Administration (TSA) airport
checkpoints must be consistently high to skillfully mitigate national security
threats and incidents. To accomplish this, Transportation Security Officers
(TSOs) must exceptionally perform in threat detection, interaction with
passengers, and efficiency. It is difficult to measure the human attributes
that contribute to high performing TSOs because cognitive ability such as
memory, personality, and competence are inherently latent variables. Cognitive
scientists at Sandia National Laboratories have developed a methodology that
links TSOs' cognitive ability to their performance. This paper discusses how
the methodology was developed using a strict quantitative process, the
strengths and weaknesses, as well as how this could be generalized to other
non-TSA contexts. The scope of this project is to identify attributes that
distinguished high and low TSO performance for the duties at the checkpoint
that involved direct interaction with people going through the checkpoint. Keywords: Measuring and adapting to individual differences; Cognitive modeling;
Perception; Emotion and interaction; Quantifying latent variables | |||
| Cognitive-Motor Processes During Arm Reaching Performance Through a Human Body-Machine Interface | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 381-392 | |
| Rodolphe J. Gentili; Isabelle M. Shuggi; Kristen M. King; Hyuk Oh; Patricia A. Shewokis | |||
| Head controlled based systems represent a class of human body-machine
interfaces that employ head motion to control an external device. Overall, the
related work has focused on technical developments with limited user
performance assessments while generally ignoring the underlying motor learning
and cognitive processes. Thus, this study examined, during and after practice,
the cognitive-motor states of users when controlling a robotic arm with limited
head motion under various control modalities. As a first step, two groups
having a different degree of control of the arm directions were considered. The
preliminary results revealed that both groups: (i) similarly improved their
reaching performance during practice; (ii) provided, after practice, a similar
performance generalization while still relying on visual feedback and (iii)
exhibited similar cognitive workload. This work can inform the human
cognitive-motor processes during learning and performance of arm reaching
movements as well as develop rehabilitation systems for disabled individuals. Keywords: Cognitive-motor performance; Arm reaching movements; Motor practice and
learning; Cognitive workload; Human body-machine interface; Robotic arm; Motor
rehabilitation | |||
| How Mobile Phones Affect the Sustainability of the Work/Life Balance of Their Users | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 393-400 | |
| Edward Peter Greenwood White; Andrew Thatcher | |||
| This study examined the relationship between sustainability of mobile phone
users and work-life balance. Twenty-seven interviews were performed on
managerial level mobile phone owners over the duration of a month and half. The
study extends Clark's [1] original Border theory that fails to mention how
mobile phones (or indeed any other information and communication technology)
influence the borders between the two domains. This study found technology has
a definitive impact with separate users groups emerging from the data;
border-extenders, border-adapters and border-enforcers. Keywords: Border theory; Mobile phone usage; Mobile phone usage patterns; Work
sustainability; Home-work balance; Work-home interface; Mobile phone
after-hours work; After-hours work | |||
| Methodology for Knowledge Elicitation in Visual Abductive Reasoning Tasks | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 401-409 | |
| Michael J. Haass; Laura E. Matzen; Susan M. Stevens-Adams; Allen R. Roach | |||
| The potential for bias to affect the results of knowledge elicitation
studies is well recognized. Researchers and knowledge engineers attempt to
control for bias through careful selection of elicitation and analysis methods.
Recently, the development of a wide range of physiological sensors, coupled
with fast, portable and inexpensive computing platforms, has added an
additional dimension of objective measurement that can reduce bias effects. In
the case of an abductive reasoning task, bias can be introduced through design
of the stimuli, cues from researchers, or omissions by the experts. We describe
a knowledge elicitation methodology robust to various sources of bias,
incorporating objective and cross-referenced measurements. The methodology was
applied in a study of engineers who use multivariate time series data to
diagnose the performance of devices throughout the production lifecycle. For
visual reasoning tasks, eye tracking is particularly effective at controlling
for biases of omission by providing a record of the subject's attention
allocation. Keywords: Knowledge elicitation; Eye tracking; Abductive reasoning | |||
| Stability of a Type of Cross-Cultural Emotion Modeling in Social Media | | BIBA | Full-Text | 410-417 | |
| Monte Hancock; Chad Sessions; Chloe Lo; Shakeel Rajwani; Elijah Kresses; Cheryl Bleasdale; Dan Strohschein | |||
| Humankind has thousands of years of experience in assessing the emotional
context of face-to-face interaction. Written communication has been refined
over centuries, and imme-diate voice communication over decades. However,
online communication, which tends to be asynchronous and largely empty of
conventional social cues, is still emerging as a cultural and cognitive venue.
In this paper we present the earliest results of applying our field-theory of
"emotional context" to the problem of the cross-cultural online emotion
modeling:
Can a field-theoretic model developed using data from one culture be applied to online interaction in another? We also present the results of a small empirical study focusing on the methods we used to visualize and model the "emotional context" of a social media corpus. | |||
| Field-Theoretic Modeling Method for Emotional Context in Social Media: Theory and Case Study | | BIBA | Full-Text | 418-425 | |
| Monte Hancock; Shakeel Rajwani; Chloe Lo; Suraj Sood; Elijah Kresses; Cheryl Bleasdale; Nathan Dunkel; Elise Do; Gareth Rees; Jared Steirs; Christopher Romero; Dan Strohschein; Keith Powell; Rob French; Nicholas Fedosenko; Chris Casimir | |||
| Just as masses and charges give rise to gravitational and electric fields, the online behaviors of individuals engaged in online social discourse give rise to an "emotional context" that conditions, and is conditioned by, these behaviors. Using Information Geometry and Unsupervised Learning, we have formulated a mathematical field theory for modeling online emotional context. This theory has been used to create a soft-ware application, Sirius15, that infers, characterizes, and visualizes the field structure ("emotional context") arising from this discourse. A mathematical approach is presented to social media modeling that enables automated characterization and analysis of the emotional context associated with social media interactions. The results of a small, preliminary case study carried out by our team are presented. | |||
| A Neurocognitive Approach to Expertise in Visual Object Recognition | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 426-436 | |
| Assaf Harel | |||
| How can we enhance the ability of observers to pick-up visual information?
