When: 19 AUG 2010 1500-1700
Where: Watkins Annex room 275
Dissertation Title:
“Assessing Neurophysiological Markers for Training and Simulation of Complex Cognitive Tasks”
Dissertation Abstract:
This work establishes theoretic and empirical support for using neurophysiological markers to provide information on a trainee’s cognitive state to cue instruction. This serves as the basis for improving the design of simulation responsive to individual traits for training continuous complex cognitive tasks. Individualized instruction has been empirically proven to be vastly superior to other forms of instruction. However, current methods to design simulation have relied primarily on raw performance metrics. These metrics are often misleading and provide very little diagnostic value. For complex tasks, understanding cognitive state is critical. Neurophysiological markers can potentially inform instructional systems on trainees’ cognitive state but have yet to be validated. This research developed a sample process to identify neurophysiological markers for instruction. Applying the process to helicopter overland navigation a theoretic model of eye scan behavior was developed based on existing eye tracking literature, cognitive models of expertise and a cognitive task analysis. The process and theoretic model were validated by analyzing novices and expert navigators. Predicted eye scan metrics reliably distinguished between expert and novice behavior, providing insight not available using raw performance metrics. Also, a visualization tool was developed to explore expert scan strategies. In addition to confirming expected strategies and novice expert differences, we discovered novel, unexpected strategies of expert navigators.
