Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Cognitive computing”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 73 records · Page 4
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2002

Human performance cognitive-behavioral modeling: a benefit for occupational safety

Human Performance Modeling (HPM) is a computer-aided job analysis software methodology used to generate predictions of complex human-automation integration and system flow patterns with the goal of improving operator and system safety. The use of HPM tools has recently been increasing due to reductions in computational cost, augmentations in the tools' fidelity, and usefulness in the generated output. An examination of an Air Man-machine Integration Design and Analysis System (Air MIDAS) model evaluating complex human-automation integration currently underway at NASA Ames Research Center will highlight the importance to occupational safety of considering both cognitive and physical aspects of performance when researching human error.

Occupational Health↗
NASA NTRS1993

Cognitive factors associated with immersion in virtual environments

Immersion into the dataspace provided by a computer, and the feeling of really being there or 'presence', are commonly acknowledged as the uniquely important features of virtual reality environments. How immersed one feels appears to be determined by a complex set of physical components and affordances of the environment, and as yet poorly understood psychological processes. Pimentel and Teixeira say that the experience of being immersed in a computer-generated world involves the same mental shift of 'suspending your disbelief for a period of time' as 'when you get wrapped up in a good novel or become absorbed in playing a computer game'. That sounds as if it could be right, but it would be good to get some evidence for these important conclusions. It might be even better to try to connect these statements with theoretical positions that try to do justice to complex cognitive processes. The basic precondition for understanding Virtual Reality (VR) is understanding the spatial representation systems that localize our bodies or egocenters in space. The effort to understand these cognitive processes is being driven with new energy by the pragmatic demands of successful virtual reality environments, but the literature is largely sparse and anecdotal.

Psotka, Joseph↗
NASA NTRS1994

Design of a cooperative problem-solving system for en-route flight planning: An empirical evaluation

Both optimization techniques and expert systems technologies are popular approaches for developing tools to assist in complex problem-solving tasks. Because of the underlying complexity of many such tasks, however, the models of the world implicitly or explicitly embedded in such tools are often incomplete and the problem-solving methods fallible. The result can be 'brittleness' in situations that were not anticipated by the system designers. To deal with this weakness, it has been suggested that 'cooperative' rather than 'automated' problem-solving systems be designed. Such cooperative systems are proposed to explicitly enhance the collaboration of the person (or a group of people) and the computer system. This study evaluates the impact of alternative design concepts on the performance of 30 airline pilots interacting with such a cooperative system designed to support enroute flight planning. The results clearly demonstrate that different system design concepts can strongly influence the cognitive processes and resultant performances of users. Based on think-aloud protocols, cognitive models are proposed to account for how features of the computer system interacted with specific types of scenarios to influence exploration and decision making by the pilots. The results are then used to develop recommendations for guiding the design of cooperative systems.

Layton, Charles↗
NASA NTRS1994

Design of a cooperative problem-solving system for en-route flight planning: An empirical evaluation

Both optimization techniques and expert systems technologies are popular approaches for developing tools to assist in complex problem-solving tasks. Because of the underlying complexity of many such tasks, however, the models of the world implicitly or explicitly embedded in such tools are often incomplete and the problem-solving methods fallible. The result can be 'brittleness' in situations that were not anticipated by the system designers. To deal with this weakness, it has been suggested that 'cooperative' rather than 'automated' problem-solving systems be designed. Such cooperative systems are proposed to explicitly enhance the collaboration of the person (or a group of people) and the computer system. This study evaluates the impact of alternative design concepts on the performance of 30 airline pilots interacting with such a cooperative system designed to support en-route flight planning. The results clearly demonstrate that different system design concepts can strongly influence the cognitive processes and resultant performances of users. Based on think-aloud protocols, cognitive models are proposed to account for how features of the computer system interacted with specific types of scenarios to influence exploration and decision making by the pilots. The results are then used to develop recommendations for guiding the design of cooperative systems.