One approach to this question has been to investigate people who naturally
develop an exceptional skill, or expertise, in visual object recognition (e.g.
bird watchers, car buffs), and determine how expert processing and the neural
substrates supporting it differ from those in novices. The present paper will
describe the mainstream view of visual expertise, which considers it to be an
automatic, stimulus-driven perceptual skill that is supported by specific
regions in high-level visual cortex. Following a critical review of the
perceptual framework of expertise, a series of neuroimaging studies will be
presented which reveal that in contrast to the mainstream view, visual
expertise emerges from multiple interactions within and between the visual
system and other cognitive systems (e.g. top-down attention and conceptual
memory). These interactions are manifest in widespread distributed patterns of
activity across the entire cortex, and are highly susceptible to high-level
factors, such as task relevance and prior knowledge. Lastly, the applied and
theoretical implications of the interactive framework to performance
enhancement and neuroplasticity will be discussed. Keywords: Expertise; Object recognition; Vision; Top-down control; fMRI | |||
| Augmenting Bioacoustic Cognition with Tangible User Interfaces | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 437-448 | |
| Isak Herman; Leonardo Impett; Patrick K. A. Wollner; Alan F. Blackwell | |||
| Using a novel visualization and control interface -- the Mephistophone -- we
explore the development of a user interface for acoustic visualization and
analysis of bird calls. Our intention is to utilize embodied computation as an
aid to acoustic cognition. The Mephistophone demonstrates 'mixed initiative'
design, where humans and systems collaborate toward creative and purposeful
goals. The interaction modes of our prototype allow the dextral manipulation of
abstract acoustic structure. Combining information visualization, timbre-space
exploration, collaborative filtering, feature learning, and human inference
tasks, we examine the haptic and visual affordances of a 2.5D tangible user
interface (TUI). We explore novel representations in the audial
representation-space and how a transition from spectral to timbral
visualization can enhance user cognition. Keywords: Tangible user interfaces; Embodied interaction; Bioacoustics; Information
visualization; Collaborative filtering | |||
| Predicting Learner Performance Using a Paired Associate Task in a Team-Based Learning Environment | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 449-460 | |
| Othalia Larue; Ion Juvina; Gary Douglas; Albert Simmons | |||
| In this paper, we use a computational cognitive model to make a priori
predictions for an upcoming human study. Model predictions are generated in
conditions identical to those that human participants will be placed in. Models
were built in a computational cognitive architecture, which implements a theory
of human cognition, ACT-R (Adaptive Control of Thought -- Rational) (Anderson,
2007). The experiment contains three conditions: lecture, interactive lecture,
and team-based learning (TBL). Team-based learning has been shown to improve
performance compared to the classical non-interactive lecture. Our model
predicted the same outcome. It also predicted that players in the TBL condition
would perform better than players in the interactive lecture condition. Keywords: Cognitive modeling; Team-based learning; A priori model prediction | |||
| Exploring Day-to-Day Variability in the Relations Between Emotion and EEG Signals | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 461-469 | |
| Yuan-Pin Lin; Sheng-Hsiou Hsu; Tzyy-Ping Jung | |||
| Electroencephalography (EEG)-based emotion classification has drawn
increasing attention over the last few years and become an emerging direction
in brain-computer interfaces (BCI), namely affective BCI (ABCI). Many prior
studies devoted to improve emotion-classification models using the data
collected within a single session or day. Less attention has been directed to
the day-to-day EEG variability associated with emotional responses. This study
recorded EEG signals of 12 subjects, each underwent the music-listening
experiment on five different days, to assess the day-to-day variability from
the perspectives of inter-day data distributions and cross-day emotion
classification. The empirical results of this study demonstrated that the
clusters of the same emotion across days tended to scatter wider than the
clusters of different emotions within a day. Such inter-day variability poses a
severe challenge for building an accurate cross-day emotion-classification
model in real-life ABCI applications. Keywords: EEG-based emotion classification; Day-to-day variability | |||
| Integration and Disintegration of Auditory Images Perception | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 470-480 | |
| Sergei Lytaev; Ksenia Belskaya | |||
| Defects of sensory perception are one of essential features in structure of
psychopathological frustration. The conscious mental activity includes
components of perception, construction of an image, memory and thought
processes. The perception is formed on the basis of synthesis of three kinds of
the information flows: sensory, taken from memory and coming from the centers
of motivation. The sensory information defines communication of cognition with
an external world. Purpose of present research was aimed for studying character
and a degree of disorders of mechanisms of perception and integration of
auditory figurative information at depressive psychopathological states.
