MINIATURE PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT BATTERY

THE HUMAN PERFORMANCE ACCESSMENT BATTERY (PAB) CURRENTLY BEING USED BY THE US ARMY MEDICAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT COMMAND IS A MICROCOMPUTER BASED TESTING DEVICE USED TO MONITOR CHANGES IN SOLDIER MOOD AND COGNITION. THE PAB IS CURRENTLY IMPLEMENTED ON A APPLE II PLUS MICROCOMPUTER WITH FLOPPY DISK. WHILE SUITABLE FOR LABORATORY USE, IT IS NOT ADEQUATELY MILITARIZED, MINIATURIZED, OR FLEXIBLE ENOUGH TO BE SUITABLE FOR LARGE-SCALE DATA COLLECTION IN A FIELD SETTING. THIS PROJECT SHALL TRANSPORT THE FUNCTIONAL CAPABILITIES OF THE EXISTING PAB SOFTWARE PROGRAM UNTO A COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE PORTABLE COMPUTER. THE PORTABLE COMPUTER WILL SUPPORT THREE MODES OF OPERATION: 1) CARRIED AROUND LIKE A POCKET CALCULATOR FOR USE IN DATA COLLECTION AND PREANALYSIS, 2) CONNECTED TO FLOPPY DISK DRIVES, A COLOR SCREEN AND A PRINTER AND/OR PLOTTER AT A CENTRAL OFFICE TO PERFORM MORE COMPLEX ANALYSIS, 3) USED TO TRANSMIT DATA TO OR RECEIVE DATA FROM A LARGER HOST COMPUTER EITHER DIRECTLY OR THROUGH A MODEM.