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Colloquium Details

Assessing & Understanding the Effects of 'Cognitive Moderators' on Human Performance

Author:Tim Halverson Air Force Research Laboratory
Date:May 24, 2012
Time:15:30
Location:220 Deschutes
Host:Anthony Hornof

Abstract

Fatigue, stress, excessive workload, and other such factors tend to negatively impact people's performance. These negative cognitive moderators are particularly concerning when they affect medical personnel, professional drivers, pilots, and others where an increased chance of error or slowed reaction can affect the safety of many others. I will discuss two related and converging research projects that aim to assess and understand the effects of cognitive moderators on human performance. The first uses computational cognitive modeling to explain and predict how fatigue affects different cognitive processes. The second uses eye movement data and machine learning to classify people's cognitive workload. The ultimate goal of this research is to provide real-time assessments of people's cognitive, perceptual, and motor capacities in order to detect performance degradations before they occur and lessen the impact of those degradations.

Biography

Tim Halverson is a Research Computer Scientist in the Applied Neuroscience Branch of the Air Force Research Laboratory's Human Effectiveness Directorate. His research focuses on using computational cognitive modeling in conjunction with eye movement, functional neuroimaging, and other physiological data to better understand human-computer interaction.