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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.

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At least 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1991

Microcoding of communications in accident investigation - Crew coordination in United 811 and United 232

Two recent airline accidents that underscored the value of cockpit resource management (CRM) to line operations, especially under stressful, high workload conditions are reviewed. An analysis of the verbal behavior of each crew was conducted to explore how catastrophic events impact upon the dynamics of crew interaction. In both cases the Captain stated that training in CRM contributed significantly to the overall effectiveness of the crews.

Predmore, Steven C.↗
NASA NTRS2002

Simultaneous dual-task performance reveals parallel response selection after practice

E. H. Schumacher, T. L. Seymour, J. M. Glass, D. E. Kieras, and D. E. Meyer (2001) reported that dual-task costs are minimal when participants are practiced and give the 2 tasks equal emphasis. The present research examined whether such findings are compatible with the operation of an efficient response selection bottleneck. Participants trained until they were able to perform both tasks simultaneously without interference. Novel stimulus pairs produced no reaction time costs, arguing against the development of compound stimulus-response associations (Experiment 1). Manipulating the relative onsets (Experiments 2 and 4) and durations (Experiments 3 and 4) of response selection processes did not lead to dual-task costs. The results indicate that the 2 tasks did not share a bottleneck after practice.

Practice (Psychology)↗
NASA NTRS1990

SHAPA: An interactive software tool for protocol analysis applied to aircrew communications and workload

As modern transport environments become increasingly complex, issues such as crew communication, interaction with automation, and workload management have become crucial. Much research is being focused on holistic aspects of social and cognitive behavior, such as the strategies used to handle workload, the flow of information, the scheduling of tasks, the verbal and non-verbal interactions between crew members. Traditional laboratory performance measures no longer sufficiently meet the needs of researchers addressing these issues. However observational techniques are better equipped to capture the type of data needed and to build models of the requisite level of sophistication. Presented here is SHAPA, an interactive software tool for performing both verbal and non-verbal protocol analysis. It has been developed with the idea of affording the researchers the closest possible degree of engagement with protocol data. The researcher can configure SHAPA to encode protocols using any theoretical framework or encoding vocabulary that is desired. SHAPA allows protocol analysis to be performed at any level of analysis, and it supplies a wide variety of tools for data aggregation, manipulation. The output generated by SHAPA can be used alone or in combination with other performance variables to get a rich picture of the influences on sequences of verbal or nonverbal behavior.

James, Jeffrey M.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Developing Culture-Adaptive Competency Through Experiences with Expressive Avatars

Modern Warfighters often find themselves in a variety of non-combat roles such as negotiator, peacekeeper, reconstruction, and disaster relief. They are expected to perform these roles within a culture alien to their own. Each individual they encounter brings their own set of values to the interaction that must be understood and reconciled. To navigate the human terrain of these complex interactions, the Warfighter must not only consider the specifics of the target culture, but also identify the stakeholders, recognize the influencing cultural dimensions, and adapt to the situation to achieve the best possible outcome. Vcom3D is using game-based scenarios to develop culturally adaptive competency. The avatars that represent the stakeholders must be able to portray culturally accurate behavior, display complex emotion, and communicate through verbal and non-verbal cues. This paper will discuss the use of emerging game technologies to better simulate human behavior in cross-cultural dilemmas. Nomenclature: culture, adaptive, values, cultural values dimensions, dilemmas, virtual humans, non-verbal communications

Silverglate, Daniel S.↗
NASA NTRS2002

The effects of mental representation on performance in a navigation task

In three experiments, we investigated the mental representations employed when instructions were followed that involved navigation in a space displayed as a grid on a computer screen. Performance was affected much more by the number of instructional units than by the number of words per unit. Performance in a three-dimensional space was independent of the number of dimensions along which participants navigated. However, memory for and accuracy in following the instructions were reduced when the task required mentally representing a three-dimensional space, as compared with representing a two-dimensional space, although the words used in the instructions were identical in the two cases. These results demonstrate the interdependence of verbal and spatial memory representations, because individuals' immediate memory for verbal navigation instructions is affected by their mental representation of the space referred to by the instructions.

