Tools and Technologies for Inserting Deep Cultural Context into Mission Training Simulations

We propose the development of a system for deep cultural adaptation of synthetic agent behaviors and environmental objects within mission training simulations. This adaptation will incorporate cognitive cultural influences into trainee interactions to meet the training objectives of adapting military skills to specific cultural environments. Training objectives supported by the system will include familiarity with specific material artifacts and observable behavioral attributes on the part of synthetic agents, and deep understanding of the cultural cognitions and relationships that constrain and determine such behaviors. We will evaluate existing technologies for their capacity to provide this deep cultural context for trainee interactions, and the feasibility of their impact on training outcomes. These technologies will constitute a toolset that is capable of reproducing empirical data from the field, and conforming to theoretically sound models of the influence of culture in human behavior. We will develop and demonstrate an architectural framework establishing the interoperability of this toolset in satisfaction of culturally specific skill training objectives.