Outcomes of present research, including EEG coherent analysis, represent
convincing acknowledgement of brain decomposition at perception of the auditory
information at patients with psychopathological frustration. Keywords: Sensory perception; Auditory images (AI); EEG; Decision-making | |||
| Effects of Professional Visual Search Experience on Domain-General and Domain-Specific Visual Cognition | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 481-491 | |
| Laura E. Matzen; Michael J. Haass; Laura A. McNamara; Susan M. Stevens-Adams; Stephanie N. McMichael | |||
| Vision is one of the dominant human senses and most human-computer
interfaces rely heavily on the capabilities of the human visual system. An
enormous amount of effort is devoted to finding ways to visualize information
so that humans can understand and make sense of it. By studying how
professionals engage in these visual search tasks, we can develop insights into
their cognitive processes and the influence of experience on those processes.
This can advance our understanding of visual cognition in addition to providing
information that can be applied to designing improved data visualizations or
training new analysts.
In this study, we investigated the role of expertise on performance in a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) target detection task. SAR imagery differs substantially from optical imagery, making it a useful domain for investigating expert-novice differences. The participants in this study included professional SAR imagery analysts, radar engineers with experience working with SAR imagery, and novices who had little or no prior exposure to SAR imagery. Participants from all three groups completed a domain-specific visual search task in which they searched for targets within pairs of SAR images. They also completed a battery of domain-general visual search and cognitive tasks that measured factors such as mental rotation ability, spatial working memory, and useful field of view. The results revealed marked differences between the professional imagery analysts and the other groups, both for the domain-specific task and for some domain-general tasks. These results indicate that experience with visual search in non-optical imagery can influence performance on other domains. Keywords: Visual search; Expertise | |||
| Ethnographic Methods for Experimental Design: Case Studies in Visual Search | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 492-503 | |
| Laura A. McNamara; Kerstan Cole; Michael J. Haass; Laura E. Matzen; J. Daniel Morrow; Susan M. Stevens-Adams; Stephanie McMichael | |||
| Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories are integrating qualitative and
quantitative methods from anthropology, human factors and cognitive psychology
in the study of military and civilian intelligence analyst workflows in the
United States' national security community. Researchers who study human work
processes often use qualitative theory and methods, including grounded theory,
cognitive work analysis, and ethnography, to generate rich descriptive models
of human behavior in context. In contrast, experimental psychologists typically
do not receive training in qualitative induction, nor are they likely to
practice ethnographic methods in their work, since experimental psychology
tends to emphasize generalizability and quantitative hypothesis testing over
qualitative description. However, qualitative frameworks and methods from
anthropology, sociology, and human factors can play an important role in
enhancing the ecological validity of experimental research designs. Keywords: Visual search; Qualitative methods; Experimental design; Synthetic aperture
radar; Imagery analysis | |||
| Removal of Ocular Artifacts with the Utilization of Filter Banks | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 504-513 | |
| Umut Orhan; Santosh Mathan | |||
| Eye blinks and other ocular artifacts represent a dominant source of EEG
signal interference, especially in frontal EEG electrodes. Even though there
are several widely accepted methods for the removal eye-blinks, (e.g. linear
filtering and ICA), it is still a difficult problem to address when the number
of EEG electrodes are limited (as is the case for EEG systems designed for
everyday application contexts), and dedicating a subset of these for monitoring
eye activity is impractical. In this paper, we propose a novel and general
method to eliminate the ocular artifacts based on a combination of filter banks
and an eye tracker. This approach offers the promise of making non-intrusive,
efficient, and robust ocular artifact detection and correction a tractable
prospect. Keywords: Artifacts; EEG; Ocular; Filter banks; Filtering | |||
| The Quantified Self | | BIBA | Full-Text | 514-520 | |
| Celementina R. Russo | |||
| Over the course of this decade, both mobile devices and mobile device applications designed for the express purpose of tracking physiological and cognitive performance metrics are nearly ubiquitous in our everyday endeavors. Though the idea of tracking our own various daily metrics is nothing new, the advent of technological innovations that carry the capacity to store, sort and share these ever-accruing amounts of data presents to us uncharted territory regarding our relationship to and understanding and interpretation of these metrics both singularly (as snapshots) and in the aggregate (over time). This work explores the form and function of the Quantified Self Movement. It discusses the current state of analyzing and interpreting information accrued from various metrics, specifically the issues that arise in synchronizing heterogeneous metrics, and in the context of an AugCog framework, proposes a method of approach to analyze multivariate data by curation based on the simultaneity of measured events. | |||
| Adapting Ethics for Future Technologies | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 521-527 | |
| Todd Seech | |||
| From the handheld tools of the first humans to the latest computer
interfaces, technology has augmented our perceptions and interactions with each
other and the world around us. Each new generation is born into its own
evolution of technological advancements with seemingly preprogrammed literacy
in the scientific innovation of the day. These novel technologies are examples
of science's fluid nature and linear progression, which drive researchers to
produce the next life-changing advancement as quickly as possible. However,
rapid and unbridled scientific advancement can veil unacceptable ethical
pitfalls. Therefore, the speed with which technology advances must be matched
with complementary development of ethical principles. The present paper applies
this concept to a handful of modern and near-future technologies that represent
paradigm changes to science as well as to everyday life. The paper then
explores ethical issues that may arise from these technologies and presents an