Layton, Charles↗
NASA NTRS1988

TASKILLAN - A simulation to predict the validity of multiple resource models of aviation workload

A study to establish the validity of five predictive models of workload in the context of a controlled helicopter mission, TASKILLAN, is presented. Ten subjects performed simulations involving combinations of a low level flight task with three cognitive side tasks pertaining to navigation, spatial awareness, and computation. It is found that the best predictors of subjective workload are relativly simple models that integrate the total demands of task over time.

Wickens, Christopher D.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Formalisms for user interface specification and design

The application of formal methods to the specification and design of human-computer interfaces is described. A broad outline of human-computer interface problems, a description of the field of cognitive engineering and two relevant research results, the appropriateness of formal specification techniques, and potential NASA application areas are described.

Auernheimer, Brent J.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Design concepts for the development of cooperative problem-solving systems

There are many problem-solving tasks that are too complex to fully automate given the current state of technology. Nevertheless, significant improvements in overall system performance could result from the introduction of well-designed computer aids. We have been studying the development of cognitive tools for one such problem-solving task, enroute flight path planning for commercial airlines. Our goal was two-fold. First, we were developing specific systems designs to help with this important practical problem. Second, we are using this context to explore general design concepts to guide in the development of cooperative problem-solving systems. These designs concepts are described.

Smith, Philip J.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Enroute flight planning: Evaluating design concepts for the development of cooperative problem-solving systems

There are many problem-solving tasks that are too complex to fully automate given the current state of technology. Nevertheless, significant improvements in overall system performance could result from the introduction of well-designed computer aids. We have been studying the development of cognitive tools for one such problem-solving task, enroute flight path planning for commercial airlines. Our goal has been two-fold. First, we have been developing specific system designs to help with this important practical problem. Second, we have been using this context to explore general design concepts to guide in the development of cooperative problem-solving systems. These design concepts are described below, along with illustrations of their application.

Smith, Philip J.↗
NASA NTRS2017

Mild Normobaric Hypoxia Exposure for Human-Autonomy System Testing

An experiment investigated the impact of normobaric hypoxia induction on aircraft pilot performance to specifically evaluate the use of hypoxia as a method to induce mild cognitive impairment to explore human-autonomous systems integration opportunities. Results of this exploratory study show that the effect of 15,000 feet simulated altitude did not induce cognitive deficits as indicated by performance on written, computer-based, or simulated flight tasks. However, the subjective data demonstrated increased effort by the human test subject pilots to maintain equivalent performance in a flight simulation task. This study represents current research intended to add to the current knowledge of performance decrement and pilot workload assessment to improve automation support and increase aviation safety.

Stephens, Chad L.↗
NASA NTRS1995

An empirical evaluation of graphical interfaces to support flight planning

Whether optimization techniques or expert systems technologies are used, the underlying inference processes and the model or knowledge base for a computerized problem-solving system are likely to be incomplete for any given complex, real-world task. To deal with the resultant brittleness, it has been suggested that 'cooperative' rather than 'automated' problem-solving systems be designed. Such cooperative systems are proposed to explicitly enhance the collaboration of people and the computer system when working in partnership to solve problems. This study evaluates the impact of alternative design concepts on the performance of airline pilots interacting with such a cooperative system designed to support enroute flight planning. Thirty pilots were studied using three different versions of the system. The results clearly demonstrate that different system design concepts can strongly influence the cognitive processes of users. Indeed, one of the designs studied caused four times as many pilots to accept a poor flight amendment. Based on think-aloud protocols, cognitive models are proposed to account for how features of the computer system interacted with specific types of scenarios to influence exploration and decision-making by the pilots. The results are then used to develop recommendations for guiding the design of cooperative systems.

