Intelligent Automation, Inc. — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: In today"s rapidly changing battlefield, individuals can be assessed for their cognit

Description

In today"s rapidly changing battlefield, individuals can be assessed for their cognitive readiness to execute a mission. We divide cognitive readiness into strategic cognitive readiness, which involves the knowledge and skills to perform a mission, and situational cognitive readiness, which involves being physically and mentally prepared to perform as effectively as the individual has been trained. For example, warfighters who are sleep-deprived or overly stressed will not perform as well as they are capable. The Army"s ACRA test of cognitive readiness focuses on tests of mental agility. Different tests exercise specific kinds of mental processing requirements, and tests can be selected based on the expected processing needs of Soldiers in an upcoming mission. This project improves ACRA. To test knowledge required for a mission, the proposed project tests individuals"knowledge. To test situational cognitive readiness, we will add physiological measures. To guide the selection of tests that should be used for an upcoming mission, we will develop a framework by which selection of tests and scoring of tests is automated. Finally, the situational test battery will be deployed on a handheld device, and communicate results to a central repository for organizational use.