outline for a new ethical framework. Keywords: Ethics; Cognitive augmentation; Genetics | |||
| Visual Search in Operational Environments | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 528-536 | |
| Ann Speed | |||
| Visual search has been an active area of research -- empirically and
theoretically -- for a number of decades, however much of that work is based on
novice searchers performing basic tasks in a laboratory. This paper summarizes
some of the issues associated with quantifying expert, domain-specific visual
search behavior in operationally realistic environments. Keywords: Visual search; Expertise; Domain specific tasks; Ecological validity;
Operational environments | |||
| Exploratory Analysis of Visual Search Data | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 537-547 | |
| David J. Stracuzzi; Ann Speed; Austin Silva; Michael Haass; Derek Trumbo | |||
| Visual search data describe people's performance on the common perceptual
problem of identifying target objects in a complex scene. Technological
advances in areas such as eye tracking now provide researchers with a wealth of
data not previously available. The goal of this work is to support researchers
in analyzing this complex and multimodal data and in developing new insights
into visual search techniques. We discuss several methods drawn from the
statistics and machine learning literature for integrating visual search data
derived from multiple sources and performing exploratory data analysis. We
ground our discussion in a specific task performed by officers at the
Transportation Security Administration and consider the applicability, likely
issues, and possible adaptations of several candidate analysis methods. Keywords: Visual search; Eye tracking; Data analysis; Transportation Security
Administration | |||
| Transitioning from Human to Agent-Based Role-Players for Simulation-Based Training | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 551-561 | |
| Robert G. Abbott; Christina Warrender; Kiran Lakkaraju | |||
| In the context of military training simulation, "semi-automated forces" are
software agents that serve as role players. The term implies a degree of shared
control -- increased automation allows one operator to control a larger number
of agents, but too much automation removes control from the instructor. The
desired amount of control depends on the situation, so there is no single
"best" level of automation. This paper describes the rationale and design for
Trainable Automated Forces (TAF), which is based on training by example in
order to reduce the development time for automated agents. A central issue is
how TAF interprets demonstrated behaviors either as an example to follow
specifically, or as contingencies to be executed as the situation permits. We
describe the behavior recognizers that allow TAF to produce a high-level model
of behaviors. We assess the accuracy of a recognizer for a simple airplane
maneuver, showing that it can accurately recognize the maneuver from just a few
examples. Keywords: Learning by example; Training by demonstration; Software agents | |||
| Authoring Tools for Adaptive Training -- An Overview of System Types and Taxonomy for Classification | | BIBA | Full-Text | 562-569 | |
| Keith Brawner | |||
| The Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) community has recently renewed its interest in authoring tools, as evidenced in recent workshops, publications, and developments. Part of this renewal of effort has been in the development of authoring tools systems for maturing products and processes. As an example, the Cognitive Tutor Authoring Tools (CTAT), AutoTutor Script Authoring Tools (ASAT), and Generalized Intelligent Framework for Tutoring (GIFT) Authoring Tool (GAT) are all available for community use and feedback through their various portals. As these authoring tools come available, it is helpful to classify them into groups, for the purpose of study, based upon their similarities and differences. | |||
| Prolonged Physical Effort Affects Cognitive Processes During Special Forces Training | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 570-582 | |
| Clayton A. Domingues; Esmaela C. P. Domingues; Osvaldo J. Nascimento; Nilton G. Rolim Filho; Jorge T. Annunziato; Jorge L. C. Rebelo; Seth R. Nieman; Kyle J. Jaquess; Rodolphe J. Gentili; Bradley D. Hatfield | |||
| This study aimed to investigate the effects of strenuous physical exertion
on biomarkers of muscle damage, on physical and mental fatigue, and on
cognitive processes. Seventeen military (males 24-40 years old) were tested
cognitively at six time points, while they were progressively exhausted over
the course of 102 h of continued operations. Three types of variables were
analyzed: biomarkers of muscle damage [serum levels of creatine kinase (CK) and
lactate dehydrogenase (LDH)], reported physical fatigue (PF) and mental fatigue
(MF), and cognitive processes [(verbal reasoning (VR), numerical reasoning (NR)
and spatial reasoning (SR) and short-term memory (STM)]. The results revealed
significant increases in CK, LDH, PF and MF. On the other hand, we found
significant decreases in VR, NR, SR and STM, which were negatively correlated
MF. Our results show additional evidences about the impact of strenuous
physical exertion on muscle damage, physical and mental fatigue, and cognitive
processes. Keywords: Strenuous physical exertion; Physical fatigue; Mental fatigue; Cognitive
processes; Continued operations | |||
| Development of a Smart Tutor for a Visual-Aircraft Recognition Task | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 583-594 | |
| Priya Ganapathy; Ion Juvina; Tejaswi Tamminedi; Gautam Kunapuli; Matt Sherwood; Mohd Saif Usmani | |||
| The goal of this project is to design an intelligent tutor to teach visual
aircraft recognition (VACR) skills to military population. Under extreme
cognitive demand, soldiers must learn to rapidly recognize and identify the
aircraft prior to engagement. The goal of the smart tutor is to train the
trainees to look at specific features (called Wings, Engine, Fuselage and Tail
-- WEFT) of the aircraft that will help them proceduralize the skill of
aircraft recognition.
We have conducted an empirical (fMRI, eye-tracking, behavior) study and developed a cognitive model based on ACT-R architecture that emulates trainee performance. In this paper, we present insights gained from ACT-R modeling which, in turn, will be used to develop a VACR smart tutor. Keywords: Visual aircraft recognition; Smart tutor; ACT-R models; Dynamic Bayesian
networks; Intelligent tutoring systems | |||
| Augmenting Instructional Practice in GIFT Using the Engine for Management of Adaptive Pedagogy (EMAP) | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 595-604 | |
| Benjamin Goldberg | |||
| Authoring adaptation in the Generalized Intelligent Framework for Tutoring
(GIFT) is dependent on the functions made available in the pedagogical module.