Imagination↗
NASA NTRS1982

CDTI: Crew Function Assessment

Man machine interaction often requires the operator to perform a sterotyped scan of instruments to monitor and/or control a system. Situations in which this type of behavior exists, such as instrument flight, scan pattern has been shown to be altered by imposition of simultaneous verbal tasks. The relationship between pilot visual scan of instruments and mental workload was described. A verbal loading task of varying difficulty caused pilots to stare at the primary instrument as the difficulty increased and to shed looks at instruments of less importance. The verbal loading task affected rank ordering of scanning sequences. The behavior of pilots with widely varying skill levels suggested that these effects occur most strongly at lower skill levels and are less apparent at high skill levels. Graphical interpretation of the hypothetical relationship between skill, workload, and performance is introduced and modeling results are presented to support this interpretation.

Tole, J. R.↗
NASA NTRS2002

Predictors of response to a behavioral treatment in patients with chronic gastric motility disorders

Chronic gastric motility disorders have proven intractable to most traditional therapies. Twenty-six patients with chronic nausea and vomiting were treated with a behavioral technique, autonomic training (AT) with directed imagery (verbal instructions), to help facilitate physiological control. After treatment, gastrointestinal symptoms decreased by >30% in 58% of the treated patients. We compared those improved patients to the 43% who did not improve significantly. No significant differences existed in baseline symptoms and autonomic measures between both groups. However, baseline measures of gastric emptying and autonomic function predicted treatment outcome. Patients who improved manifested mild to moderate delay in baseline gastric emptying measures. The percent of liquid gastric emptying at 60 mins and the sympathetic adrenergic measure of percent of change in the foot cutaneous blood flow in response to cold stress test predicted improvement in AT outcome, with clinical diagnostic values of 77% and 71%, respectively. We conclude that AT treatment can be efficacious in some patients with impaired gastric emptying and adrenergic dysfunction. More work is warranted to compare biofeedback therapy with gastric motility patients and controls in population-based studies.

NASA Center ARC↗
NASA NTRS1983

Visual scanning behavior and pilot workload

Sophisticated man machine interaction often requires the human operator to perform a stereotyped scan of various instruments in order to monitor and/or control a system. For situations in which this type of stereotyped behavior exists, such as certain phases of instrument flight, scan pattern was shown to be altered by the imposition of simultaneous verbal tasks. A study designed to examine the relationship between pilot visual scan of instruments and mental workload is described. It was found that a verbal loading task of varying difficulty causes pilots to stare at the primary instrument as the difficulty increases and to shed looks at instruments of less importance. The verbal loading task also affected the rank ordering of scanning sequences. By examining the behavior of pilots with widely varying skill levels, it was suggested that these effects occur most strongly at lower skill levels and are less apparent at high skill levels. A graphical interpretation of the hypothetical relationship between skill, workload, and performance is introduced and modelling results are presented to support this interpretation.

Tole, J. R.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Quantification of pilot workload via instrument scan

The use of visual scanning behavior as an indicator of pilot workload is described. The relationship between level of performance on a constant piloting task under simulated IFR conditions, the skill of the pilot the level of mental workload induced by an additional verbal task imposed on the basic control task, and visual scanning behavior is investigated. An increase in fixation dwell times, especially on the primary instrument with increased mental loading is indicated. Skilled subjects 'stared' less under increased loading than did novice pilots. Sequences of instrument fixations were also examined. The percentage occurrence of the subject's most used sequences decreased with increased task difficulty for novice subjects but not for highly skilled subjects. Entropy rate (bits/sec) of the sequence of fixations was also used to quantify the scan pattern. It consistently decreased for most subjects as the four loading levels used increased.

Tole, J. R.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Visual scanning behavior and mental workload in aircraft pilots

This paper describes an experimental paradigm and a set of preliminary results which demonstrate a relationship between the level of performance on a skilled man-machine control task, the skill of the operator, the level of mental difficulty induced by an additional task imposed on the basic control task, and visual scanning performance. During a constant, simulated piloting task, visual scanning of instruments was found to vary as a function of the level of difficulty of a verbal loading task. The average dwell time of each fixation on the pilot's primary instrument increased as a function of the loading. The scanning behavior was also a function of the estimated skill level of the pilots, with novices being affected by the loading task much more than experts. The results suggest that visual scanning of instruments in a controlled task may be an indicator of both workload and skill.

Tole, J. R.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Thunderstorm Hypothesis Reasoner

THOR is a knowledge-based system which incorporates techniques from signal processing, pattern recognition, and artificial intelligence (AI) in order to determine the boundary of small thunderstorms which develop and dissipate over the area encompassed by KSC and the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. THOR interprets electric field mill data (derived from a network of electric field mills) by using heuristics and algorithms about thunderstorms that have been obtained from several domain specialists. THOR generates two forms of output: contour plots which visually describe the electric field activity over the network and a verbal interpretation of the activity. THOR uses signal processing and pattern recognition to detect signatures associated with noise or thunderstorm behavior in a near real time fashion from over 31 electrical field mills. THOR's AI component generates hypotheses identifying areas which are under a threat from storm activity, such as lightning. THOR runs on a VAX/VMS at the Kennedy Space Center. Its software is a coupling of C and FORTRAN programs, several signal processing packages, and an expert system development shell.