Smith, Philip J.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Prototype and Evaluation of AutoHelp: A Case-based, Web-accessible Help Desk System for EOSDIS

AutoHelp is a case-based, Web-accessible help desk for users of the EOSDIS. Its uses a combination of advanced computer and Web technologies, knowledge-based systems tools, and cognitive engineering to offload the current, person-intensive, help desk facilities at the DAACs. As a case-based system, AutoHelp starts with an organized database of previous help requests (questions and answers) indexed by a hierarchical category structure that facilitates recognition by persons seeking assistance. As an initial proof-of-concept demonstration, a month of email help requests to the Goddard DAAC were analyzed and partially organized into help request cases. These cases were then categorized to create a preliminary case indexing system, or category structure. This category structure allows potential users to identify or recognize categories of questions, responses, and sample cases similar to their needs. Year one of this research project focused on the development of a technology demonstration. User assistance 'cases' are stored in an Oracle database in a combination of tables linking prototypical questions with responses and detailed examples from the email help requests analyzed to date. When a potential user accesses the AutoHelp system, a Web server provides a Java applet that displays the category structure of the help case base organized by the needs of previous users. When the user identifies or requests a particular type of assistance, the applet uses Java database connectivity (JDBC) software to access the database and extract the relevant cases. The demonstration will include an on-line presentation of how AutoHelp is currently structured. We will show how a user might request assistance via the Web interface and how the AutoHelp case base provides assistance. The presentation will describe the DAAC data collection, case definition, and organization to date, as well as the AutoHelp architecture. It will conclude with the year 2 proposal to more fully develop the case base, the user interface (including the category structure), interface with the current DAAC Help System, the development of tools to add new cases, and user testing and evaluation at (perhaps) the Goddard DAAC.

Mitchell, Christine M.↗
NASA NTRS1998

Computational Model of Human and System Dynamics in Free Flight: Studies in Distributed Control Technologies

This paper presents a set of studies in full mission simulation and the development of a predictive computational model of human performance in control of complex airspace operations. NASA and the FAA have initiated programs of research and development to provide flight crew, airline operations and air traffic managers with automation aids to increase capacity in en route and terminal area to support the goals of safe, flexible, predictable and efficient operations. In support of these developments, we present a computational model to aid design that includes representation of multiple cognitive agents (both human operators and intelligent aiding systems). The demands of air traffic management require representation of many intelligent agents sharing world-models, coordinating action/intention, and scheduling goals and actions in a potentially unpredictable world of operations. The operator-model structure includes attention functions, action priority, and situation assessment. The cognitive model has been expanded to include working memory operations including retrieval from long-term store, and interference. The operator's activity structures have been developed to provide for anticipation (knowledge of the intention and action of remote operators), and to respond to failures of the system and other operators in the system in situation-specific paradigms. System stability and operator actions can be predicted by using the model. The model's predictive accuracy was verified using the full-mission simulation data of commercial flight deck operations with advanced air traffic management techniques.

Corker, Kevin M.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Simulating Human Cognition in the Domain of Air Traffic Control

Experiments intended to assess performance in human-machine interactions are often prohibitively expensive, unethical or otherwise impractical to run. Approximations of experimental results can be obtained, in principle, by simulating the behavior of subjects using computer models of human mental behavior. Computer simulation technology has been developed for this purpose. Our goal is to produce a cognitive model suitable to guide the simulation machinery and enable it to closely approximate a human subject's performance in experimental conditions. The described model is designed to simulate a variety of cognitive behaviors involved in routine air traffic control. As the model is elaborated, our ability to predict the effects of novel circumstances on controller error rates and other performance characteristics should increase. This will enable the system to project the impact of proposed changes to air traffic control procedures and equipment on controller performance.

Freed, Michael↗
NASA NTRS1990

A distributed agent architecture for real-time knowledge-based systems: Real-time expert systems project, phase 1

We propose a distributed agent architecture (DAA) that can support a variety of paradigms based on both traditional real-time computing and artificial intelligence. DAA consists of distributed agents that are classified into two categories: reactive and cognitive. Reactive agents can be implemented directly in Ada to meet hard real-time requirements and be deployed on on-board embedded processors. A traditional real-time computing methodology under consideration is the rate monotonic theory that can guarantee schedulability based on analytical methods. AI techniques under consideration for reactive agents are approximate or anytime reasoning that can be implemented using Bayesian belief networks as in Guardian. Cognitive agents are traditional expert systems that can be implemented in ART-Ada to meet soft real-time requirements. During the initial design of cognitive agents, it is critical to consider the migration path that would allow initial deployment on ground-based workstations with eventual deployment on on-board processors. ART-Ada technology enables this migration while Lisp-based technologies make it difficult if not impossible. In addition to reactive and cognitive agents, a meta-level agent would be needed to coordinate multiple agents and to provide meta-level control.

