Cognitive systems and communication

a b s t r a c t A cognitive system is a thinking (or intelligent) information system. However, the enhanced intelligence is not generated by the activity of intelligent technological functions but emerges from the coordinated collaboration of distributed human agents via their interactions with each other and with functionally heterogeneous technological artifacts. The robustness of a cognitive system is due to the manner in which the human participants in the system integrate their activities

Vertical flight training: An overview of training and flight simulator technology with emphasis on rotary-wing requirements

The principal purpose of this publication is to provide a broad overview of the technology that is relevant to the design of aviation training systems and of the techniques applicable to the development, use, and evaluation of those systems. The issues addressed in our 11 chapters are, for the most part, those that would be expected to surface in any informed discussion of the major characterizing elements of aviation training systems. Indeed, many of the same facets of vertical-flight training discussed were recognized and, to some extent, dealt with at the 1991 NASA/FAA Helicopter Simulator Workshop. These generic topics are essential to a sound understanding of training and training systems, and they quite properly form the basis of any attempt to systematize the development and evaluation of more effective, more efficient, more productive, and more economical approaches to aircrew training. Individual chapters address the following topics: an overview of the vertical flight industry: the source of training requirements; training and training schools: meeting current requirements; training systems design and development; transfer of training and cost-effectiveness; the military quest for flight training effectiveness; alternative training systems; training device manufacturing; simulator aero model implementation; simulation validation in the frequency domain; cockpit motion in helicopter simulation; and visual space perception in flight simulators

Workspace Visualization for Planning of Air Operations

Information overload has become a critical challenge within military operations. However, the problem is not so much one of too much information but of abundant information that is poorly organized and poorly represented. Here I describe a prototype information-action workspace, sometimes referred to as a knowledge visualization, to resolve this issue. Development proceeded through a systematic design sequence of cognitive analysis, knowledge representation and workspace design. The cognitive analysis focused on the specific information needed to support military planning and judgment. The workspace was structured in terms of dimensions of functional abstraction and functional decomposition; dimensions that are thought to characterize the fundamental structure of cognitive work. The products of a Cognitive Work Analysis were integrated with insights drawn from operational and scientific literature to develop a prototype workspace. Here I outline some of the features of the prototype workspace

The Mystery of Distributed Learning

There are contrasting opinions about the value of distributed learning. Several textbooks on general training issues promote it as an effective training strategy while many researchers who have focused specifically on this topic argue that distributed practice is no more effective than non-distributed practice. It is noteworthy that most who promote distributed learning base their opinion on belief rather than on experimental research while most who argue that it is of no value base their opinions on empirical data restricted primarily to the learning of simple motor skills. Additionally, much of the distributed learning research has employed the experimentally convenient manipulation of distributing learning trials whereas, from a practical perspective, the distribution of sessions would offer a more relevant experimental manipulation. In this paper, I explore the insights that can be gleaned from research that has focused on operationally relevant tasks and in which learning sessions have been distributed

What Is a Cognitive System?

The theme for this year’s symposium, The Airspace as a Cognitive System, stimulates the questions; what is a Cognitive System and in what sense can we characterize the airspace as a cognitive system? I discuss these questions by reviewing ideas promoted in discussions of distributed cognition. I also contrast the concept of distributed with the similar concepts of shared and joint as the are discussed in the literature on cognitive systems, team training and situation awareness. I conclude that the notions of distributed cognition and joint cognitive systems offer considerable leverage for addressing the anticipated design challenges in airspace systems but that we need to avoid the distortions engendered by the pervasive techno-centric emphasis in systems design in favor of a human-centric emphasis that will aid development of robust and effective systems

Effects of Workload and Visibility on Mission Rehearsal

Mission rehearsal poses new opportunities and new challenges for flight simulation. The general issue, how to promote transfer to the criterion task, is the same for mission rehearsal as it is for training. On the other hand, the goal of mission rehearsal is to promote sensitivity to or awareness of contextual details that are crucial to success of a specific mission while the goal of training is to develop generic skills. It is not clear, at this stage, what implications these different goals have for the design of simulators. For the navigation mission examined here we hypothesized that high workload and restricted visibility would distract attention from important navigation information and thereby slow development of navigation knowledge. Both experimental manipulations had the hypothesized effect under some experimental conditions but not under others. The differential effectiveness of the manipulation under different conditions offers some insight into the nature of the navigation-relevant information that can be enhanced by mission rehearsal