Human Research and Engineering Directorate Research Areas

Human Performance Modeling, Implementation, and Validation

Advisor:  L Allender (laurel.allender@us.army.mil)

Key words: human performance, decision making, models

Models of human cognition and performance, by definition, are imperfect or limited representations of the real thing; however, for specific purposes, models can be quite adequate and, quite valuable. Some of these purposes include estimating human performance in the context of new system concepts, assessing expected performance under extreme or adverse conditions, safeguarding human test participants, and reducing test and experimentation costs.

Research in this area can take any of the following perspectives:

• how to elicit input from users to support the building of reliable, valid models
• how to represent performance degradation factors and interactions of various factors within models
• how to ascertain the utility of a given model and the impact of model deviations from validity on real-world decision making
• how to better represent cognitive processes and performance in military models and simulations.

Experimental methods consist of classic controlled experimentation, field research, and the employment of models in predictive and real-world validity assessments, with the latter including metrics of organization decision making. Much of this research can be used in industry and to help us understand the factors that affect basic human performance.