Modeling Individual Differences and Stressors (MINDS) in Human Cognitive Performance

"The US Army Natick Soldier Center develops and applies modeling and simulation technologies to evaluate new warfighter systems, both in terms of their ability to maximize individual combatant (IC) effectiveness and small unit warfighting capabilities.While past M&S work has focused on understanding the IC's physical capabilities and limitations, significant additional gains in warfighter effectiveness could be gained with a corresponding understanding of cognitive capabilities/limitations. We proposean M&S-based approach which builds on an existing cognitive model and extends it to account for the effects of behavior moderators on cognitive performance. We will model the effects of two classes of behavior moderators: 1) individual differencesrepresenting variations in behavior across a range of individuals; and 2) environmental stressors that vary an individual's responses as a function of situation. Our approach to Modeling INdividual Differences and Stressors (MINDS) will be carried out inthree phases: 1) selection of a set of behavior moderators particularly relevant to soldier performance and mapping of those moderators to specific cognitive processes; 2) incorporation of model-based representations of these moderators within a selectedcognitive modeling architecture; and 3) demonstration and evaluation of the integrated soldier model within the IUSS combat simulation environment. Significant focus in the US Army's Objective Forc