Mulvehill, Alice M.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Studies of planning behavior of aircraft pilots in normal, abnormal, and emergency situations

A methodology for the study of human planning behavior in complex dynamic systems is presented and applied to the study of aircraft pilot behavior in normal, abnormal and emergency situations. The method measures the depth of planning, that is the level of detail employed with respect to a specific task, according to responses to a verbal questionnaire, and compares planning depth with variables relating to time, task criticality and the probability of increased task difficulty. In two series of experiments, depth of planning was measured on a five- or ten-point scale during various phases of flight in a HFB-320 simulator under normal flight conditions, abnormal scenarios involving temporary runway closure due to snow removal or temporary CAT-III conditions due to a dense fog, and emergency scenarios involving engine shut-down or hydraulic pressure loss. Results reveal a dichotomy between event-driven and time-driven planning, different effects of automation in abnormal and emergency scenarios and a low correlation between depth of planning and workload or flight performance.

Johannsen, G.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Entropy, instrument scan, and pilot workload

Experimental results are presented from a set of experiments designed to explore the relationship between the performance, skill, and visual scanning behavior of pilots under varying levels of mental workload. Instrument fixations were recorded as groups of pilots with widely differing levels of skill simultaneously performed a continuous instrument flight task and a verbally presented loading task with four discrete levels. Pilot scanning patterns were found to be significantly affected by the level of mental workload in a manner that was dependent on skill. These scanning alterations were quantified by the methods of entropy and autocorrelation, where the former concerns visual scan path and the latter assesses the relations among scan periodicity, skill level and mental task periodicity.

Tole, J. R.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Assessing the Subjective Workload of Directional Orientation Tasks

The impact of various flight-related tasks on the workload imposed by the requirement to compute new headings, course changes, and reciprocal headings was investigated. Eight pilots were presented with a series of heading-change tasks in a laboratory setting. Two levels of difficulty of each of three tasks were presented verbally and spatially. Performance was measured by evaluating the speed and accuracy of the responses. The subjective responses and objective measures of performance reflected a strong association between subjective experience and objective behavior. The reciprocal calculations were performed quickly and accurately throughout and were considered to be minimally loading. Subjective workload, percent correct and response times for the two course-change tasks varied significantly as a function of level of difficulty and display format, with no discernable speed/accuracy trade off.

Miller, R. C.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Types of verbal interaction with instructable robots

An instructable robot is one that accepts instruction in some natural language such as English and uses that instruction to extend its basic repertoire of actions. Such robots are quite different in conception from autonomously intelligent robots, which provide the impetus for much of the research on inference and planning in artificial intelligence. Examined here are the significant problem areas in the design of robots that learn from vebal instruction. Examples are drawn primarily from our earlier work on instructable robots and recent work on the Robotic Aid for the physically disabled. Natural-language understanding by machines is discussed as well as in the possibilities and limits of verbal instruction. The core problem of verbal instruction, namely, how to achieve specific concrete action in the robot in response to commands that express general intentions, is considered, as are two major challenges to instructability: achieving appropriate real-time behavior in the robot, and extending the robot's language capabilities.

Crangle, C.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Entropy, instrument scan and pilot workload

Correlation and information theory which analyze the relationships between mental loading and visual scanpath of aircraft pilots are described. The relationship between skill, performance, mental workload, and visual scanning behavior are investigated. The experimental method required pilots to maintain a general aviation flight simulator on a straight and level, constant sensitivity, Instrument Landing System (ILS) course with a low level of turbulence. An additional periodic verbal task whose difficulty increased with frequency was used to increment the subject's mental workload. The subject's looppoint on the instrument panel during each ten minute run was computed via a TV oculometer and stored. Several pilots ranging in skill from novices to test pilots took part in the experiment. Analysis of the periodicity of the subject's instrument scan was accomplished by means of correlation techniques. For skilled pilots, the autocorrelation of instrument/dwell times sequences showed the same periodicity as the verbal task. The ability to multiplex simultaneous tasks increases with skill. Thus autocorrelation provides a way of evaluating the operator's skill level.

Tole, J. R.↗