The Engine for Management of Adaptive Pedagogy (eMAP) has been constructed as
an instructional management framework that guides pedagogical authoring and
implementation within GIFT. The eMAP is structured around David Merrill's
Component Display Theory (CDT) and is designed to support adaptive instruction
based on the tenets of knowledge and skill acquisition. The framework is
designed to assist with two facets of lesson creation. First, it is designed to
serve as a guiding template for Subject Matter Experts when constructing
intelligent and adaptive course materials that adhere to sound instructional
design principles. And second, it serves as a framework to support
instructional strategy focused research to examine pedagogical practices and
the influence of individual differences on learning outcomes. In this chapter
we will describe the fundamental components that make up the eMAP, followed by
the authoring workflow associated with its implementation as described above.
This includes an overview of the dependencies associated with the eMAP, which
runs on relevant data stored in the learner model informing content selection
and metadata used to describe course materials and pedagogical practices. Keywords: Intelligent tutoring systems; Adaptive pedagogy; Instructional management;
Individual differences; Personalized instruction | |||
| Measuring Concentration While Programming with Low-Cost BCI Devices: Differences Between Debugging and Creativity Tasks | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 605-615 | |
| Víctor M. González; Romain Robbes; Gabriela Góngora; Salvador Medina | |||
| Computing devices have become a primary working tool for many professional
roles, among them software programmers. In order to enable a more productive
interaction between computers and humans for programming purposes it is
important to acquire an awareness of human attention/concentration levels. In
this work we report on a controlled experiment to determine if a low-cost BCI
(Brain Computer Interface) device is capable of classifying whether a user is
fully concentrated while programming, during three typical tasks: creativity
(writing code), systematic (documenting the code) and debugging (improving or
modifying the code to make it work). This study employs EEG
(Electroencephalogram) signals, to measure an individual's concentration
levels. The chosen BCI device is NeuroSky's Mindwave due to its availability in
the market and low cost. The three tasks described are performed in a physical
and digital form. A statistically significant difference between debugging and
creativity tasks is revealed in our experiments, in both physical and digital
tests. This is a good lead for following experiments to focus on these two
areas. Systematic tasks might not bring good results due to their nature. Keywords: BCI; EEG; Concentration levels; Programming tasks; Debugging; Creativity;
Systematic | |||
| Adapting Immersive Training Environments to Develop Squad Resilience Skills | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 616-627 | |
| Joan H. Johnston; Samantha Napier; William A. Ross | |||
| The United States Army defines readiness and resilience as tactically
proficient Soldiers and highly adaptive problem solvers capable of overcoming
challenges and making decisions with strategic consequences in ambiguous
situations. To address the resilience training gap, the Squad Overmatch study
produced recommendations for employing immersive and live training strategies
within the Stress Exposure Training (SET) framework. SET is a three-phase
training method designed to provide information, skills training, and practice;
with the goal of learning how to cope and perform while exposed to combat
stressors. The potential for a wide range of Soldier experience levels in the
pre-deployment training phase requires structuring and facilitating immersive
and live training to develop resilience skills. In this paper we provide
recommendations for adapting immersive environments to focus on assessing unit
"readiness to train," and employing methods and tools that improve training
effectiveness. Keywords: Stress exposure training; Resilience; Immersive; Battlefield; Squad
Overmatch | |||
| Authoring Intelligent Tutoring Systems Using Human Computation: Designing for Intrinsic Motivation | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 628-639 | |
| Andrew M. Olney; Whitney L. Cade | |||
| This paper proposes a methodology for authoring of intelligent tutoring
systems using human computation. The methodology embeds authoring tasks in
existing educational tasks to avoid the need for monetary authoring incentives.
Because not all educational tasks are equally motivating, there is a tension
between designing the human computation task to be optimally efficient in the
short term and optimally motivating to foster participation in the long term.
In order to enhance intrinsic motivation for participation, the methodology
proposes designing the interaction to promote user autonomy, competence, and
relatedness as defined by Self-Determination Theory. This design has
implications for learning during authoring. Keywords: Authoring; Intelligent tutoring system; Human computation; Motivation | |||
| Opportunities and Risks for Game-Inspired Design of Adaptive Instructional Systems | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 640-651 | |
| Scott Ososky | |||
| The application of game elements within learning environments takes many
forms, including serious games, interactive virtual environments, and the
application of game mechanics within non-gaming contexts. Given the breadth of
strategies for implementation game-elements into instructional systems, it is
important to recognize that each strategy carries its own potential benefits
and risks. The purpose of the current paper is to review the relevant
interdisciplinary literature regarding the application of games and
game-elements to learning contexts, and identify the factors to consider when
developing a game-inspired instructional system. Secondly, the current
discussion considers the special case of game technology and game design
elements in intelligent tutoring, and identifies future research opportunities
to meaningfully integrate such features in adaptive tutoring systems. Keywords: Game-based learning; Intelligent tutoring systems; Adaptive tutoring;
Gamification; Mental models; Motivation; Tutor-user interface | |||
| From Desktop to Cloud: Collaborative Authoring for Intelligent Tutoring | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 652-662 | |
| Charlie Ragusa | |||
| Authoring of computer-based instruction employing intelligent tutoring (IT)
presents many challenges. Chief among them is that for non-trivial domains, the
knowledge and skills required to author maximally effective instruction often
do not reside in a single individual. More often the best outcome is achieved
by collaboration among some combination of instructional designers, subject
matter experts, psychologists, traditional educators, and in some cases,
software engineers. To meet this challenge, well designed collaborative
authoring systems are needed. Cloud computing technologies, such as Platform as
a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), offer new
possibilities for the construction of distributed authoring systems. In this
paper we discuss several high-level design considerations for developing
collaborative IT authoring systems, focusing on extending the capabilities of
the existing Generalized Intelligent Framework for Tutoring (GIFT). Keywords: Collaborative authoring; Intelligent Tutoring Systems; Cloud computing | |||
| Designing Representations and Support for Metacognition in the Generalized Intelligent Framework for Tutoring | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 663-674 | |
| James R. Segedy; John S. Kinnebrew; Benjamin S. Goldberg; Robert A. Sottilare; Gautam Biswas | |||
| An important component of metacognition relates to the understanding and use
of strategies. Thus, measuring and supporting students' strategy understanding
in complex open-ended learning environments is an important challenge. However,
measuring students' strategy use and understanding is a difficult undertaking.
