ADAPT: Allocation of Dynamic Attention across People & Teams

Effective task management is a critical component of mission success. As warfighters are given more information to monitor, however, their ability to detect and attend to critical information and tasks is stressed. An automatic task manager is needed to help ensure that responses to events occur in a timely manner. The foundation of such a tool is an accurate model of human dynamic attention. Many such models have been formulated; however none describe behavior in a command and control (C2) environment. We propose to (1) develop a model of dynamic attention in a representative C2 environment, the Dynamic Targeting Cell (DTC); and (2) develop an automated task manager that leverages this model. ADAPT will automatically inform warfighters of tasks that need to be performed. This advice will be optimized to reduce attention shifts and attentional overload and ensure that critical events are covered. When complete, ADAPT will increase the effectiveness of teams within the C2 environment, ensuring that tasks are attended to efficiently and effectively.