Developing a Cognitive Metrics Support Tool for Systems Engineering

Navy personnel must be prepared to think and act under fire. Navy systems must support, not hinder, the ability to think and act in situations marked by high stakes, time pressure, ambiguous or conflicting information, and rapid change. How can the Navy leverage information technologies to establish and maintain the warfighter's knowledge superiority? Prototypes that look good in the cool isolation of development often do not support human cognition in the field. This proposal describes tools to help systems designers generate and apply cognitive metrics, measures of human cognitive capabilities critical to skilled performance. In Phase I we created a cognitive metrics suite to augment human performance metrics and the human-systems integration process. We developed methods for generating and using cognitive metrics. Grounded in Cognitive Task Analysis and the concept of macrocognition, the suite demonstrated high potential for evaluating the effects of information technologies on cognitive performance. Phase II will develop a prototype, the Cognitive Metrics Suite (CMS) Tool that enables efficient use of cognitive metrics throughout the system development process. The computer-based tool will facilitate generic evaluation of cognitive dimensions across a variety of tasks, as well as cognitive requirements specific to the performing a demanding task.