In this paper, we present our design for representing and supporting students
in their understanding of strategies while working in complex, open-ended
learning environments using the Generalized Intelligent Framework for Tutoring
(GIFT). Our approach utilizes a wealth of previous research and relies on three
primary instructional interventions: contextualized conversational assessments
and feedback; reviewing knowledge and strategies; and teaching through
analogies. We believe that incorporating these approaches into GIFT will allow
for powerful instruction of complex tasks and topics. Keywords: Metacognition; Strategy instruction; Feedback; Open-ended learning
environment | |||
| A Personalized GIFT: Recommendations for Authoring Personalization in the Generalized Intelligent Framework for Tutoring | | BIBA | Full-Text | 675-682 | |
| Anne M. Sinatra | |||
| Personalization of learning content can have a positive impact on learning in a computer based environment. Personalization can occur in a number of different ways, such as including an individual's name or entered content throughout the learning materials, or selecting examples based on self-reported preferences. The Generalized Intelligent Framework for Tutoring (GIFT) is an open-source, domain independent intelligent tutoring system framework. GIFT includes a number of different authoring tools (e.g., GIFT Authoring Tool, Survey Authoring System) that can be used to generate adaptive courses. In its current form, GIFT does not have specific mechanisms to support personalization of materials to the individual user based on pre-entered preferences. The current paper describes ways that personalization research has previously been conducted with GIFT. The paper additionally provides recommendations on new features that could be added to GIFT's authoring tools in order to support personalizing learning materials, guidance, and surveys that are provided to the learner. | |||
| Augmented Cognition on the Run: Considerations for the Design and Authoring of Mobile Tutoring Systems | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 683-689 | |
| Robert A. Sottilare | |||
| This paper discusses considerations for design and authoring of mobile
intelligent tutoring system (ITSs). ITSs are on the rise as tools for desktop
tutoring of cognitive tasks (e.g., problem solving and decision making). To
become truly ubiquitous, ITSs will be required to leave the desktop and support
interactive, adaptive instruction on-the-move via mobile devices. We examined
the capabilities of Google Glass as a potential hands-free platform to support
mobile tutoring and found many of the functions serviceable as proxies to
desktop tutoring functions. The potential of mobile platforms like Google Glass
integrated with the Generalized Intelligent Framework for Tutoring (GIFT)
provides a practical example on which to discuss limitations and project future
capabilities for mobile tutoring. Keywords: Intelligent tutoring systems; Mobile learning; Distributed learning; Mobile
tutoring | |||
| Modeling Shared States for Adaptive Instruction | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 690-696 | |
| Robert A. Sottilare | |||
| This paper discusses methods in which adaptive instructional techniques,
strategies and tactics (collectively referred to henceforth as adaptive
instruction) might be applied in a multi-learner or team training domain where
accurate shared models of cognition and affect are critical to optimizing team
performance, and individual learning, retention, and transfer. Application of
these models in the Generalized Intelligent Framework for Tutoring (GIFT) is
also discussed. Keywords: Adaptive instruction; Intelligent tutoring systems; Adaptive tutoring; Team
modeling; Unit modeling; Shared modeling | |||
| EEG Coherence Within Tutoring Dyads: A Novel Approach for Pedagogical Efficiency | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 697-706 | |
| Bradly Stone; Kelly Correa; Nandan Thor; Robin Johnson | |||
| The current study examined EEG coherence across Coach-Learner dyads on a
spatial reasoning video game, Tetris®, using an event-locked
psychophysiological synching platform. We hypothesized that (1) an
intra-individual increase in Theta and a decrease in high Alpha (10-12 Hz)
fronto-temporal coherence would occur across increasing difficulty levels, and
(2) inter-individual fronto-temporal coherence in high Alpha would increase
among lower skilled players. A sample of n=5 healthy dyads completed the
protocol with each learner playing 3 rounds of Tetris®. Across all
participants (low-skilled and high-skilled), the intra-individual preliminary
results presented herein indicate significant elevation in fronto-parietal
coherence. Moreover, the low-skilled players experienced an increase in Theta
coherence and high Alpha coherence -- the latter not as expected from
literature. The high-skilled players had significant reductions in
fronto-parietal high Alpha coherence and small increases in Theta. The
inter-individual (coach-learner) dyadic coherence results for the low-skilled
player showed increased Theta coherence for Coach-Frontal:Learner-Parietal
(CF:LP), with no significant change in high Alpha. Meanwhile, an increase in
high Alpha coherence was observed in the Coach-Parietal:Learner-Frontal
(CP:LF). The high-skilled player experienced decreased Theta coherence for
CF:LP, with no significant change in high Alpha, yet a substantial increase in
Theta coherence and decrease in high Alpha coherence was observed for CP:LF.
