Human Research and Engineering Directorate Research Areas
Network Science: Social Networks and Cognitive Factors
Advisor: L Allender (laurel.allender@us.army.mil)
Key words: Network science, social networks, cognitive psychology, modeling, analysis, information science, human factors, cognitive systems engineering
Comparable to developments in academia, private industry, and the home and personal environments, the U.S. military is building a network-centric force that will rely on networked communications to push information to Soldiers and from which Soldiers will pull information that they need. Advances in network science are required to support this capability and must draw from a host of disciplines comprising the social sciences, including cognitive, social, and industrial-organizational psychology; cognitive science; computer science; information science; mathematics; and statistics. The U.S. Army Research Laboratory Human Research and Engineering Directorate is conducting a cross-disciplinary basic and applied research program to significantly advance the state-of-the-art in how networks influence and are influenced by human behavior in the context of military decision making. The research will contribute to the development of theory, measures, models, and understanding of social networks and the cognitive implications of those networks. The research will ultimately help guide the design of human-team-system interaction and feed future operational tools. Research facilities available for the research range from networked simulations in a laboratory environment to field exercises. Among the analytic techniques to be employed are the newly emerging dynamic social network tools. An applied human factors or cognitive systems engineering approach will also be employed. Key themes include portraying network information and investigations into how to drive the information and communication with dynamic social network information in order to influence the network in real time to support the Soldier/decision maker.