Lee, S. Daniel↗
NASA NTRS1991

Cognitive consequences of clumsy automation on high workload, high consequence human performance

The growth of computational power has fueled attempts to automate more of the human role in complex problem solving domains, especially those where system faults have high consequences and where periods of high workload may saturate the performance capacity of human operators. Examples of these domains include flightdecks, space stations, air traffic control, nuclear power operation, ground satellite control rooms, and surgical operating rooms. Automation efforts may have unanticipated effects on human performance, particularly if they increase the workload at peak workload times or change the practitioners' strategies for coping with workload. Smooth and effective changes in automation requires detailed understanding of the congnitive tasks confronting the user: it has been called user centered automation. The introduction of a new computerized technology in a group of hospital operating rooms used for heart surgery was observed. The study revealed how automation, especially 'clumsy automation', effects practitioner work patterns and suggest that clumsy automation constrains users in specific and significant ways. Users tailor both the new system and their tasks in order to accommodate the needs of process and production. The study of this tailoring may prove a powerful tool for exposing previously hidden patterns of user data processing, integration, and decision making which may, in turn, be useful in the design of more effective human-machine systems.

Cook, Richard I.↗
NASA NTRS2001

Human Centered Autonomous and Assistant Systems Testbed for Exploration Operations

The Engineering and Mission Operations Directorates at NASA Johnson Space Center are combining laboratories and expertise to establish the Human Centered Autonomous and Assistant Systems Testbed for Exploration Operations. This is a testbed for human centered design, development and evaluation of intelligent autonomous and assistant systems that will be needed for human exploration and development of space. This project will improve human-centered analysis, design and evaluation methods for developing intelligent software. This software will support human-machine cognitive and collaborative activities in future interplanetary work environments where distributed computer and human agents cooperate. We are developing and evaluating prototype intelligent systems for distributed multi-agent mixed-initiative operations. The primary target domain is control of life support systems in a planetary base. Technical approaches will be evaluated for use during extended manned tests in the target domain, the Bioregenerative Advanced Life Support Systems Test Complex (BIO-Plex). A spinoff target domain is the International Space Station (ISS) Mission Control Center (MCC). Prodl}cts of this project include human-centered intelligent software technology, innovative human interface designs, and human-centered software development processes, methods and products. The testbed uses adjustable autonomy software and life support systems simulation models from the Adjustable Autonomy Testbed, to represent operations on the remote planet. Ground operations prototypes and concepts will be evaluated in the Exploration Planning and Operations Center (ExPOC) and Jupiter Facility.

Malin, Jane T.↗
NASA NTRS1990

The change in critical technologies for computational physics

It is noted that the types of technology required for computational physics are changing as the field matures. Emphasis has shifted from computer technology to algorithm technology and, finally, to visual analysis technology as areas of critical research for this field. High-performance graphical workstations tied to a supercommunicator with high-speed communications along with the development of especially tailored visualization software has enabled analysis of highly complex fluid-dynamics simulations. Particular reference is made here to the development of visual analysis tools at NASA's Numerical Aerodynamics Simulation Facility. The next technology which this field requires is one that would eliminate visual clutter by extracting key features of simulations of physics and technology in order to create displays that clearly portray these key features. Research in the tuning of visual displays to human cognitive abilities is proposed. The immediate transfer of technology to all levels of computers, specifically the inclusion of visualization primitives in basic software developments for all work stations and PCs, is recommended.

Watson, Val↗