These data support the application of coherence analyses for the improvement of
pedagogical approaches and provide optimism that further granulated
explorations of the data herein could lead to a more thorough understanding of
the dynamics of dyadic learning. Keywords: EEG; Coherence; Dyads; Education; STEM | |||
| Contact Activity Visualization for Seniors | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 709-721 | |
| Ana Almeida; Micael Carreira; Joaquim Jorge; Daniel Gonçalves | |||
| Over the years, people raise their children and watch them as they make
their adult lives away from home. Because of that, seniors lose contact and
intimacy with their loved ones, as physical presence isn't as possible as
desirable. Also, because of physical impairments that may arrive as years pass
by, seniors may experience difficulties in communicating and interacting. Thus,
a research project called PAELife (Personal Assistant for the Elderly Life) was
created with the aim of fighting isolation and exclusion. Our personal
contribution to this project is displaying the most active contacts in a
visual, powerful way so that they notice which friends are contacting them more
and which ones don't contact in a long time. To achieve that, we built a set of
prototypes that display contacts' activity from different sources (email,
social networks, etc.) and performed two user tests, in order to identify the
best alternatives and understand if the senior citizens can correctly perceive
the contacts' activity. The tests' feedback allowed us to know what prototypes
to choose and the ones to discard. After analyzing the results we implemented a
final functional prototype that matched all the requirements collected from the
users. Keywords: Social networks; Contacts; Activity; Senior citizens; Communication | |||
| Setting a Privacy and Security Comfort Zone in the Internet of Things | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 722-734 | |
| Barbara Endicott-Popovsky; Scott David; Martha E. Crosby | |||
| This paper seeks to raise awareness of the potential benefits and detriments
resulting from sensor intrusion in the Internet of Things (IoT). The conclusion
of this paper is that the IoT has been rendered inevitable as the result of a
confluence of historical trends, but that we can make choices regarding its
fundamental architecture that can tip the balance of harm and benefit more
toward individual or institutional rights and obligations. Once the choices are
"baked in" they will be more difficult to alter in future IoT iterations. It is
hoped that collective attention to the issues raised in this paper will help to
guide these decisions so that the IoT systems we build will result in fewer
surprises. Keywords: Internet of things; Information on top; Insight on time | |||
| Designing, Developing, and Validating an Adaptive Visual Search Training Platform | | BIBA | Full-Text | 735-744 | |
| Kelly S. Hale; Katie Del Giudice; Jesse Flint; Darren P. Wilson; Katherine Muse; Bonnie Kudrick | |||
| Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) are at the forefront of our nation's security, and are tasked with screening every bag boarding a commercial aircraft within the United States. TSOs undergo extensive classroom and simulation-based visual search training to learn how to identify threats within X-ray imagery. Integration of eye tracking technology into simulation-based training could further enhance training by providing in-process measures of traditionally "unobservable" visual search performance. This paper outlines the research and development approach taken to create an innovative training solution for X-ray image threat detection and resolution utilizing advances in eye tracking measurement and training science that provides individualized performance feedback to optimize training effectiveness and efficiency. | |||
| An Object-Centric Paradigm for Robot Programming by Demonstration | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 745-756 | |
| Di-Wei Huang; Garrett E. Katz; Joshua D. Langsfeld; Hyuk Oh; Rodolphe J. Gentili; James A. Reggia | |||
| In robot programming by demonstration, we hypothesize that in a class of
procedural tasks where the end goal primarily consists of the states of objects
that are external to a task performer, one can significantly reduce complexity
of a robot learner by not processing a human demonstrator's motions at all. In
this class of tasks, object behaviors are far more critical than human
behaviors. Based on this virtual demonstrator hypothesis, this paper presents a
paradigm where a human demonstrates an object manipulation task in a simulated
world without any of the human demonstrator's body parts being sensed by a
robot learner. Based on the object movements alone, the robot learns to perform
the same task in the physical world. These results provide strong support for
the virtual demonstrator hypothesis. Keywords: Programming by demonstration; Imitation learning; Human-robot interactions | |||
| Optimization-Based Training in ATM | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 757-766 | |
| Amela Karahasanovic; Tomas Eric Nordlander; Patrick Schittekat | |||
| Air Traffic Management is responsible for guiding airplanes as efficiently
and safely as possible at and between airports. A team of air traffic
controllers is required to make good decisions at all times, even under high
stress. The complexity of their tasks requires frequent and high-quality
training to ensure constant high performance of the team. In this paper, we
present work in progress on a novel training tool based on the
Optimization-based Virtual Instructor. The tool we propose combines
mathematical optimization with visualization, and is expected to improve the
training quality while reducing the training cost. We discuss the new Virtual
Instructor concept and introduce the necessary state-of-the-art advances needed
for both visualization and mathematical optimization to make it work. Two
early-stage visualization prototypes are presented. The paper concludes with a
possible way forward in the development of the Virtual Instructor. Keywords: ATM; Training; Optimization | |||
| Human Factors Within the Transportation Security Administration: Optimizing Performance Through Human Factors Assessments | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 767-776 | |
| Bonnie Kudrick; Daniel Caggiano; Ann Speed | |||
| The human factors team in the Mission Analysis Division of TSA's Office of
Security Capabilities explores the impact of technology, policies, procedures,
and training on human systems performance during transportation security
operations. This paper highlights some of the most critical human factors
challenges currently facing the aviation security community and provides an
overview of innovative on-going human factors projects at TSA that will address
some of these challenges by enhancing performance assessment capabilities,
improving training opportunities, and optimizing duty rotations and
assignments. Keywords: Aviation; Transportation; Security; Cognition; Workload; Vigilance;
Attention; Visual search; Decision making; Personality; Aptitudes; Behavior
detection; Image analysis; Training; Human performance; Human factors | |||
| Breathing Life into CPR Training | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 777-783 | |
| Dominic Lamboy; Patricia J. Donohue | |||
| This study reports on our development and prototyping of an accessible,
simplified simulation for teaching CPR in classrooms. The prototype involves an
inexpensive digitally enhanced dummy that can be constructed from common
available materials linked with an iPad or tablet running a customized program.
