Simborgs and Simulated Task Environments for Engineering Next Generation Workstations for Intelligence Analysts

Abstract

Intelligence analysts require innovative software environments for searching massive databases, hypothesis generation and test, record keeping, crosschecking and so on. Yet, as important as such tools are, their development cannot be allowed to ignore the hard won lessons from cognitive science and human-computer interaction – that human cognition is embodied cognition and that interface design has a large role to play in increasing productivity and reducing human error. We propose an approach to the cognitive engineering of integrated task environments by the use of simulated cyborgs (simBorgs) that combine computational embodied-cognitive models of interactive behavior with artificial intelligence based reasoning components in a simulated task environment. Our goal is the creation of intelligent agents, simBorgs, that will work tirelessly to perform usability testing on various combinations of tasks and interfaces.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Anderson

J. R.

(1990). The adaptive character of thought. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Anderson

J. R.

Bothell

Byrne

M. D.

Lebiere

(2002). An integrated theory of the mind. Retrieved October 17, 2002, from http://act-r.psy.cmu.edu/papers/403/IntegratedTheory.pdf.

Ballard

D. H.

(2002). Our perception of the world has to be an illusion. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 9(5-6), 54–71.

Carroll

J. M.

Rosson

M. B.

(1987). Paradox of the active user. In Carroll

J. M.

(Ed.), Interfacing thought: Cognitive aspects of human-computer interaction. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Clark

(2004). Embodiment and ecological control. Retrieved April 9, 2004, from http://www.cognitivesciencesociety.org/colloquium/archive.html.

Ehret

B. D.

Gray

W. D.

Kirschenbaum

S. S.

(2000). Contending with complexity: Developing and using a scaled world in applied cognitive research. Human Factors, 42(1), 8–23.

Ericsson

K. A.

Kintsch

(1995). Long-term working memory. Psychological Review, 102(2), 211–245.

W.-T.

Gray

W. D.

(2004). Suboptimal tradeoffs in information seeking. submitted for publication.

W.-T.

Gray

W. D.

(in press). Resolving the paradox of the active user: Stable suboptimal performance in interactive tasks. Cognitive Science.

10.

Gray

W. D.

(2002). Simulated task environments: The role of high-fidelity simulations, scaled worlds, synthetic environments, and microworlds in basic and applied cognitive research. Cognitive Science Quarterly, 2(2), 205–227.

11.

Gray

W. D.

(2003). Final Report for Project Nemo: Subgoaling and subschemas for submariners. Troy, NY: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

12.

Gray

W. D.

W.-T.

(2004). Soft constraints in interactive behavior: The case of ignoring perfect knowledge in-the-world for imperfect knowledge in-the-head. Cognitive Science, 28(3), 359–382.

13.

Gray

W. D.

John

B. E.

Atwood

M. E.

(1993). Project Ernestine: Validating a GOMS analysis for predicting and explaining real-world performance. Human-Computer Interaction, 8(3), 237–309.

14.

Payne

J. W.

Bettman

J. R.

Johnson

E. J.

(1993). The adaptive decision maker. New York: Cambridge University Press.

15.

Simon

H. A.

(1956). Rational choice and the structure of the environment. Psychological Review, 63, 129–138.