Abstract
Network-centric operations (NCOs), envisioned for future command and control systems in military and civilian settings, must be supported by sophisticated automated systems, so human-computer interactions are an important aspect of overall system performance. This chapter identifies 10 human supervisory control challenges that could significantly impact operator performance in NCOs: information overload, attention allocation, decision biases, supervisory monitoring of operators, distributed decision making through team coordination, trust and reliability, the role of automation, adaptive automation, multimodal technologies, and accountability. NCOs will bring increases in the number of information sources, volume of information, and operational tempo with significant uncertainty, all of which will place higher cognitive demands on operators. Thus, it is critical that NCO research focuses not only on technological innovations but also on the strengths and limitations of human-automation interaction in a complex system.
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