The mobile program targets students at 5th grade and above and faculty for CPR
training. iPad sensors register pressure manipulation on the dummy and the
program responds with interactive instruction. Several tests with older youth
and adults proved the simulation was effective in teaching simple CPR
techniques that testers could remember the following week. With an improved
dummy, we will conduct empirical tests across different age groups in the
coming year. Keywords: Physical cognition; Game theory; Simulation; Mobile learning | |||
| Enhanced Physical Security Through a Command-Intent Driven Multi-agent Sensor Network | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 784-795 | |
| Joshua Love; Wendy Amai; Timothy Blada; Charles Little; Jason Neely; Stephen Buerger | |||
| Sandia's Intelligent Systems, Robotics, and Cybernetics group (ISRC) created
the Sandia Architecture for Heterogeneous Unmanned System Control (SAHUC) to
demonstrate how heterogeneous multi-agent teams could be used for tactical
operations including the protection of high-consequence sites. Advances in
multi-agent autonomy and unmanned systems have provided revolutionary new
capabilities that can be leveraged for physical security applications. SAHUC
applies these capabilities to produce a command-intent driven, autonomously
adapting, multi-agent mobile sensor network. This network could enhance the
security of high-consequence sites; it can be quickly and intuitively re-tasked
to rapidly adapt to changing security conditions.
The SAHUC architecture, GUI, autonomy layers, and implementation are explored. Results from experiments and a demonstration are also discussed. Keywords: Command intent; Physical security; Heterogeneous; Multi-agent distributed;
Hierarchical control; SAHUC | |||
| Technology-Supported Health Measures and Goal-Tracking for Older Adults in Everyday Living | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 796-806 | |
| Blaine Reeder; Angela Richard; Martha E. Crosby | |||
| In this paper, we review in-home technologies for use by older adults and
the potential for technology-supported health measures to support independent
living by connecting older adults, informal caregivers, and health care
providers. We outline areas for new research that include platforms for
technology integration, software for integrated data analytics, design for
usability, and patient goal elicitation. Within this research agenda,
meaningful health measurements must be defined, stakeholder interactions must
be understood, and technologies must be standardized to enable large-scale
community-based field studies beyond small-scale feasibility studies. Keywords: Sensors; Independent living; Older adults; Home care; Heart failure | |||
| The Use of Eye Tracking in Software Development | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 807-816 | |
| Bonita Sharif; Timothy Shaffer | |||
| Eye trackers have been routinely used in psychology reading experiments and
in website usability studies for many years. However, it is only recently that
they have been used by more researchers in the software engineering community.
In this paper, we categorize two broad areas in which eye tracking technology
can benefit software development in a practical way. The first area includes
using the eye tracker as an assessment tool for software artifacts, tools, and
techniques. The second area deals with using eye tracking data from developers
to inform certain software tools and software development tasks such as
providing developer recommendations and software traceability tasks. Examples
of experiments and studies done in each of these broad areas is presented and
discussed along with future work. The results point towards many benefits that
eye trackers provide to augment the daily lives of programmers during software
development. Keywords: Eye tracking; Software development; Software traceability; Assessing
software artifacts; Program comprehension | |||
| An Examination of Visual Search Success for Transportation Security Officers and Behavior Detection Officers | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 817-824 | |
| Randall D. Spain; Jerry W. Hedge; Katrina M. Ladd | |||
| This paper discusses ongoing research that seeks to better understand the
core visual search skills and requirements of Transportation Security Officers
(TSOs) and Behavior Detection Officers (BDOs). The purpose of the first phase
of research is to compare TSO and BDO visual search performance on a simple
visual search task and to determine whether certain personality and demographic
characteristics are related to search performance. The goal of the second phase
of research is to identify measures and assessment devices that are more
applicable to the visual search requirements of the BDO position. Methods and
approaches used to answer key questions related to each phase of research are
described, as are potential implications of the research. Keywords: Visual search; Human performance; Individual differences; Assessments | |||
| Determining the Optimal Time on X-Ray Analysis for Transportation Security Officers | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 825-834 | |
| Ann Speed; Austin Silva; Derek Trumbo; David Stracuzzi; Christina Warrender; Michael Trumbo; Kristin Divis | |||
| The Transportation Security Administration has a large workforce of
Transportation Security Officers, most of whom perform interrogation of x-ray
images at the passenger checkpoint. To date, TSOs on the x-ray have been
limited to a 30-min session at a time, however, it is unclear where this limit
originated. The current paper outlines methods for empirically determining if
that 30-min duty cycle is optimal and if there are differences between
individual TSOs. This work can inform scheduling TSOs at the checkpoint and can
also inform whether TSOs should continue to be cross-trained (i.e., performing
all 6 checkpoint duties) or whether specialization makes more sense. Keywords: Visual search; Fatigue; Vigilance; Transportation security agency | |||