Funded by the Office of Naval Research
Cognitive and Neural Sciences Division
Program Officer: Dr. Astrid Schmidt-Nielsen
Program Number N00014-06-1-0116
2005-2008, $342,332

PI: Dr. Stephanie Doane
Team Members: Randy Brou, Bailey Stephenson, Leah Winter, Sean Walters, Alex Anderson, Jacob McIntosh

Abstract:
Increasingly, the interface between sailors and engineering systems must support optimal task performance in multimodal (e.g., visual and auditory) dynamic operational task environments (e.g., multimodal watch stations). In order to design interfaces to support optimal performance, we must first understand the cognitive mechanisms that support human processing of multimodal information. The proposed research uses a cognitive theory-driven approach to examine the role of strategic processes in attending to relevant features while discriminating between multimodal stimuli. Previous research suggests that, initially, humans acquire processing strategies that reduce the number of redundant comparisons required for accurate discriminations. With practice the strategy becomes more efficient by elimination of redundant and unnecessary comparisons (e.g., Haider & Frensch, 1999). Previous research results suggest that initially acquired strategies can be transferred to novel stimuli (e.g., Doane et a., 1999). Such findings support the hypothesis that initially acquired strategies are born from processing specific stimuli but are not tied to these stimuli per se; they are stimulus independent as such can be transferred to processing novel stimuli. However, the transfer findings also suggest that strategies are transferred regardless of their effectiveness for discriminating between novel stimuli and that, once acquired, they are difficult to modify (e.g., Doane et al., 1999). Preliminary data further suggests that cross-modality transfer takes place, and this supports the hypothesis that strategic skills are controlled by a central cognitive mechanism (e.g., Doane et. al., 2005). However, these data are preliminary and more rigorous studies are required. The proposed research will use as a test bed an engineering system designed to emulate a multimodal watch station task environment. Experimental examinations of cognitive mechanisms that enable acquisition and transfer of optimal discrimination strategies between target and non-target events across modalities will be performed in this dynamic test bed task environment. The theoretical goal of this research is to examine the cognitive mechanisms that govern the acquisition and transfer of strategic skills for discrimination. The applied goal of this research is to translate findings from this research into recommendations for human engineering design. In summary, the proposed research findings will have direct implications for the design of multimodal interfaces to support optimal sailor performance in Naval operations.